“THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM” and “STOPPEN, FRAULEIN GRAF!”

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814. BENNY LEONARD VS FREDDIE WELSH

LIGHTWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP FIGHT

MAY 29, 1917

MANHATTAN CASINO

QUALITY OF PLAY—6.84

DRAMA—7.15

STAR POWER—7.56

CONTEMPORARY IMPORT—7.45

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE—6.73

LOCAL IMPACT—7.89

TOTAL: 43.63

“THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM”

One of the least-known sporting venues in NYC history is the Manhattan Casino, which was uptown at 155th and 8th Avenue, just opposite the Polo Grounds. Also known as the Manhattan Sporting Club or Athletic Club, the Casino was a small-time forerunner of the boxing & gambling under the same roof format that would come to dominate the sport after the advent of Las Vegas. 

According to Irving Rudd, long-time publicist of the arena, there were two rules for fights there—when it was two black fighters in the ring, “the fight was on the level.” But if it was a white boxer versus a black boxer, “the black fighter had to do a tank job, or at least wear handcuffs—take it easy.”

Rudd never mentioned if Jewish fighters had any similar handicaps, but it doesn’t seem likely, as the greatest of them all won the most famous fight ever held at the Casino. Benny Leonard was born to Russian immigrants in the Lower East Side tenements, and his shtetl-adjacent background and genius fistic work earned him the nickname “The Ghetto Wizard.” He started boxing as a pre-teen, but never told his parents he got into the fight game, as he feared their disapproval. In his early years, he mostly fought in Brooklyn as a result. 

Fifteen straight pro wins earned him a crack at the lightweight champ, Freddy Welsh, known, similarly, as the “Welsh Wizard.” Freddy was, in fact, from Wales (his given name was Frederick Thomas). In those days, many fights weren’t officially judged, even title fights, so the challenger needed to win by knockout. Leonard dominated the bout at the Garden on 23rd Street and Broadway, but couldn’t put Welsh down, and the champ thus retained his belt. They fought again shortly thereafter, this time in Brooklyn at Washington Park Athletic Club, but this time Welsh won easily. It seemed Leonard was fated to go into a more traditional occupation for the city’s Jewry, schmatte work on 7th Avenue. 

But Leonard refused to quit, and his dazzling hand speed and power with either hand laid a string of opponents out. He earned enough to move his parents (by now apprised of their son’s chosen profession) uptown to Harlem, and set his sights on Welsh once more. Ever the nice Jewish son, he put his success down to his imma. "My mother deserves all the credit,” he told reporters. “She always made me live right.”

Welsh was forever in need of cash, and fighting the highly popular local kid was a reliable payday, so he agreed to take on Leonard for the third time. With WWI raging and American entry into the war a seeming certainty by May, 1917, Leonard cannily turned the fight into a patriotic quest—he was the nation’s best 132-pounder but wanted the world championship, and slammed the Eurotrash Welsh for his foreign ancestry. 

“I am after a knockout,” said the “Little Harlemite” to the New York Tribune before the fight. “I intend to win that title or get well licked trying….I hope to be out of that ring before 11 o’clock and tell my mother that little Benny is the lightweight champion of the world.” He needed to put Freddie down for the count, as to forestall controversy this was another “no decision” fight—no judges would rule to find a victor, only a KO or TKO would do the trick. 

The Times noted that “a heavy advanced sale is reported,” and that was a classic Gray Lady undersell. The Manhattan Casino was jammed to the rafters on Monday night, May 28, 1917, for the fight. 

The Wizard’s improvement since their last meeting was apparent straight away. Leonard “displayed his mastery from the the first to the final clang of the gong” in the words of the New York Sun. He staggered Welsh in the second round and was on the verge of a knockout, but the wily vet managed to hang on. Leonard continued his inside and out mastery and led comfortably in the eyes of all onlookers as he hammered Welsh around the ring through the middle rounds and into the eighth. In that frame Leonard walloped Welsh in the final minute, as the crowd yelped for blood. 

In the ninth Leonard moved in for the kill, and showed the killer instinct that would become his trademark. Thirty seconds into the round the Hebrew Hammer smashed a right into Welsh’s mandible, sending the champ to one knee. He rose, only to receive another scything right hand, and Welsh was sent sprawling. He somehow tottered back up, but Leonard blew in for a couple more devastating punches, at which point referee Kid McPartland stepped in and ended the fight. 

Benny Leonard had reclaimed the lightweight championship for America, and gained it for the Jews.

Even though “the champion was so groggy that he could not stand,” according to the Sun, reeling and falling into the ropes and entangling himself so badly he needed assistance to to leave the ring, Welsh was defiant afterward. "I received no count,” he whined. “Though I was in bad shape, nine seconds would have done me a lot of good and I certainly would have come back.” Welsh was clearly delusional—McPartland stepping in was a rare bit of sound judgement in the early days of pugilism. 

AFTERMATH:

Benny Leonard was widely considered the greatest Jewish fighter of all time, a title solidified when he defeated the equally outstanding Lew Tendler twice in the early-1920s. He retired as champ shortly after the fabled second fight with Tendler, the first notable bout held at the new Yankee Stadium. But he lost his fortune in the 1929 stock market crash, which spurred an ill-advised comeback in 1931. He beat up a bunch of tomato cans and paid-off flunkies, but lost to the great Jimmy McLarnin at the Garden to end his career for good. Needing dough, Leonard became a referee. On April 18, 1947, he was working a card at the old St. Nicholas Arena on 66th Street when he suffered a heart attack and died in the ring at just 51 years of age. 

As for the Manhattan Casino, the gambling didn’t last, but another form of vice soon replaced it. The venue changed its name shortly after the Welsh-Leonard fight to the Rockland Palace, where it became infamous in the 1920s for drag balls that were massively attended by the city’s underground LGBT scene, at times attracting as many as 8,000 revelers uptown to dance the night away. Word has it the violence inside the Palace exceeded that of the fights held in the Manhattan Casino ring.

WHAT THEY SAID:

“That’s all bosh! My first right in the ninth knocked Fred silly…when McPartland stepped in Fred was gone for good. He couldn’t stand on his feet, and would not have come to for an hour if his seconds had not picked him up and worked him over.”

—Benny Leonard, on the fight’s ending and Welsh’s complaints.

FURTHER READING:

The Great Benny Leonard: Mama’s Boy To World Champ by John Jarrett

VIDEO:

813. MARTINA NAVRATILOVA VS STEFFI GRAF

U.S. OPEN SEMIFINALS

SEPTEMBER 5-6, 1986

UNITED STATES TENNIS CENTER

QUALITY OF PLAY—7.46

DRAMA—7.95

STAR POWER—7.99

CONTEMPORARY IMPORT—7.56

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE—7.03

LOCAL IMPACT—6.05

TOTAL: 43.64

“STOPPEN, FRAULEIN GRAF!”

Of all the great tennis players to grace the court, perhaps no one has been as thoroughly dominant as Martina Navratilova during her early-80s heyday. The Czech star who defected to America at age 18 in 1975 transformed her physique a few years later and became the real-life (distaff) version of the male action heroes who flexed their way across the silver screen in those years. Much stronger and fitter than her competition, Martina used a powerful serve and volley game that intimidated her opponents, many of whom seemed beaten before taking the court. 

After winning Wimbledon and the French Open in 1982, Martina made a switch to Yonex mid-size rackets, and somehow turned her dominance up a notch, crushing all comers. She went an incredible 86-1 in 1983, won six straight majors, and was so far above the fray in 1984 that the legendary commentator Bud Collins suggested a higher league be created just for Martina. There were serious, if unrealistic, discussions about having Martina play in the men’s draw. Between 1982 and 1986 Martina reached the final of 16 of 20 majors, and won twelve of them. 

She only lost three times in 1986, but at the German Open in May, Martina had at last encountered someone who many hoped would at last provide some challenge to the Ramboesque Martina. Her name was Steffi Graf, a former track star turned tennis savant, just 17 years old. Graf crunched Martina 6-2, 6-3 in Hamburg, and won most of the smaller tournaments that year. 

“Most players go into their matches with Martina being afraid, just trying to win a couple of games,” Graf said. “That’s not what I’m trying to do—I’m trying to beat her.” With her speed, fitness and crushing groundstrokes (her nickname was “Fraulein Forehand,” after all), Graf was the lone woman in 1986 equipped to defeat Navratilova, who was just shy of 30 as the U.S. Open began that fall. It was a tall order—Martina was particularly dominant on the hard courts in Queens, having won 20 of her last 21 matches there. Among those wins was the 1985 semifinal over Graf in straight, comfortable sets. Coltish and extremely shy off the court, prone to hiding behind her Aryan blonde mane, Graf was inwardly determined to offset the happenings of the previous year’s Open.

A full house jammed into the Stadium Court on Friday night, September 5, 1986 to see if the third-seeded German could bounce a (former) Czech.

Martina didn’t drop a set on the way to the semis, and powered right through Graf from the start, going up 4-1, causing Graf to mutter to herself in Deutsche during the changeovers. About the only bad moment for the favorite was when a Graf forehand hit the tape and bounced into Martina’s face, shattering her trademark glasses. Unhurt, she pulled out another pair and went back to controlling the match. 

But midway through the sixth game (no, not that Sixth Game, still a month hence and across the street from the Tennis Center), Graf caught a huge break when a torrential downpour swept in and forced a halt in play. The match was suspended until the next afternoon, to be continued after the first men’s semifinal, with the final moved back to Sunday. The crowd, much of which had scampered out the night before when the skies darkened, was back in full force and throat. 

When they resumed play on Saturday the 6th, Graf was a completely different player, while Martina admitted the delay hurt her. “I was fired up yesterday like I hadn’t been for awhile,” she said later. “I wasn’t nearly as sharp today.” Graf conceded the rest of the first set, 6-1, but once the second set started she began walloping passing shots past the onrushing Navratilova, and lobbing brilliantly over her as well. The combination of powerhouse forehands and exquisite lobs kept Martina off balance, and Graf broke her twice, an incredibly rare feat in the mid-80s. Martina was still Martina, and she broke back to force a tiebreaker, but in the extra innings Graf won easily to force a third set, another rarity in women’s tennis when Navratilova was on the court. It was only the 8th time all season she had been forced to play a third set. 

Martina broke out to a 4-2 lead, and was a point away from breaking Graf and serving for the match, but Steffi came up with some huge shots to tie it at 4-all, then, looking much the faster player, took a 5-4 lead. Suddenly, Martina was serving to stay in the tournament. The epic tenth game of the set reached deuce, and after Steffi ran around a backhand to smash one into Martina’s feet Graf had match point. But with a seismic upset on her racket, Steffi sent a forehand just long, and it was back to deuce. Two points later, it was match point again, but Graf sent her service return long. Martina survived the game to tie it at 5. In a departure from her usual blank-faced dominion, she let loose with multiple fist pumps and shouts of joy, a tell as to how close this match was. 

Graf herself was forced to then save a pair of match points, and the match went to another tiebreaker, this one with a berth in the final on the line. True to form, the players exchanged points and carried past regulation in the tiebreak, getting to 7-all. Graf then sizzled a winner to get her third match point of the match. But at 7-8, Martina stayed true to her tactics and boldly charged in behind her serve. “In the first tiebreaker, I played it too safe,” she said. “So I told myself I wasn't going to play safe any more. I was going to go down swinging. I never wavered in my resolve to make her hit the wonderful shots.” Graf had an opening on her backhand for the winning pass, but netted it instead. 

Alas, the nerves finally seemed to get to the great young German. She netted shots on the subsequent two points, and Martina survived, 6-1, 6-7 (3-7 in the tiebreak), 7-6 (10-8 in the tiebreak). There had been numerous “wonderful shots” but at the final moments Graf’s groundstrokes went awry.

“You can’t be pushed any more than that,” said a relieved Navratilova afterwards. 

After two hours and 16 minutes across two days of highly emotional and often brilliant tennis, Navratilova had won yet another match, one of the greatest in U.S. Open history.

AFTERMATH:

Navratilova went on to demolish Helena Sukova in the final, three and two, for her third Open title and 15th major overall. She would win 18 in total in her incredible career, plus another 41 (!) major doubles titles. 

Martina and Steffi met in another NYC epic encounter two months later, at the WTA Tour Championships at the Garden. Navratilova concluded her epic five-year run with another win over her younger rival, running her overall record in 1986 to an astounding 89-3. After that, Graf began to take over as the next irresistible force in women’s tennis, winning four of six encounters with Navratilova in major finals. Martina was still such a great doubles player that she won the U.S. Open mixed doubles (with Bob Bryan) in 2006, just shy of her 50th birthday!

Meanwhile, Steffi disappointingly married a bald, introspective former drug addict who excelled at tennis despite claiming to despise the game. 

WHAT THEY SAID:

“She's a terrific player. I hope she doesn't get too much better. If she does, I'll quit.” 

—Martina Navratilova, on Steffi Graf

FURTHER READING:

The Greatest Tennis Matches of the Twentieth Century by Steve Flink

VIDEO: