Sugar Ray Leonard was the brightest star among many to emerge from the 1976 Games.
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT NICKNAMES HAVE BEEN AN INTRINSIC PART OF BOXING SINCE THE BEGINNING, BUT ONE MONIKER STANDS ABOVE THEM ALL By Don “Kid” Stradley B y the 1890s, when the illegal business of prizefighting began its slow crawl into the world of commercial entertainment, the move was on to turn a bunch of outlaw pugilists into presentable, marketable products. but he was a great admirer of former lightweight champion Ad Wolgast. Hence, Joe Loscalzo became “Midget” Wolgast. This gave Loscalzo an instant identity: He’s like the old Wolgast, only littler. If a fighter’s name was long, difficult to spell or sounded too ethnic, managers whittled it down to something more bankable. That’s how Valentine Braunheim became “Knockout Brown.” In the battle for marquee space and newspaper headlines, an easy to remember name was paramount.
The most popular nickname for fighters, however, was “Kid.” Between 1900 and 1960, thousands of fighters from all parts of the globe had stenciled across their robes those three magical letters: K-I-D. The nickname became so readily identified with boxing that any movie, novel, cartoon or comic strip involving boxers would invariably have a character called Kid. Even Knockout Brown was sometimes billed as Kid Brown. Some of the best fighters in history were called Kid. So were some of the worst. As early as 1903, a syndicated humor column that appeared
Among the best ways to do this was for fight managers to fit their brutal young proteges with cute nicknames. With their flattened noses and violent way of making a living, fighters were a hard sell to the general public. But call your boy “Gentleman Jim,” and those rough edges seemed to vanish. The approach to handing out nicknames was laughably simple in those days. If your young fighter resembled, say, Joe
Louis, you’d name him “Young Joe Louis.” If your fighter had served in the military, then he became “Soldier,” or “Sailor.” Or take a fellow like Joseph Robert Loscalzo of Philadelphia. He was a flyweight,
in a few midwestern newspapers posed a question: Why were so many prizefighters called Kid? The answer was that they cried like kids when they lost. It’s not a particularly funny joke, but it shows that the nickname
(Opposite) Jack “Kid” Berg and Kid Chocolate weigh in for their rematch. (Above) Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin.
RINGMAGAZINE.COM 53
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker