[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 114 (Friday, July 30, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Page S6547]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                REMEMBERING JOE ``THE OLD MASTER'' GANS

 Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I encourage my colleagues to join 
me in marking the 100th anniversary of the passing of Joe ``The Old 
Master'' Gans, a great American who inspired millions with his feats in 
the boxing ring. At a time of pervasive racial discrimination and 
inequality, Gans provided the country with a glimpse of the true 
potential of African Americans by rising to the top of what was then 
the most popular sport in America.
  Gans had the humblest of beginnings. He was born in Baltimore, MD, in 
1874, and orphaned 4 years later. Then, he was raised by a foster 
mother in a segregated world in which the future seemed to hold no more 
for him than the same menial labor he performed at the Baltimore harbor 
in his teenage years. In an ironic twist of fate, the racist conditions 
that hemmed in his world eventually lifted him out of it. His 
incredible talent for boxing was first discovered when he emerged 
victorious in a Battle Royale, a cruel sporting event in which white 
gamblers bet on which of 10 black youths thrown together in a ring 
would be the last standing.
  In the years that followed, Gans honed his skills and accumulated 
success after success as a lightweight boxer, becoming famous for his 
perceptive, impregnable defensive tactics and devastating counterpunch. 
With an easy one-punch knockout victory in 1902, Gans first earned the 
world lightweight title, at the time the greatest athletic achievement 
made by an African American. Four years later, he solidified his hold 
on the title, which he would keep until 1908, with his victory over 
Matthew ``Battling'' Nelson on Labor Day, 1906, in Goldfield, NV.
  The Goldfield fight, held outdoors under a blazing Sun, drew an 
audience of 8,000 people. The purse was $30,000. Gans's foster mother, 
Maria Grant, sent him a telegram urging him to ``bring home the 
bacon,'' a phrase that caught on in the media accounts when Gans won 
what was dubbed ``the fight of the century'' after 42 grueling rounds. 
It was the longest gloved championship match recorded under Marquis of 
Queensbury rules.
  Despite winning the fight, Gans received much less prize money than 
his white opponent who lost. But the winnings were enough for Gans to 
found the Goldfield Hotel, a leading incubator of Black culture where, 
among others, the great jazz pianist Eubie Blake first attracted 
notice. Gans' achievements became a beacon of hope for the African-
American community. The prominent preacher and civil rights leader 
Francis J. Grimke once remarked that the great Booker T. Washington had 
done much for African Americans, but he ``never did one-tenth to place 
the black man in the front rank as a gentleman as has been done by Joe 
Gans.''
  Gans was one of the first practitioners of scientific gloved boxing, 
following the era of bare-knuckles fights. Nat Fleischer described his 
footwork as ``beautiful side-stepping, and legwork'' in ``Black 
Dynamite.'' The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Gans ``was in and 
away or inside as it suited him best, with will-o-the-wisp 
elusiveness.'' Jack Johnson said, ``Joe moved around like he was on 
wheels.'' All in all, he fought in three divisions--featherweight, 
lightweight, and welterweight--for 18 years, compiling over 150 career 
wins and over 100 knockouts.
  The remarkable life of Joe Gans was cut short at age 34 when he 
succumbed to tuberculosis. I ask my colleagues to join me, a century 
after his death, in recognizing the inspiring accomplishments of an 
American hero whom the great Baltimore writer H.L. Mencken called 
``probably the greatest boxer who ever lived.''

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