The Christmas Fight that made Miske a Legend
By JOHN COFFEY - The Press
MIRACLE MAN: Billy Miske figured there was not much difference between dying in bed and dying in the ring.
Boxing provides many of sport's most heartwarming and most tragic tales. The story of Billy Miske fits into both categories and is most suitably recalled at this time of the year.
Nicknamed the St Paul Thunderbolt, William Arthur Miske fought and beat many of America's finest boxers in a professional career which started as a middleweight in 1913 and ended as a heavyweight a decade later.
He fought more than 100 times. Over half of them were no-decision bouts, when newspaper journalists were left to tell their readers who they believed was the winner. Officially, he lost only twice, to champions Jack Dempsey and Kid Norfolk, and he twice drew over 10 rounds with the legendary Harry Greb.
In an era when title-holders notoriously avoided menacing black fighters they also sidestepped "white" Billy Miske. The only times he was knocked down was in the third round of his challenge for Dempsey's world heavyweight title in 1920. Dempsey later said he put Miske away as quickly as possible because he did not want to punish him any more.
They had fought twice in 1918, the year before Dempsey won the title. Dempsey needed all of his power and aggression to survive the first time, when four of the eight journalists at ringside gave the verdict to Miske or called it a draw, but was won more convincingly in the second.
It was also in 1918 that Miske, then only 24, learned he had Bright's disease, a kidney ailment, and was given five years to live if he retired from the ring. He briefly did that while he underwent hospital treatment. Legend has it that Miske figured there was not much difference between dying in bed and dying in the ring. There was also the shame of a $US100,000 debt from a failed car distributorship.
Keeping the news of his illness to himself, Miske decided to continue fighting and pay back what he owed even though he knew those who owed him money were never going to front up. The condemned man boxed about 30 times after being given his death sentence.
Dempsey feared he had killed Miske when he hit him flush on the heart and a baseball-sized purple welt emerged from his chest. But Miske climbed off the canvas at the count of nine and was put out of his misery less than a minute later.
"I knocked him out because I loved the guy," said Dempsey in his autobiography. "He was dying of Bright's disease. I didn't know how bad his condition was. All I knew was that he begged me for the fight."
"He was broke and needed a good pay day so that he could rest and regain his health. But there was never any question that it was a legitimate match. In one of our two previous fights he had held me to a draw and he had clouted me real good in the other."
The $US25,000 cheque went towards paying off Miske's debts, but he was still in financial strife. He kept on boxing in 1921 and 1922 before retiring after scoring a first-round knock-out win over Harry Foley in January 1923. By the autumn Miske was fading rapidly. He was too weak to work out, let alone fight. But what he knew would be his last Christmas was fast approaching and he was thinking of wife Marie and their children, Billy jun, Douglas and Donna.
Miske approached longtime manager and friend Jack Reddy, one of the few people who knew the seriousness of his illness, and asked him to arrange one more fight.
"I don't like to say this, but if you went into the ring now, in your condition, you might get killed," said Reddy. It was then that Miske made his famous reply, "What's the difference? It's better than waiting for it in a rocking chair."
Reddy tried to loan him money and then sought a compromise, saying he would find him an opponent if Miske resumed training and got back into something like fighting nick. Miske admitted that was impossible, pleading he had one last fight in him but nothing more. Reddy weakened and arranged a November bout in Omaha against "K. O" Bill Brennan, a heavyweight who had gone 12 rounds with the great Dempsey.
In the days leading up to the fight Miske survived on chicken soup and boiled fish, rarely making it out of bed. He got himself to Omaha and after four rounds with Brennan went home with a cheque for $2400. Miske bought back the furniture they had been forced to sell and went shopping for Christmas. The Miske kids woke on Christmas morning to a decorated tree and a stack of presents, and there was a piano for Marie. It was a day of laughter, singing and feasting.
Next morning Miske called Reddy and whispered, "For god's sake, Jack, come and get me. I'm dying." The secret he had kept from Marie for five years came out as she held him in the back of Reddy's car.
Reddy rushed him to St Mary's Hospital, but there was to be no miracle. Billy Miske, aged 29, died on New Year's Day 1924 of kidney failure. It would have been too much to expect two Christmas miracles.
You see, Billy Miske, the St Paul Thunderbolt, had already got the finish he wanted – when he knocked out big Bill Brennan in that fourth round at Omaha in what became known as "The Fight before Christmas".