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University Daily Kansan Thursday, Jan. 8, 1959
Three Brothers Recall City's 'Fighting Farmer'
Bv Larry Miles
Three brothers, now in their seventies, who buddied with Jess Willard, the Lawrence fighting farmer, added new stories recently to the legend surrounding the former popular heavyweight champ.
Jess "smelled rosin" seven times on July 4, 1919, at Toledo, Ohio in the first round of the fight which cost him his championship. In the fight world, however, it is rumored that Jack Dempsey's hand were loaded with plaster of Paris.
Roy Lawrence, 1213 Kentucky St., and his brothers, Arthur and Ralph, 809 Louisiana St. report that they never heard the former champion mention the fight after he left the ring.
Ralph and Roy accompanied the Lawrence sharee to Tulipa, 1905.
Ralph and Roy accompanied the Lawrence champ to Toledo in 1919. "A sorry afternoon," said Roy. "For my part I did not think Jess was in very good condition."
"He didn't fight very well for a while," Ralph said. "It was over so soon that I guess nobody will ever know what was wrong. That Dempsey sure was a puncher, wasn't he?"
'I Didn't Lose It'
I didn't Lose it
On Jess' 74th birthday in 1955, however, he said in an interview: "Dempsey is all right, but I didn't lose the championship. They took it away from me. They loaded Dempsey's hands with plaster of Paris."
When confronted with Jess' charge, Dempsey pleaded: "Ask Doc Kearns (Dempsey's manager)." Kearns said:
"At Toledo we put the gloves on in the dressing room. It was hot, as you know, and I rubbed powdered alum on the inside of Dempsey's gloves to keep his hands from sweating, but it also would tighten up everything into one solid piece.
"After I had the alum on, I told Dempsey to close his fists and keep them closed. We went down to the ring and I'll never forget it.
The fight ended in four rounds, and is one long remembered in ring annals.
Lasted Four Rounds
"While we were standing in the ring waiting for the start, Dempsey turned to me and whispered, 'Doc, something must be wrong, I can't open my hands.'"
Jess, who took the title in 1915 from Jack Johnson, lived and trained at the old Willard place on West 7th St. all the time he held the title. He lived in Lawrence for over ten years. He was reared on a farm at Mayetta, Kansas, northwest of Topeka.
The brothers who received a letter and picture from the champ three weeks ago report that he is now living in La Crescenta, Calif. Roy visited him a year ago.
"He made a lot of money in the fight business, and then retired," Roy said.
Ralph, the bigger of the two fighting brothers, Roy and Ralph, used to do road work and spar with the champion.
"I did not find any weaknesses. He was too big," Ralph said about his workouts with Jess.
Jess was 6 feet, 6 inches tall and weighed 245 pounds. He weighs 295 now.
Hard on Chairs
Arthur recalls that Jess used to come over "to sit in my chairs and break them all down."
"He was a giant," Arthur said. "But I never saw him mad any time he was here. He was extremely good natured."
Roy, who owned a meat market at that time. said:
"Jess was a good meat customer. He used to buy sirloin steaks half a loin at a time."
Roy also used to do road work with the champ, but was too small to spar with him.
Ralph, laughing and reflecting on his long association with the champ, said:
"After the Toledo fight I went to Topeka with Jess, who wanted to buy a farm.
"Yep, it's all here," he said.
"What's all there?" I asked.
"Sure enough, he had all of his
"We went up in an old Cadillac. We parked it out behind the barn and looked over the farm—some 600 acres—which Jess was planning to buy.
"When we finished looking at the farm, we walked back to the car. Jess reached down into the back seat and picked up a grip and shook it.
Toledo fight money right in that bag!
"Why, you damn fool! What are you trying to do—get somebody to take it all!" I said.
"He just laughed. That was the kind of man he was."
Cow in a Fiat
On another occasion Ralph and Jess carted a registered Jersey milk cow to Topeka in an old Fiat car. Jess had sold the cow to some man who lived at a hotel in northwest Topeka. The two men and the cow caused quite a stir when they reached the hotel.
The association between the Lawrence brothers and the champion was a natural one, for Ralph and Roy used to fight as amateurs at the old "Turner Hall" in Lawrence. "There was no Golden Gloves in those days," Roy said, "but there were a lot of skirmishes for we lived over in the east end of town." Roy also refereed fights at Haskell Indian Institute and at the Federal Penitentiary in Lansing. He later refereed wrestling at the University of Kansas for F. C. (Phog) Allen.
THE CHAMP'S BUDDIES—Roy, Ralph and Arthur Lawrence, three local men, recall a friendship with former heavyweight champion Jess Willard. Arthur holds a picture recently sent to him by the "fighting farmer." Jess, who
lived and trained in Lawrence for 10 years, is now in California. He is now 77. Roy and Ralph both trained with the fighter. Arthur says he was not a fighter at the time, but an observer.
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