Boxing Buff

>> Bob Fitzsimmons' solid gold razor.

>> The only complete set of Police Gazettes in existence.

>> The locomotive bell used in the Corbett-Sullivan fight of 1892.

>> 4,000,000 clippings, 40,000 pictures, 2,000 books on fights and fighters.

>> Jake Kilrain's dumbbells.

Around such treasures in a fusty, bleak office in Manhattan's drafty, labyrinthine Madison Square Garden, Nat Fleischer has built his boxing museum (which he values at $350,000) and his reputation as boxing's No. 1 expert. This week the collection gets a new item: Terrible Terry, the Brooklyn Terror (Ring Book Shop; $1). The author: Nathaniel Stanley Fleischer.

Writing books on boxing is a habit with Nat Fleischer. The life story of Terry McGovern, who ruled the bantam and featherweight classes in 1899 and 1900 respectively, is his 39th. His previous 38 have sold more than 1,000,000 copies, How to Box and Training for Boxers together sold 200,000 copies. Nat Fleischer's All-Time Ring Record Book is a model of accuracy and completeness.*

The Knockout. A dignified, hawk-faced little man (5 ft. 5 in.) of 55, who takes his museum as seriously as if it were the Smithsonian, boxing's foremost expert and historian is no boxer himself. He fought his last fight at the age of 14 in a Boys' Club exhibition and was knocked out in the first round. He has revered the ring ever since. As boxing writer and sports editor on the old New York Press and on Munsey papers, and since 1922 as editor of Ring, he has seen 10,000 fights, picked up first-hand lore and lies from every personality of the ring, and traveled 150,000 miles, including 13 trips to Europe for boxing news.

While traveling, Nat Fleischer also collected--158 watches and 142 pairs of gloves of various fistic greats, a punching bag used by John Morrissey, who was the only prize fighter of repute ever elected (1867-71 from New York) to Congress, the stovepipe hat Bob Fitzsimmons wore on entering the U.S. from Australia in 1890, detailed records of 30,000 fighters, from Jim Figg (the first world champion, in 1719) to Joe Louis.

Nat's collection has become a mecca for all fighters and managers, many of whom are so awed they contribute treasures of their own. Fleischer thinks of his museum as a sacred trust. He has willed it to the New York Public Library.

The Champion. From 37 years of collecting and expertizing, Fleischer has two conclusions: 1) fighting is the greatest of all sports, 2) Jack Johnson is the greatest fighter of all time. After Johnson, Nat ranks Jeffries, then Fitzsimmons, Sullivan, Jack Sharkey, Dempsey, Louis, Corbett, Tunney, Burns.

In nearly four ringside decades, Fleischer has had an interest in only one fighter. When Max Schmeling first came to the U.S. in 1926, he borrowed $200 from Fleischer and as security pledged 10% of all his earnings for five years. Fleischer forgot it; and Nazi Schmeling never reminded him. Schmeling's earnings for those five years: $2,500,000.

*It solemnly notes the first fight on record: Cain v. Abel.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.