Not Sure What To Call This Thread

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Still stumbling around on Mike McGowan and running across some WW/MW gems from the 30's I thought interesting to look at.
Salvatore Affinito is listed as a MW by BoxRec but the early part and better part of his career I think is WW. I've made up a WW and MW rating for him. I don't cover his whole career in the bio notes. What I found really interesting is what I found out about him with the ending of his career and immediately after his last fight.

Career Record: W40(KO 15) / L6(KO 2) / D2, NC2

Welterweight Record: W28(KO 14) / L1(KO 1) / D1, NC1
Middleweight Record: W12(KO 1) / L5(KO 1) / D1, NC1

Unknown information has been left blank.
Information from the BoxRec Wiki page for Salvatore Affinito

DOB: 1911--1-17 From BoxerList.com
DOD: 1964-07-00 (Age: 53)
March 13,1929 won the New York Daily News Golden Gloves' open championship vs. George Fletcher, at welterweight.
Feb 27, 1929 won the New York State AAU Championship vs. Billy Baird
1929 won the Intercity Golden Gloves' championship by decision over Bud Hammer, at welterweight.
As an amateur, his trainer was Panama Joe Gans

He started out as a welterweight and later moved to middleweight. Not sure exactly of the exact time of that change, but going by the opponents and the fight weights shown on BoxRec, this is splitting Salvatore to a welterweight through his fight with Bucky Lawless in late April 1932. Four days later from that fight, he goes into the ring against middleweight Napoleon Proulx. The Sat, Apr 30, 1932 The Waterbury Democrat, Conn. lists fight weights of Affinito at 149 and Proulx at 151-1/2. So borderline WW/MW.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Another 1930s WW/MW from Germany but fought out of Brooklyn. According to one article I found, came over to the US with Max Schmeling when Max came to fight in America.

Working on Mueller right now. Through him found Affinito whom Mueller fought and Mueller also fought McGowan.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

This guy I ran across looking into another heavyweight I caught site of who'd fought another Hans Mueller opponent who I'm also going to work on some a file that was done by someone before.

Anyway decided to do this "tomato can"....

Career Record: W0(KO 0) / L1(KO 1) / D0

Unknown information has been left blank.

DOB has been estimated.

Sun, Jun 29, 1930, The Kansas City Star, Missouri - Promoter, Gabe Kaufman putting on a fight card at Muehlebach field, Wednesday night, Jul 9 will include Pat Hayward, 6 ft 4 in, 195 pound former Missouri amateur heavyweight champion, winning that title three years ago and since then had been fighting professionally out in California, against Count Ettor Mariana, 6 ft 2 in, 200 pounder from Italy. Mariana is reputed to be a millionaire.

Mon, Jul 07, 1930, The Kansas City Times, Missouri - Prefight discussions of the card to be held July 9th, notes that Count Ettore Mariana is form Rome, Italy came to Kansas City knowing how to play the piano, flute along with dancing and painting.

Thu, Jul 10, 1930, Kansas City Journal, Missouri - Ettore Mariana took two or three punches from Pat Hayward and was knocmillionareked out in the first round of thier scheduled 10 round bout, never striking a blow against Hayward. The San Francisco Examiner's short account of the fight listed also the 1st round KO. Hayward's fight weight at 198 and Mariana at 217. Believe BoxRec account of the KO happening in the 10th is a typo?
The Kansas City Times account of the fight also noted the stoppage in the first round. A lot of newspapers reran the same couple line fight result, Pat Hayward, Los Angeles, knocked out Ettore Mariana, Italy, (10) Meaning apparenty the 10th round. But the papers noted here specifically said the first round.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Came across Mack House continuing to look at McGowan, etc....
Had a file that was done by Lee Skye some time ago. I've done a new rating for him as he seemed rated to high overall and his knockout losses and overall losses were coming out too low at first. Included in Bio some notes looking at him briefly. Shows more again how these guys names were varied about in the newspapers. Updated some of his Fight file data also.

Career Record: W42(KO 31) / L17(KO 8) / D3

Unknown information has been left blank.

Lot of good information on House in BoxRec Wiki Bio page including his date of death June 23, 1976
and his date of birth on Nov 24, 1905. Find a Grave show the same DOB/May 1922DOD info for House, noting his burial at Long Island National Cemetary.

Original Rating by: LeeSkye

News papers looked at covering the fight against Walter Cobb in May 1931 noted Mack's last name as Hauss not House.

Wed, Dec 02,1931, Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, The Evening News, PA - Large photo of House posted in this newspaper with the caption mentioning his returning to the ring after several months layoff. Says he's from California and had "punched his way to the top, only to crumble before the onslaught of Walter Cobb". Mentions his first match in a series scheduled through New York state and New England started with him facing Frankie Polica, "the New York big boy", was an event at Utica, NY the previous night with House winning by Knockout in the first round in about 2 minutes. BoxRec shows this fight as House fighting a Jack Singer with the note that A pre-fight article described Singer as Sam Singer, born Frank Polacci. Notes the stoppage at 2:05 and was held at Convention Hall, Utica. This fight is listed in a BoxRec file for a Jack Singer, ID#166911. Only other fight shown for this Singer is against Jose Santa on March 12, 1931. Newspaper articles for that fight note Singer as Jack Silvers. Lot of confusion with names.

Wed. Dec 02. 1931, The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, PA - Recount of House's first fight back after loss to Walter Cobb, says House won knocking out Jack Singer of New York, in one round in Utica fight. House weighed 195, Singer 190.

Fri, Mar 13, 1931, The Standard-Times, New Bedford, Mass - Fight results announcements from Newark, NJ, that Jose Santa, Portuguese heavyweight knocked out Jack Silvers, Pittsburgh in one minute of the first round of a scheduled 10 round bout at Clark's Auditorium Thursday night. Santa weighed n at 275 and Silvers at 222. BoxRec lists this fight as Santa knocking out Jack Singer in the 1st round. Has ? for number of rounds scheduled but location is correct to this newspaper article. Jack Singer is Jack Silvers?

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Sorry my posts have been bit infrequent lately. I've started a summer that I'm making some trips to Boston to enjoy baseball games at grand Fenway Park and enjoy Boston the city and its history. Trying to spend some time with my other main hobby.

Home this week till Friday so hope to spend a little time on boxing before heading to Boston for 2 weeks. Unfortunately will not have access to my TB game to work on in any spare time.

Rocco

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Well here he is. Been working on and off with this guy for awhile. See the Bio notes in his file. Quite extensive following his journey that I could find in the papers. Different articles found seem to link McGowan as also this Al Nelson and as Prince Alexander. You're welcome to make your own judgement after reading everything included. He started out as a WW then up to MW bouncing back and forth some. Also as HW when in Bermuda.

I did his file only as a MW. His McGowan ID file on BoxRec does not record all the fights that are included in the posted Career Record.
Bummed that through all the papers I went through, never found a photo of him!!

Career Record: W20(KO 14) / L17(KO 9) / D4

Unknown information has been left blank.

Alias: Prince Alexander, Al Nelson

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Back on line some. I've been working on history of an Egyptian heavyweight, Prince Salah el Din in the 1930s. He's rated by the TBCB3 DB Team. Working on documenting some bio info and his record. While doing so I came across the Venue in England where he fought while he spent some time in the UK fighting.

A boxing, wrestling and entertainment arena located behind the Gallowgate End of St. James Park in Newcastle upon Tyne which is in the North East of England sitting on the northern bank of the River Tyne about 8 miles inland from the North Sea. It originally opened in 1909, then was rebuilt in 1930. Its original entrancewas on St. Andrew's Street. With the 1930 rebuild there was an entrance on Strawberry Place and was called New St. James Hall.

The last boxing matches took place in May 1967. The venue continued it's service as a bingo hall before beging demolished in 1976 to accommodate the expansion of the Tyne and Wear Metro. Orginally seating 3,000, it later (with the 1930 rebuild) expanding to seating 4,000.

On the website Boxing News Online there is a Feature article, The Story of a North East Boxing Mecca writes of the history of St. James Hall notably of the New St James Hall opened in 1930.

[Cap]

Good work on those fighters and the St James Hall venue, Rocco. Not sure but I think that place was amongst the first venues included in the game. I know I've had it for a long time.

Cap

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Originally Posted by Cap

Good work on those fighters and the St James Hall venue, Rocco. Not sure but I think that place was amongst the first venues included in the game. I know I've had it for a long time.

Cap

Thank you Cap! Hope to come up with some things for people to continue enjoying TB25.

I didn't have St. James Hall in my venues for some reason? So came up with one.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

I had in my data base a Kings Hall in Belfast, N Ireland. This is a different King's Hall mentioned in articles I've looked at for this current fighter el Din.

The included photo is the only thing i've come up with on the internet for this venue being in it's current state today. If anyone has or comes up with an older photo of when it was the Queen Street Swimming Baths complex, sure would love it!

The King's Hall was located on Queen Street in Derby, operating within the larger Queen Street Swimming Baths complex. Durning the winter months when swimming demands were low, the pool floor was boarded over to create the 1,500 seater venue that hosted boxing events, wrestling matches and live music concerts.

The photo is of what is now the Queen's Leisure Centre which opened originally as the Queen Street Swimming Baths on July 30, 1932. This photo and info is from ilkcam.com/Specials/Towns/DerbyHW/DerbyHW06.html wich shows some various building around Derby.
The written piece with this photo accounts how the Street Swimming Baths played host to National Swimming Championships but also became the 1500 seat King's Hall during the winter months covering over the pool. The Baths closed in 1989 for three years and underwent some major refurbishment that included a new entrance on Cathedral Road replacing the original Queen Street access and when reopened it was renamed the Queen's Leisure Centre.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Another one of Salah El Din's England fight venues.
Check out the attached Website link. When it opens click on View Campaign Archive and then select HISTORY at the menu on top. That takes you to some great photos of the facility inside and outside including and inside shot of it from 1940's with the swimming pool area set up for a wrestling match. Also including some nice history on the Baths which first opened in 1850. Would assume similar for a boxing match. An article in the Saturday, Nov 30, 1935 Football Post, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England paper notes its capacity for boxing something around 2,000.

Included photos is from this site and noted to be after the clock tower section of the building was added in 1896.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Another venue housing a Salah el Din fight in 1935.
These files I"m posting if you by chance have something in your TB Venue library by all means let me know if your file may have more important information about the venue than what I've found. These are ones I didn't currently have in my data base. Rocco

Info from a website Leicestermercury.co.uk/, contains and archival of some photos of the facility, inside and outside.
Short article included with the photos is that it opened in 1915 sitting opposite of Nelson Mandela Park and in front of the Tigers Welford Road ground. It was originally built to use as a training hall for the Leicester Army recruits during WW1.

Included photo is from that Leicestermercury site. The posted seating capacity, an article from the Sat Nov 30, 1935 Football Post, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England noted and a recent boxing event attendance of 7,000 at the Granby Halls.

Over time it was also used as an entertainment center featuring concerts (including such groups as The Who, The Rolling Stones and The Police), boxing tournaments, skating and basketball. Leicester City Council in the 1970's took over running the building but it eventually became too expensive to maintain and it was torn down in 2001 after standing empty for three years.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

I saw him in some papers with my other recent researches and seen he was in my DB. Was interested in what I early saw for him so decided to track him in the papers. Found quite a few of his fights in US and England.

There is a lot more in the files included Bio, just showing the little bit here to hilite some things about him and the rating.

Career Record: W11(KO 8) / L18(KO 13) / D0

Unknown information has been left blank.

The Rating included done by the TBCB3 DB Team I'm guessing is an update of a file I did find posted by CONN CHRIS on 5/18/2005. This was found in the Out of Africa thread started by Mark Elwood / Vistaman44. Short note in the posting shows el Din's BoxRec Record at that time was onl 2-4-0 with no KO's. So I think the big difference I came up with my rating from the TBCB3 DB Team rating.

Birth Name: Mohammad Salah El Dine

Tue, Aug 26, 1930, The Omaha Evening Bee-News, Nebraska - This paper had a run of "Damon Runyon Says" and part of the piece published here talked about Prince Salah el Din from Egypt coming to the United States. It mentions he is 22 years old So that would put is estimated date of birth at 11948908-01-01 which I've updated his record file to. Also notes he is 6 ft 6 in tall. He was amateur heavyweight champion of Egypt before turning pro. Runyon piece states Salah he did not turn pro until Max Schmeling had won the heavyweight title. States that Salah's "proud Egyptian blood revolted at the thought of a German being champion."

Tue, Oct 14, 1930 The Morning Star, Rockford, Ill. - Ran announcement that Prince Salah El Din, "Son of Egypt herralded as second Primo" from Cairo had arrived in New York.

[Rocco Del Sesto]

Most or all of you probably have this in your DB as I did. Came across it looking up info on Umberto Torriani, HW from late 1928 to 1930s. I'd started on him when I then switched off on Salah el Din whom Torriani fought.

Anyway, looked up some info about the Arena and have done some updating of the TB DB Venue file to share with yas....Rocco

The Philadelphia Arena was a 6,500 seat indoor multipurpose sports venue at the intersection of 46th and Market Streets (Originally 4530 Market Street Address) in West Philadelphia.

The Original facility opened in February 1920 as the Philadelphia Ice Palace and Auditorium. It featured a large indoor ice sheet which later was adapted to host professional boxing, rodeos, roller derby and major political events. In 1925 until 1980 it was known as The Arena.
The wikipedia website lists it's Capacity as 4,100 (permanant) 1922, 10,000 (Boxing), 9,300 (1940), 5526 and 6,500 (Phila. 76ers Basketball in 1966). Based on this placed its capacity in the TB file as 10,000 for Boxing.

The Included website link for some reason is not complete. After the .edu there is /stories/arena/ putting that in it would not work. That ending takes you to a site, West Philadelphia Collaborative History and to a page featuring the Arena. A very informative site on the history of the Arena. Included Photo that is on this website. Would appear to be in its late age of existance. Also Included and earlier era photo found on a Facebook site about West Philadelphia.