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[from the Appletree Press title John McNally - Boxing's Forgotten Hero published by Appletree Press]
WINNING OVER THE SCEPTICSIt’s not the dog in the fight; it’s the fight in the dog. – Proverb It has been said of Irish boxing that more battles are fought outside the ring than have actually taken place within the ropes. The history of the amateur and professional game is littered with fall-outs, together with suggestions of administrative skulduggery that hindered – or even ended – many a promising career. John McNally’s progress to the Helsinki Olympics was by no means as smooth as the new Irish champion could have hoped. Despite taking the national title in Dublin in March a question mark hung over his participation in the Games: the Irish Amateur Boxing Association procrastinated over its choice for the bantamweight berth. At merely nineteen years of age, McNally’s youth was against him; at 5ft 9in tall, weighing just over 8 stone, he was not thought to possess the body strength to compete in Helsinki. Further proof of his ability was required. As champion he could argue that he was a natural first choice, yet the authorities dithered, and other names were mooted and suggested as the politics of boxing came to the fore. A considerable body of press opinion held that the champion would not have the ability to cope at the Olympics, and the name being tipped for the spot was, of course, Dublin’s Paddy Kelty. This was the same Paddy Kelty who had sat out the Irish championships, which McNally had won. He posed a serious threat to John’s ambitions, due to his considerable experience and reputation. In addition, Kelty was a member of the Corinthians Boxing Club, a number of whose members held sway in the Central Committee of the Association. In the interest of all-Ireland balance and harmony, the pressure was on to add Kelty’s name to the team – the reigning champion was a mere bit player as the various opinions were aired. It was apparent that a number of crucial tests lay ahead for John McNally if he was prove his class and win over the grandees of the Association’s Central Council.“I recall that I felt that winning the Irish title had been all-too-easy, and I was a bit disappointed that there had not been better competition,” recalled John. “The fact was that my trainer Sammy Wallace had warned me in the ring after I won the title that my battle to prove myself was only beginning. There were people in the IABA [Irish Amateur Boxing Association] out there who had no intention of sending me to the Olympic Games. I knew that I had limited experience and perhaps lacked the physique that more experienced boxers had. My waist was only 27 inches and my height gave me the appearance of being there for the taking, so the jury was out as far as the Olympics were concerned. I knew at an early stage that the only way that I could silence my doubters was to beat Kelty in the Stadium, and that was what I resigned myself to doing.” As Irish champion, John was picked for his first senior international, which was to be against Scotland in Dublin on 29 March. The National Stadium was filled to capacity that night as the Celtic nations clashed for the annual Kuttner Shield. McNally knew that the doubters were watching from the ringside as he faced up to the formidable Scot Tom Beattie in the bantamweight clash. Watching in the wings, waiting to capitalise on any shortcomings that McNally might show, were the trustees of the IABA and the hometown favourite, Paddy Kelty. Despite the pressure, the fight with Beattie was a total triumph for McNally. He knew that the best way to answer his critics was to give an assured and competent performance, which he duly delivered. Beattie was under pressure from the start as John attacked with stinging lefts, which were followed by pinpoint right hooks. His speed and agility left the Scot bemused as the crowd responded with deafening roars. By the second round, Beattie had received a cut under each eye as McNally’s onslaught increased in ferocity. Eventually, with 30 seconds to go, the referee was forced to intervene and lead the dishevelled Scot back to his corner. It was a case of a job well done in the right arena for the Belfast boy. McNally was adjudged in the press to been the star of the evening, as Ireland destroyed the Scots on a 9-1 score line. However, the selectors remained decidedly indifferent when it came to finalising the squad for Helsinki. The next hurdle John McNally would have to negotiate in his quest for an Olympic place was Ireland’s meeting with the formidable might of the New York Golden Gloves champions in Dublin on 25 April. If the nineteen-year-old Belfast boxer had it all to prove, then his meeting with Jake Corvino was the stage on which to do it. Corvino was truly a class act, who hailed from the tough ‘Little Italy’ area of New York City. In 1951, as a total novice, he saw an article in a local paper which reported that the winners of the New York Golden Gloves Championships would undertake a tour of Europe in 1952 which, most importantly, would include a visit to Italy. For a first-generation Italian-American, a trip to Italy to see his grandparents was the key to him taking up boxing. Within six months, the inexperienced Corvino was New York Golden Gloves champion, and the trip to Italy was on the cards. He had a vicious punch and his reputation as a brawler was renowned. The pressure was on McNally and it was felt by many that his relative inexperience would be exposed badly by the dangerous Yank. A defeat at Corvino’s hands would leave the way open for Kelty to claim the bantamweight spot at Helsinki. Not only did John McNally acknowledge that possibility but the patrons in the National Stadium were acutely aware of this, as the Irish champion entered the ring. “I remember that I was due to fight an American guy called Hurston, but when I got on the scale the American coach pointed at me and looked over at Jake Corvino and said ‘He’s yours Jake, go easy on him!’ and I knew I was going to be up against a class act. Sure enough when the fight began, he came straight across the ring and hit me with three of the hardest right hands that I have ever taken. I heard the gasps from the crowds in the arena and to this day, I do not know how I stayed on my feet. If he had have hit me a fourth time there is no way that I could have continued as he had me shaken. I survived the onslaught by working my way around the ropes and when I got back to the corner I told Sammy Wallace that I thought that the Stadium was about to collapse around me.” If anything, Wallace had always been a pillar of strength for his protégé, and he calmed him down during the crucial minute he spent with him at the end of the first. In the following two rounds, McNally kept the American at the end of his jab and began to score with uppercuts and hooks. Corvino’s right hooks were neutralised by clever defensive boxing, and the crowd began to warm to John as he proceeded to outbox Corvino. In the third round, McNally had the crowd roaring him to victory as he pressed forward and threatened to end the contest. As the bell rang, McNally had learnt a valuable lesson – he would never ever leave himself open to right hooks thrown over his guard. He was improving with every outing. The scalp of Jake Corvino was taken by a unanimous decision, increasing McNally’s reputation in Irish boxing. His case for Olympic inclusion was now watertight: it was then placed back in the hands of the Central Council to finalise the team. On 28 April, the Central Commitee agreed that it would send eight boxers to the Olympics, and forwarded the names of brothers Andrew and Tommy Reddy, Terry Milligan, Peter Crotty, Willie Duggan and John Lyttle to the Irish Olympic Council for approval. Despite McNally’s heroics against Corvino, the Commitee again delayed in finalising the name for the bantamweight and lightweight spots. Perhaps they were genuinely concerned at John’s youth, but he had excelled in his two international outings and the wait began to affect his confidence. In Dublin, Paddy Kelty’s supporters were arguing his case, and the authorities decided that a box-off was the only way that the matter could be resolved. For John McNally, the bar had just been raised again despite the fact that he had more than proved his ability emphatically at international level. It was determined that Paddy Kelty and Belfast’s George O’Neill would clash in a semi-final for the right to meet McNally in the final box-off. The lightweight class would see Tony Byrne, Dave Connell, John Cummins and Kevin Martin go head-to-head for the final place. “It was like banging my head off a brick wall, for it seemed that I had been caught up in all the politics of the Association. There was obviously a significant body of opinion of the view that I should not be picked for the Olympics, and I had to respect their view and go through the trial. The fact is that if you are fit physically then that helps to get you ready mentally, and I was fine in my mind. The win over Corvino left me on top of the world and there was no way that I was going to fail at this stage. I was really confident that I could beat Kelty and I trained like a demon in preparation for that fight. I considered the whole thing to be a distraction as my sights were set on Helsinki.” Sure enough, Kelty was victorious in his bout with O’Neill and the fight with McNally was set for the Stadium on 6 June. With a trip to Helsinki at stake, the contest, which took place in front of a large and partisan Dublin crowd, was a bruising encounter which, in accordance with the rules of natural justice, went the way of McNally, the reigning Irish champion. In the first round, McNally gave Kelty a boxing lesson. Accurate straight left hands caught the Dubliner on numerous occasions and laid the foundations for his success. Kelty, the smaller, stockier boxer, tried to work inside McNally but was met with a barrage of piston-like jabs and there could only be one winner. When the decision was called unanimously in McNally’s favour, the emotional Belfast boxer stood vindicated in the ring. Meanwhile, in the lightweight class, Kevin Martin from the Mount Street Club saw off Drogheda’s Tony Byrne – who would go on to claim a bronze at Melbourne in 1956 – and so the Central Council retired that evening to finalise the Irish Olympic boxing team. “That night in the Stadium against Kelty was the first and only time that I ever went into a ring in an angry mood. I had been truly sickened by the way that the whole issue regarding the bantamweight selection had been handled, and I was not going to be beaten. I was fit and determined and knew that there were people out there waiting for me to slip up so as they could justify my exclusion from the Olympics. I boxed immaculately in the first two rounds, and knew that the judges could not deny me as the bell sounded at the end of the bout. Sure enough, I got the decision and it was then that I knew that there was no way that I could be overlooked.” As he showered after the fight, McNally got word that he was to report to the office at the Stadium where the Central Council had been meeting. After his win over Kelty, John had no fear that he was to be overlooked this time and made his way to the office. He duly knocked and entered the office where the President of the Association, Garda Chief Superintendent Paddy Carroll, rose from his chair and shook the victor’s hand. He was warm in his congratulations and told John that he had just secured his ticket to Helsinki. Garda Carroll added that the three most important things that John could do now was to keep fit, keep to a strict diet and, most importantly, get his measurements sent down to Dublin in order that his Olympic blazer and trousers could be made. The following day, John and his father went to the home of Dan Cregan, a tailor from Ross’s Street off the Falls Road. By three that afternoon a telegram had been dispatched to Dublin advising the Olympic Association that John’s chest measured 40 inches, while his waist was a mere 27 inches. Read the previous Chapters : Chapter 1 Chapter 2
From the Appletree Press title: John McNally - Boxing's Forgotten Hero by Barry Flynn. |
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