(Public Domain)
RUNYON SAYS:
Another Filipino Boxer.
His Name Is Johnny Hill.
Suggests Those Old Days.
Who Was the Real Father?
Probably a Deserter.
By
DAMON RUNYON
Original Copyright, 1926, International Features Service. Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota) • Tue, Aug 10, 1926 • Page 15 (Public Domain)
Mr. Frank Churchill, that dour, silent man from the Philippines, who imported the late Pancho Villa to these shores, as the first Filipino boxer of any note, has brought over another Filipino, said to be one of the best men the islanders have yet produced.
His name is Johnny Hill, which would indicate that his family tree branches off into that remote era when my venerable friend, Mr. W. Oswald McGeehan, the New York sports writer, and other gentlemen, now warped and grizzled with the years, pursued the agile Aguinaldo.
Johnny Hill is a featherweight and has shown some ability in his appearances in this country. Mr. Churchill dourly informed me one evening that he thinks he has another champion, another Villa, in Hill. Mr. Churchill will spend the balance of his days seeking another Villa.
There are many Filipino boxers In this country now, Pete Sarmiento, Johnny Datto, Young Nationalista, Young Dencio, and others, but none of them approach Villa in the matter of ability. Clever Sencio, another of Mr. Churchill’s importations, who died after a battle with Buddy Taylor, was, in my opinion, the best of those after Villa.
In pursuing the Manly Art of Scrambling Ears, the Filipino displays one strong characteristic. He is game. This has ever been something of a surprise to Mr. W. R. Oswald McGeehan, and other former members of the old eighth army corps, for in the days when they chased the nimble Aguinaldo from bough to bough, they held the courage of the Filipino in scant esteem.
The American soldier of ’98 didn’t think his little brown brother had much heart for fighting, because he was generally on the gallop. This may have been due to the fact that the Filipino was outnumbered and outrifled. The history of those gallus days of the empire down yonder in the islands, will tell of many striking instances of individual courage on the part of the Filipinos.
And among the numerous ringmen from the distant islands that I have viewed in the past yew years, I never saw more than two or three that struck me as a bit over-cautious, Pancho Villa was certainly not one of these. He had tremendous courage.
There has long been something of
an argument as to who started the Filipinos to boxing, especially since Mr.
Churchill’s friends claimed that somewhat dubious distinction for him. I believe it is generally agreed that the islanders first took it up in ’98 or 99, and there is little doubt that it was going on among them to a certain extent before Mr. Churchill’s time.
It is certain, however, that the dour Mr. Churchill turned out the first Filipino champion, and you can make what you please of that.
The first authentic record of boxing among the Filipinos was presented to me some time ago in a letter from a former brother-in-arms of Mr. W. Oswald McGeehan, which I printed in this column.
It told of the finding of boxing gloves in the barracks of the Filipino insurgents in the town of San Mateo, in the Maraquina valley, which was taken by the American troops after an engagement in which General Lawton was killed.
Moreover, the Filipino prisoners mentioned boxing bouts behind their lines, and said that they had been in troduced to the game by a Negro soldier who had deserted from the 24th.
I have more recently received an
another letter from Mr. Fred M. Short, of 603 East 135th street, New York, who served with the 21st infantry in the Philippines and who is inclined to agree with the theory that the story is correct.
His regiment was relieved at the water works, on the Marquina road, a fond memory to the boys of ’98-’99 by the Twenty-fourth after taking part in a cleanup of San Mateo.
No garrison was left in the town, and the insurgents later moved back in.
One of them subsequently killed Lawton.
Mr. Short says there were several instances of desertion recorded in the Twenty-fourth about that time, the deserters going over to the rebels at San Mateo, and he thinks it reasonably certain that one of them laced the first boxing gloves on a Filipino.
In any event, I think it must be admitted that the dour Mr. Churchill was the first to make anything of the enterprise in those distant parts, and that is probably about all he cares about.
