October 16, 1909: Johnson vs. Ketchel

Jack Johnson

October 16, 1909: Heavyweight Champion Jack Johnson fights Middleweight Champion Stanley Ketchel, at the Mission Street Arena in the San Francisco suburb of Colma, California. Talk about "punching above your weight": Ketchel was one of the best middleweights ever, but, absent a lucky punch, there's no way he should have had a chance against Johnson.

Stanley Ketchel

And, at first, he knew it. He and Johnson agreed to make it look good, but let it end in a draw, which, under the rules of the time, would be the case if neither fighter quit or was knocked out. That way, Johnson, the 1st black man ever to win the heavyweight crown, would keep it -- Ketchel's crown was not officially up for grabs -- and the big black man from Texas, known as the Galveston Giant (at the time, 6 feet, one-half inch was considered tall), and the wiry Pole, born Stanisław Kiecal in Grand Rapids, and known as the Michigan Assassin, would split the film distribution rights 50-50. It was a good deal.

The problem was, Ketchel was nuts. Boxing historian Bert Sugar once referred to him as "Stanley Ketchel, who was half animal, anyway." After 11 rounds, he must have seen a weakness in Johnson (which no one else saw), and decided he could take him. He knocked Johnson down in the 12th -- and may have thought that he'd gotten the lucky punch he needed.

As with later heavyweight champs Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano, knocking Johnson down was the worst thing you could have done with him, because, instead of stopping him, it only made him mad. Jack hit Stanley so hard, he not only went down, but a couple of his teeth became embedded in Johnson's glove. I've seen the film, and the legend is true: Johnson brushed the teeth out of one glove with the other.

Both men came to sad ends: Ketchel was murdered a year later, only 24 years old; while Johnson lost his title in 1915, after 3 years on the run from American authorities, forcing him to fight in other countries, and served a year in prison, eventually being killed in a car crash in 1946, at the age of 68.

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October 16, 1909 was a Saturday. This was also the day that the Pittsburgh Pirates, with Honus Wagner, won Game 7 of the World Series over the Detroit Tigers, with Ty Cobb. I have a separate entry for that event.

These notable games were played in college football:

* In a match of unbeatens, at the original Franklin Field in Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania beat Brown University, 13-5.

* In another match of unbeatens, on "The Plain" at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, Yale beat Army, 17-0.

* At Worden Field on the campus of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, Villanova upset Navy, 11-6.

* Michigan beat Ohio State, 33-6 at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

* Alabama beat Clemson, 3-0 at the Birmingham Fairgrounds in Birmingham, Alabama.

* At the Polo Grounds in New York, Carlisle beat Syracuse, 14-11.

* In New Jersey, in another battle of unbeatens, Princeton beat Sewanee, of Sewanee, Tennessee, 20-0.

* And Rutgers lost to Franklin & Marshall, 15-0 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Also, Woolwich Arsenal lost 6-2 to Sunderland, at Roker Park in Sunderland, in the North-East of England.