THE LONG COUNT

Grey River Argus, 9 February 1929, Page 9

THE LONG COUNT

WHEN TENNEY WAS SAVED. THE REFEREE EXPLAINS. .The refVre , Dave Barry, who gave Gene Tunney the long count that saved. Gene th e heavy-weight title Denipsey, knocked him out at Chicago, is. -at last explaining just why ho did it, writes Robert Edgren in tire San Fraacisco ’Chronic!#. Seems th?e Illinois Boxing Commission wrote its rules indefinitely that the commissionc r didn’t exactly understand them, and Barry was instructed accordingly. Barry also explains that he h»d to save Dempsey from his own * ‘frenzy. ” A* in some mysterious way lie knew that Dempsey was about to rush ha k from his own corner and hit Tunney while Tunnoy was on the fldor.

Of course. Dempsey never had dene anything like that in rebres of fights, but Barry is a very experienced referee, and can see at' a glance when a fighter's judgment is all gone and his instincts are likely to get him into trouble. lie was really saving Dempsqy giving (Tunney all those extra second; because he wa.s afraid he might hot be able to get Dempsey, out of the arena alive in Chicago if Dempsey went hay wire and ran over to souk l Tunn | ey again and make sure he would not get up. According to Barry, Dempsey was out on his feet, mentally, jus* as much as Tunney was out on the floor, and Barry felt it his duty to save him. He was very fond of Dempsey. As I remember, sitting within a yard of where Tunney reclined while Barry was Dempsey to another corner and then coming back to start a new count of his own ins'end of picking up the timekeeper’s count, I clearly saw Dempsey step over Tunneyos legs a ■ Tunney fell, and go immediately to his own corner just half the width of the ring from Tunney. He had been used to boxing under the New York rule that sends a man to his own corner under those circumstances. In his cormr he turned to watch Tunney, leaning back and throwing his arms over the ropes. He seemed 'o be anchored there for. the rest of the evening, -ind Barry al- | most had to pu l him away from the

rope* before Dempsey realised Hint he was to go t o another corner, and started. The moving pictures show that. But of course, the moving pictures don’t show the intricacies of the human mind, and only Barry, by some mysterious fifth sense, discovered that Dempsey was going to try to hit Turkey again before he could get up. I notice one really nice thing about Barry’s Wtatemefit, however. He didn’t start out by saying that he knew Tunney could get up any time he wanted to and was just taking a rest.