HEENEY IN AMERICA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19976, 19 June 1928, Page 13

HEENEY IN AMERICA.

WRITING HIS IMPRESSIONS. THE APPROACHING FIGHT. CONFIDENT OF DOING WELL. [from our own correspondent.] SAN FRANCISCO, May 30. Tom Heeney is writing liis impressions, on the eve of his fight with Gene Tunney for the world's heavyweight title. In the first of the series of articles by the contender for the championship, appearing in the San Francisco Chronicle, Heeney says the best news lie ever received in his life was the cable he got in Paris from Harvey, his manager, to the effect that he had been selected by Tex Kickard to fight [Tunney. "1 got the cable and replied to it, accepting, in Paris on April Fool's Day," the New Zealander. "April 1 is my lucky day. A year ago, on that day, I fought my first main event in an American ring, against Paolino Uzcudun, the Basque woodchopper. I thought of it when 1 read the cable in Paris, and how, & little over a year ago, I had chased B boui after Paolino, seeking a match. His manager, Francois Descamps, couldn't • see ' me, and I'm no wisp of a fairy at that. How lucky for me ho couldn't! It ;was partly to get a ciack at the Spaniard that I crossed the ocean. Where the Great Fighters Were. «'X had no idea of meeting the world's champion. A thousand dollars' grubstake, enough to pay my passage back home to New Zealand, was in the back of my mind. Three-quarters of the globe 1 had travelled fighting my way around. 1 was heavyweight champion of New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Ireland. But in America 1 knew were the great fighters. '• Tt'll be none of my doings,' I said, on leaving England, when they suggested I might look for a match with Tunney. 'l'll not go about demanding a chance at Tunney. V 1 think the fair way for the invader is to meet the challengers. I'll take my place among them, and, if I can't fight my way out, then where do I come in to annoy Mr. Tunney?' "But there was one fellow I wanted to meet. He was George Blackio Miller, who had spread the news that he knocked me out on the other side. It, didn't help mo with the promoters when I mentioned it. _ 'I want to get him in the ring with me. he's Bailing, under false pretences,' I told the American officials at Madison Square Garden. What black looks they gave me! I thought I had committed murder. Harvey told me outside, and he seemed very sad. 'Blackie Miller is a third-rater here.' he mourned: 'l'm afraid Mr. Mediation of the Garden thinks the same of you-' I never did get to meet Miller, neither did I forget him. No man has ever knocked me out, and I didn't like the idea of this fellow saying he did. "Sure enough, my first fight in America ■was with a third-rater. It was Charley Anderson, a coloured fellow. He had been Dempsey's sparring partner, and what a respect I had for the great Dempsev. Hadn't, he knocked out. 'in four rounds, Carpentier, the unbeatable Frenchman, we thought, who had finished off Beckett snd Bombardier Wells. A Bout at Short Notice. "But I was glad to get any kind of z fight. Things were not looking up just then. On short notice, I was put in to take the place of Arthur de Kuh, who was tick. I beat the coloured fellow until in the ninth round the referee stopped the fight, giving me a technical knock-out. We were in the semi-final and I dressed quickly and sat through the main event that followed. And here I am now, little more than a year later, booked with Geno Tunney, the world's champion. " 'He landed without an overcoat or a nickel,' the papers say of me. 'A poor Australian blacksmith, and to-day he is at the gateway of a million dollars.' As for that I might say I had more than a nickel in my pocket %vhen the doctors at Ellis Island stuck their sticks down my throat. To be honest. I had 400 dollars. It wasn't enough to get me home, but it was more than a nickel. Besides I did have an" overcoat, and what a good one it was, too! 'Tis a cold country you're going to,' they told me in England. So I bought myself a leatherlined ulster. 'lt'll provide sufficient warmth at the North Pole,' said the shopkeeper. How right he was! I haven't worn it sines I have been in New York. "And, last of all, I'm not an Australian. I was horn in New Zealand from Irish parents. From County Cork thev came—the same lovely spot that gave Jack McAuliffe, the unbeaten lightweight champion of the world, to this country. " 'Are you English V they asked mo whpn T came over here. " 'Say house,* a newspaper fellow said to me. "I guess I passed his test. Not Supermen. "I never thought I would get this chance at the world's heavyweight title. Mr. Harvey used to tell me 1 would, but I ha-d heard before how Americans were prone to exaggerate. I like to fight and I jnsfc kept on fighting. I soon found that American boxers were not supermen, a3 we British believed. 'They have two arms, a body, head and legs, and so have yon,' said Mr. Harvey; 'go and beat them.' "Nine fights in all I had. The shortest was wifh Jim Maloney. In the first round he passed out. I think it was Dempsey who inspired me to send over the knockout, pnnch. He was there that night—it was in Madison Square Garden—and it was the first time I had even seen him. I couldn't speed when I shook his hand. And how my heart jumped with jov when he congratulated me! To think that I, Tom Heeney, a lad from the New Zealand bnsb, should ever have ears to listen to words of praise from the master fighter of the That sent me along on rings. "And now that I have the chance at the championship—the first Britisher for years to get it—all my people can rest assured that I won't let them down when T face Tunney. It'll be a fight, or Tom eney is not a New Zealander!" I Hespito Tom's plea that he is a New Zealander, and not, an Australian, the San Francisco Chronicle, leads off the introduction to his first article thus:—"Tom Hcenev. Australian, contender for the world's heavyweight title, etc." Tf Heeney wins, a lot. of American newspapers and miff ions of Americans will begin to wonder rpallv if New Zealand is a suburb of Sydney nffpr all.