A BRAVE HEART.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XLIX, Issue 149, 7 September 1928, Page 1

A BRAVE HEART.

TRIBUTES TO HEENEY. OUTCLASSED BY CHAMPION. SAN FRANCISCO, August 8. Sporting writers all over the United States have paid high tribute to Tom Heeney’s courage and determination in his fight for the world title against Gene Tunney. “Tom Heeney may not be a great heavy-weight, but, lie has as courageous a heart as I have seen in many a day,” writes Harry B. Smith, sportingeditor of the “San Francisco Chronicle.” “He simply does not know what it is to quit, and his great strength aided him in a marvellous though ineffective attack. No one could have done more, and his stand against the odds was a remarkable one. To have forced so game a man to take more punishment would have been nothing- but cruelty. His mouth, nose, and left eye were bleeding—he liad long- since censed to use his eye. With nothing but the gamest of hearts, Heeney tried his last desperate rally in the eleventh round. His punches fell short, and he was taking so much of a beating that the referee did right when he stopped the fight. “Ae he was being revived in that short minute of rest after the tenth round, when he was knocked out of the ring, I questioned whether he would be able to stand on his feet. But the determination and pluck that have enabled him to go so far as he has gone, in fact, made him a challenger for the world title, sent him into the middle of the ring with a do-or-die effort that netted him nothing but more of a beating.” FUTILE PROTEST. James P. Dawson, of the “New York Times,” wrote; —“The solid man from the land of the Anzacs stood up heroically, stoically, under a supreme battering, punishing fire which would have crushed a less hardy fighter much earlier. He could not have gone much further, though he had the desire, and his handlers protested when the fight was stopped. “Their protest, as futile as had been the game. title bid of Heeney, was based on the possibility of restoring his jumbled fighting faculties in the one minute intermission between the tenth and eleventh rounds. But, more than anything else, this protest was a gesture, a needless one at that, on behalf of a fighter who went down with his colors nailed to the mast, fighting to the very last breath against a foe who was his superior, judged from any angle.” DEVOID OF SKILL. Tommy Loughran, light-heavy-weight champion of the world, says: “Heeney was absolutely devoid of boxing skill, cumbersome of foot, with short, club-like arms, which lacked the power the heavy muscles portrayed. He had only the heart to fight to the finish, and ruggedness beyond human conception. Courage is a trait which all love, and Heeney endeared himself to the crowd by exhibiting 200 pounds of it. We love him for his gameness, but it is not enough to win fistiana’s highest prize.” Walter Trumbull, North American Newspaper Alliance, writes: —“The New Zealander fought as ho always

fights—l think it is the only way he knows how to fight—by continually crowding in, seeking to club to the head and body. In only one round was he successful. This was the sixth. In this round he landed a terrific left to Gene’s body and a right to the head, and it seemed to me for a moment that Gene was hurt. This was the only round that I thought Heeney was as good as an even break. “On a comparative showing, Tunney stands head and shoulders over all the contenders. Tom Heeney, who was too hard a nut for other welladvertised aristocrats, gave him little more than a work-out.” ASTONISHING COURAGE.

Damon Runyon, one of the foremost boxing writers in the United States, thus writes of Tom Heeney:

“It was a racehorse against an ox, a silky, well-featured fellow against a shaggy, unkempt-looking man with thick ‘piano’ legs and a body like a barrel. The bell probably saved Heeney from being counted out then and there, but he came out for the eleventh like a gallant old fire horse responding to an alarm, flourishing his gloves with astonishing courage. A good, game fellow is Thomas Heeney, of Gisborne, New Zealand, but that lets him out. He was still standing up, right in Tunney’s corner, whe'n Forbes stepped between the fighters to stop it. Heeney, when he realised it, was indignant at the referee, but he was too late.”