Conan Doyle's Invitation.

[edgarg]

Your are all aware that the creator of Sherlock Holmes and dr. Watson, Arthur Conan Doyle, was a keen sportsman, a first class cricketer, and boxer too.

What you may not know is that he was invited to referee the famous "Fight of The Century": between Jack Johnson and James J. Jeffries.... He was going to accept, but the distance and poor travelling systems of those times deterred him.

[QueensburyRules]

Your are all aware that the creator of Sherlock Holmes and dr. Watson, Arthur Conan Doyle, was a keen sportsman, a first class cricketer, and boxer too.

What you may not know is that he was invited to referee the famous "Fight of The Century": between Jack Johnson and James J. Jeffries.... He was going to accept, but the distance and poor travelling systems of those times deterred him.

- - Rickard ended up as the ref, but he also offered the fight to the 300 lb Prez Taft, he of whom had to call for help after being stuck in the White House bathtub. BTW, Gen MacArthur detested Taft as incompetent.

Taft with modern nutrition and training would easily be 450 lbs today and need a new Prez division for Prezs'.

[The Old LefHook]

I wonder how many weeks of travel both ways?

[Willie Pep 229]

Johnson made it clear he would accept no refree except Tex Rickard.

After three more days of stubborn negotiations JJ then finally accepted as a back-up referee Charley White, who had a reputation for honesty and was an advocate of black fighters and mixed bouts.

There may have been many stories floating about, celebrity referees were always popular, especially out west, but I seriously doubt any of them were taken seriously by JJ.

He knew there was only one white man he could trust, the one making money off him, Rickard.

[Willie Pep 229]

Doyle wrote some good Holmes stuff - but he was a flake who believed in magic, fairies, and had a flake wife who was a practicing medium.

Wouldn't suprise me a bit that Rickard made the offer to both Doyle and Taft.

But i would argue it was a publicity stunt by Rickard. I am sure all the old time western heroes were mentioned as well, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, ETC.

Johnson was being very very difficult (careful) about who would referee the fight..

[edgarg]

Doyle wrote some good Holmes stuff - but he was a flake who believed in magic, fairies, and had a flake wife who was a practicing medium.

Wouldn't suprise me a bit that Rickard made the offer to both Doyle and Taft.

But i would argue it was a publicity stunt by Rickard. I am sure all the old time western heroes were mentioned as well, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, ETC.

Johnson was being very very difficult (careful) about who would referee the fight..

I believe Doyle's invitation was genuine. He was not only a very famous writer, but a first class sportsman and a good heavyweight boxer. His writing was fuelled by his imagination, which led him into thinking of the possibilities of spiritualism. His strict Jesuit education against which he rebelled, impelled him further towards the opposite. He had a reputation for honesty. His spiritualistic belief faded in later life. It wasn't his wife who was a medium it was a nanny employed by them , who became ill, and subsequently fearing to lose her job, pretended to be "psychic." So became a more or less permanent resident.

[Willie Pep 229]

I believe Doyle's invitation was genuine. He was not only a very famous writer, but a first class sportsman and a good heavyweight boxer. His writing was fuelled by his imagination, which led him into thinking of the possibilities of spiritualism. His strict Jesuit education against which he rebelled, impelled him further towards the opposite. He had a reputation for honesty. His spiritualistic belief faded in later life. It wasn't his wife who was a medium it was a nanny employed by them , who became ill, and subsequently fearing to lose her job, pretended to be "psychic." So became a more or less permanent resident.

OK - somewhat mitigating but still, no way JJ says yes. Not to a guy who got played by a couple of teenage girls with cardboard cut outs of fairies. (Granted photography was new.)

As I said they floated many names and Johnson kept saying no.

To repeat, it took three days of negotiations and many names proposed to get JJ to accept a white back-up referee, and that was only in case Rickard suffered heat stroke in the desert heat.

[QueensburyRules]

OK - somewhat mitigating but still, no way JJ says yes. Not to a guy who got played by a couple of teenage girls with cardboard cut outs of fairies. (Granted photography was new.)

As I said they floated many names and Johnson kept saying no.

To repeat, it took three days of negotiations and many names proposed to get JJ to accept a white back-up referee, and that was only in case Rickard suffered heat stroke in the desert heat.

- - Should take more care mentioning Rickard and teen aged grrls. We don't wants to give the saintly moralistic JJ cold feets now do we?

[billeau2]

Doyle wrote some good Holmes stuff - but he was a flake who believed in magic, fairies, and had a flake wife who was a practicing medium.

Wouldn't suprise me a bit that Rickard made the offer to both Doyle and Taft.

But i would argue it was a publicity stunt by Rickard. I am sure all the old time western heroes were mentioned as well, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, ETC.

Johnson was being very very difficult (careful) about who would referee the fight..

Indeed! Hard to believe that he created such a deductive mastermind! Doyle also had some medical training, I believe he wanted to be a doctor at some point... Was dear friends with Houdini though they had some bruh hahas lol.

[The Old LefHook]

When you have enough achievements flakiness cannot hold back recognition and esteem. Yeats was probably more of a mystic than Doyle and won the Nobel prize for literature.

Gratitude To The Unknown Instructors

What they undertook to do they brought to pass.
All things hang like a drop of dew upon a blade of grass.