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San Francisco, Mechanics Pavilion, 1896
In the fall of 1896 the most talked about event about the city was the upcoming Robert Fitzsimmons – Tom Sharkey face off, with (one time Federal Marshal) Wyatt Earp serving as third man.
All week long rumors swirled about the city that the ‘fix was in’ and before the fight Marshal Earp felt obliged to address the crowd and declare his intentions to “call things as I see them, and not as someone else may want them called.” What Wyatt Earp could never have imagined was how prophetic his words were about to become.
In the eighth round of the fray Ruby Rob landed a hard uppercut to Sailor Tom’s jaw and followed it up with his infamous solar plexus punch (aka the Fitzsimmons shift), which landed profoundly low. Sharkey withering in pain, fell face first to the canvas and fainted. The Sailor’s seconds removed him from the ring while he was still unconscious.
Side Note: Not until 1930 was it legal to wear protective gear below the waist; before then it was considered unsportsmanlike and would encourage dirty tactics (so they thought).
Back in the dressing room an examination, by a physician, of the Sailor’s testicles, as witnessed by Marshal Wyatt Earp, confirmed the low blow to the groin, and the famed Marshal stayed true to his promise and did indeed call it as he saw 'them,’ awarding the fight to Sharkey on disqualification; turning over the $10,000 prize money (a certified check) to Sharkey’ seconds.
The crowd, (and the newspapers) not privy to the very personal examination of Sailor Tom’s balls, hotly criticized the decision.
Fitzsimons’s manager obtained a court injunction preventing Sharkey from cashing the prize money check, charging that Earp’s decision had been ‘determined in advanced.’ A San Francisco newspaper, whose owner purportedly had lost $20,000 on a Fitzsimmons’s wager, printed a scathing attack on Marshal Earp’s character.
Three days later a compromise was finally reached when a team of six different physicians, three of which were chosen by Fitzsimmons’s people, reconfirmed, with yet another very personal examination of Sailor Tom, that Sharkey had indeed suffered genital trauma. (The fact that the trauma was still visible after three days suggests one hell of a low blow.)
Sharkey’s people cashed the check and the San Francisco newspaper printed a retraction restoring the ‘famed’ (and by many accounts very crooked) Marshal’s reputation.
In the fall of 1896 the most talked about event about the city was the upcoming Robert Fitzsimmons – Tom Sharkey face off, with (one time Federal Marshal) Wyatt Earp serving as third man.
All week long rumors swirled about the city that the ‘fix was in’ and before the fight Marshal Earp felt obliged to address the crowd and declare his intentions to “call things as I see them, and not as someone else may want them called.” What Wyatt Earp could never have imagined was how prophetic his words were about to become.
In the eighth round of the fray Ruby Rob landed a hard uppercut to Sailor Tom’s jaw and followed it up with his infamous solar plexus punch (aka the Fitzsimmons shift), which landed profoundly low. Sharkey withering in pain, fell face first to the canvas and fainted. The Sailor’s seconds removed him from the ring while he was still unconscious.
Side Note: Not until 1930 was it legal to wear protective gear below the waist; before then it was considered unsportsmanlike and would encourage dirty tactics (so they thought).
Back in the dressing room an examination, by a physician, of the Sailor’s testicles, as witnessed by Marshal Wyatt Earp, confirmed the low blow to the groin, and the famed Marshal stayed true to his promise and did indeed call it as he saw 'them,’ awarding the fight to Sharkey on disqualification; turning over the $10,000 prize money (a certified check) to Sharkey’ seconds.
The crowd, (and the newspapers) not privy to the very personal examination of Sailor Tom’s balls, hotly criticized the decision.
Fitzsimons’s manager obtained a court injunction preventing Sharkey from cashing the prize money check, charging that Earp’s decision had been ‘determined in advanced.’ A San Francisco newspaper, whose owner purportedly had lost $20,000 on a Fitzsimmons’s wager, printed a scathing attack on Marshal Earp’s character.
Three days later a compromise was finally reached when a team of six different physicians, three of which were chosen by Fitzsimmons’s people, reconfirmed, with yet another very personal examination of Sailor Tom, that Sharkey had indeed suffered genital trauma. (The fact that the trauma was still visible after three days suggests one hell of a low blow.)
Sharkey’s people cashed the check and the San Francisco newspaper printed a retraction restoring the ‘famed’ (and by many accounts very crooked) Marshal’s reputation.
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