willard

Eddie Campi was a bantamweight boxer. See www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/campi-eddie.htm Jess Willard was a heavyweight boxer. See NYT of March 19, 1916 "Jess Willard, the massive Kansas cowboy, who is the heavyweight champion pugilist of the world, is a firm believer in the never disputed fact that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. In Willard's repertoirs of punches, there are no swings and trick blows, he hits straight from the shoulder and hits hard." query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C00E7D6153DEF3AB...

same Willard guy? www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2830854632/

Thanks swanq for the link to the story confirming that Jess Willard is indeed a heavyweight boxer, and Eddie Campi was a bantamweight boxer. In fact, dates for Campi give us a better date range for the photograph. The question remains: Is that Bill James who played baseball for Boston on the left?

I had wondered the same. The outfit and the background structure suggest a baseball connection. pro.corbis.com/search/Enlargement.aspx?CID=isg&mediauid={128D74D7-1320-44AC-ACF0-C99804CE2BD3} is a 1914 picture of the Boston pitcher. Could be the same guy.

Thanks swanq for the links to other images of Bill James. I'm still not sure that he's the same person as the pitcher for the Boston Braves. I think we'll have to hold off making the connection until more information comes in.

Boxing champ. Could he have beat Ali or Frazier? Nope.

A giant at 6'6, 240 pounds, Jess Willard faced charges of second-degree murder stemming from the death of his youthful opponent, John "Bull" Young, from a blow to the head in the ninth round of a boxing match on August 22, 1913. Willard's powerful right uppercut had driven Young's jaw up into his brain. On January 13, 1914, a jury found Willard not guilty. In 1915, after defeating Jack Johnson in Havana, Willard became heavyweight champion of the world -- but after that he avoided fights as champ, because Buffalo Bill was paying him a minimum of a thousand dollars a day to appear as an attraction in the fabled Wild West Show -- easy money that Willard would have lost, had he lost the title. (He finally did lose -- in 1919, to Jack Dempsey, in Toledo, Ohio.)

Yes, they are still buzzing about that boxing match in Toledo.

Ah, yes -- I hear that buzzing whenever I get near Maumee -- I used to think it came from motorboats on the river. Here is a Bain/LOC full-view photo of Willard, taken on the same occasion, and posted on Flickr on June 4, 2010:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jess_Willard

This is the Willard-Curtiss Banshee from 1910. In the pilot seat is Charles F. Willard. The man with the rifle sitting precariously on the edge of the wing is Lieut. Fickel. The powerful V-8 engine of 51 hp is clearly visible as is the top right wing aileron. In Curtiss built types ailerons were fitted between the wings.