Death of the “Iron Man”
By Kevin P. Oldham
On June 1st last, the death took place of Peter Crotty, one of
Ireland’s outstanding welterweight amateur boxers of the
late 1940s and early 1950s.During those far-off days, some of
the toughest amateur boxers at various weights reigned supreme
and were ever ready to take on all comers. Crotty was one of these
greats.
Futile indeed were the chances of those ringmen whose ambition
was to win a national and perhaps international honours unless
they were teak tough, heavy punchers and fast on their feet. Crotty
possessed all these attributes.
Followers of the sport with clear recollections of the era during
which Peter made the headlines were always treated to remarkable
ring displays in Dublin’s National Boxing Stadium. They
watched him stand up to some of the fines boxers in the world,
during which he absorbed such incredible punishment that he became
known as the “Iron Man of Dungarvan”. During a comparatively
short career as an amateur, he won glory in rousing contests in
the finest European and American arenas.
Crotty was born in 1925 in Dungarvan and began his education in
the Convent of Mercy School and later was a pupil with the Christian
Brothers in the town. It was in the last-named school that he
had his first official fight during a sports session… at
the age of 11! After he had left school, he went to work in the
building trade and boxed when and where he could.
In
1943, at 18, he joined the National Army where he found time and
facilities to follow his favourite sport. His aggressive and hard
hitting style of fighting was soon noted so the army entered him
for the brigade boxing contests. In spite of great opposition,
he emerged a winner at his weight.
When
the 1939-1945 Emergency ended he was demobbed from the army still
as keen
as ever on the fight game. But as his home town lacked a boxing
club where he could
train, he found himself unable to continue his ring career.
However,
the members of Clonmel’s St. Mary’s Amateur Boxing
Club, having heard about his plight, invited him to join them.
The outcome was that he boxed in two tournaments, scoring wins
on both occasions.
He continued to box for the Clonmel club until he retired in 1953,
hence all his championship wins are recorded for that club. However,
transport to and from the town was difficult so Crotty began training
on his own in Dungarvan’s old Garda Barracks. Unfortunately,
during a storm, the tower of the building was blown off, and he
was obliged to continue his training in the local FCA Hall. His
efforts were so successful that he brought too All-Army titles
to his town. These successes were instrumental in him gaining
a place in the National Championships when he captured the first
of his four welterweight senior titles (in 1949, 1950, 1951 and
1952). A year later he retired from the sport undefeated.
Peter
wore the green singlet on many occasions when he represented Ireland
in international contests. He displayed his fistic prowess in
matches against Scotland, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, and on three
occasions against Italy, scoring many impressive wins and carrying
the Shamrock proudly every time. In 1950 he was a member of the
Irish side that tested themselves against a formidable Scottish
selection in Dublin when he overcame a vaunted opponent in J.
Allen. On November 9th 1951 an Italian team took on an Irish combination
when the “Iron Man” again showed his superiority when
he gave a boxing lesson to a Mediterranean ringman named Renzo
Ruggeri.
He fought against Finland in Dublin, and a month later brought
the crowd to its feet
using his whirlwind tactics to overcome the great American welterweight
Herchel Acton in a return contest of the Golden Gloves Tournament.
Thirteen months previously he had set out form Dublin Airport
for London to joint up with
the European team to box against the cream of American glovemen
in the14th International Golden Gloves contests. The European
team included a 20-year-old, strongly built heavyweight from Sweden
named Ingermar Johansson, who was destined later to turn professional
and defeat Floyd Patterson for the world’s heavyweight title
in 1959. Incidentally, Johansson thus became the last white heavyweight
champion of the world.
The
arrival of the European team in the United States got generous
publicity from the American press. On March 25th 1951, one declared
via bold headlines: “European Champions Arrive”. Other
newspapers said: “Invaders look for second victory”.
“They’re here, they’re lookin’ and they
hope to conquer”. Said the ‘Chicago Sunday Tribune’:
“Europe’s best amateur boxers are running the weight
scale from flyweight to heavyweight and four officials of the
International Amateur Boxing Association arrived yesterday morning
from New York, a whistle-stop on their journey from eight nations
of the world. It is a party of 14 despatched from London by airliner
and bent on the 14th International Golden Gloves Bouts to be held
on Thursday night in Chicago Stadium, one of the most colourful
affairs ever arranged by Chicago Tribune Charities Incorp., the
sponsor”.
A
lavish programme brochure, much of it in colour - it was 1951
- with photos of all the boxers and their records. About Peter
Crotty it said: “Peter Crotty is the welterweight champion
of Ireland. In a special match with Fergus Kilmartin for the right
to fight in the Golden Gloves Bouts, to be held Thursday night
in Chicago Stadium, Crotty lost an unpopular decision and Kilmartin
was named for the team, but suffered a back injury in training
and had to give way to Crotty again.
“Peter
is 25 years old and working for a building construction company.
He has beaten the best 147-pounders of Ireland, Scotland, France
and Finland. He has had over 80 bouts and lost only 6.”
During the journey to Chicago, Peter caught flu and when he climbed
into the ring to face his Chicago Golden Gloves opponent, Herchel
Acton, he was anything but fully fit. During the contest he opted
to take a count to rest not realising that to take a count of
eight meant losing the round. He was more fortunate in Washington,
however, beating his American counterpart, Willie Davis, and it
can only be a matter of conjecture how he would have fared if
he had not been ill.
The
“Iron Man’s” second trip was in 1952 for the
Helsinki Olympic Games. As the national title holder, he was an
automatic choice for the welterweight position on the Irish team
and accompanied them to the venue. But disappointment again came
by way of Peter when he failed to get past the first bout. Later
he said: “I had my opponent well beaten when we had a clash
of heads in round three and I got a cut over my eye. The fight
was stopped and I lost the contest.”
Ironically,
the Dungarvan man had so comprehensively beaten his opponent that
he could not fight in the next stage of the competition and had
to concede a walk-over. Peter Crotty was not a man to dwell on
the might-have-beens. “You have to take the
losses with the wins,” he would say, “the good decisions
with the bad and wait for the
next bout.” He knew the fight game and the memory of his
many bouts had not dimmed with the passing of years. He could
still call up names of almost all the European opponents, be they
Finnish or French, Italian or English.
In
February 2000, a packed National Boxing Stadium in Dublin had
the pleasure of once again seeing the “Iron Man” back
in the ring after a lapse of some 50 years. This time, however,
Peter wasn’t swapping punches, he was being honoured by
An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and Minister for Sport, Jim McDaid,
as one of the 1950 National champions. Crotty was introduced to
the large audience by the popular sports commentator, Jimmy Magee
(“The Memory Man”), who remarked that the Dungarvan
ringman of that era was his favourite boxer. He said that a lot
of young people think that Prince Nazeem (a professional world
boxing champion) invented leaping over the ropes of the boxing
ring, but he first saw Peter doing it as far back as the 1950s.