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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.