Al Andrews was a rarity in the boxing world, a man who kept his suitcase packed and fought in the other guy’s hometown, in one city after another, nearly coast to coast.
New York, Chicago, Detroit, Miami, Las Vegas.
It didn’t seem to matter. Al went where the fights were, often taking on the best middleweights of the era, even some of the best light heavyweights.
Boxing was one of the most popular sports in the nation at the time Andrews fought, from 1952 to 1959, and was featured regularly on a machine new to many American living rooms _ television.
One of the benefits of Andrews’ peripatetic lifestyle was that he got many televised fights against some of the best fighters in the game including world champions Carmen Basilio, Joey Giardello, Jose Torres, Willie Pastrano, Gene Fullmer, Virgil Akins and Denny Moyer.
Andrews’ daughter Karen (Anderson) remembers curling up next to her mother for the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports on Friday night to watch her father who was in this city
or that. “We watched all the fights on TV,’’ she recalled. “I watched with my mom and my (maternal) grandparents.’’
Although only a youngster of four or five at the time, Anderson has fond memories of those days, under most circumstances. “Sometimes I cried. No little girl was to see her father get punched or hurt,’’ she said.
Andrews was born in Superior, Wis., but at one time was a resident of Circle Pines and White Bear Lake. Karen, at times, was right there at his side for some of his training sessions. “Mom would drive the car when he ran and I would run alongside him for as long as I could keep up,’’ she recalled.
Andrews’ career got off to a roaring start. He won all but four of his first 31 fights, a list that included victories over world ranked Chuck Davey, twice, and Gil Turner,
Those first 31 fights were all on the road, in Chicago, Detroit, New York, ad infinitum...
Andrews didn’t get a fight in his home state of Wisconsin, in Milwaukee at that, until his 32nd bout and then lost the Wisconsin middleweight title on a 12-round split decision to Ted Olla.
He was 8-1 after his first nine bouts, eight of them in Chicago and the other in Fort Custer, Michigan.
It wasn’t until 1961, two years after Andrews’ retirement, that a pop singer from those early days of television named Ricky Nelson came out with a hit tune that sized up Andrews’ career perfectly. It was called Travelin’ Man.
“I can remember dad being gone a lot and then coming home. He always had nice little gifts,’’ his daughter recalled.
One of the bittersweet ironies of Andrews’ career was that he fought on the road the majority of his career, against some of the best in the world, and when he finally returned to his twin home states of Wisconsin and Minnesota he was denied middleweight titles both places.
He lost to Olla the first time he fought in Wisconsin. Then, on May 19, 1955, Andrews went 10 rounds with Del Flanagan, losing a unanimous decision for the Minnesota middleweight title.
That bout included an interesting side note as well. The referee was Jack Gibbons, who is a fellow inductee of Andrews in this year’s Minnesota Boxing Hall of Fame class.
Andrews’ career got off to a roaring start. He won all but four of his first 31 fights, a list that included victories over world ranked Chuck Davey, twice, and Gil Turner.
In the first nationally televised fight in Virginia, Andrews lost a 10-round unanimous decision to Joey Giardello, who was 57-12-6 at the time. Three months later he lost a 10-round unanimous decision to light heavyweight Willie Pastrano, who was 28-4-3 when they met.
Gil Turner was 42-6 when Andrews fought him the first time, in Chicago Stadium, scoring a 10-round unanimous decision. Andrews was known as a light hitter but he hurt Turner in the final round and had him in serious trouble.
That served Andrews well when they fought again a month later. He landed two staggering left hooks to the body in round two to set up the coup de gras. Rushing from his cor- ner at the start of the third round, he landed a thunderous right hand to the jaw that put Turner on the canvas. He was out for nearly five minutes.
“He was a very good boxer but not a big hitter, not a puncher,’’ said Carl Peters, who worked with Andrews’ father-in-law and was a long-time fan of Andrews.
That assessment, of course, was of no use to Turner when they met that second time. And there were those who disagreed regarding Andrews’ strengths.
“He was both, boxer and puncher,’’ said Denny Nelson, a former fighter, Hall of Fame inductee and international referee. Nelson had first hand insight. He sparred with Andrews when he was located in St. Paul.
Davey was 39-1-2 when he and Andrews fought the first time, on September 14, 1953 in Saginaw, Mich. Andrews scored a second round knockdown en route to a unanimous 10-round decision.
It was a tougher go, a much closer fight, the second time around, a month later, when they met in Detroit. Although Andrews got a split decision from the judges, all of the newspapers present gave the fight to Davey.
Peters was introduced to Andrews on a couple of occasions and recalled him as a man with a wit, with a good sense of humor.
He also recalled that Andrews had suffered a neck injury in a car accident that bothered him in bouts he had afterward.
What he remembers best, though, was the popularity of television at the time and the Friday night fights.
“We didn’t have a TV, but the neighbors did,’’ he said. “I used to go down and watch Al fight at their house. I saw him a number of times, probably about 15.’’
Anderson fought on television 20 times, a record for the era by some accounts. Of course, TV had become a way for Karen to stay in touch with her dad.
“I can still remember the jingles that went with the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports and Pabst Blue Ribbon,’’ she said.
So does nearly anyone who was a boxing fan during those golden days of the sport. They also knew the names of fighters from every corner of the nation, and Andrews was one of them.
Like many of his colleagues at the time and fighters yet today, Andrews stayed in the game too long. He lost his last eight fights, and some he shouldn’t have taken earlier, before calling it quits in November of 1959.
Earlier the previous summer, on June 26, he was stopped by Jose Torres on the undercard of a famous main event in Yankee Stadium. Later that same evening, Ingemar Johannson stunned the boxing world by stopping Floyd Patterson for the world heavyweight title.
By that time, Andrews’ career was all but over. Yet, Peters, Karen Anderson and countless others had watched him fight Basilio, Moyer, Fullmer, Pastrano, the best of the best, on television screens across the nation.
Now, at long last it can be said that Al Andrews, the Wisconsin-born middleweight who fought around the nation, has come back to Minnesota, where he lived as well, and has a permanent home in the Minnesota Boxing Hall of Fame.
