Boxing, it is claimed, can teach a person lessons for a lifetime and provide mental and physical safeguards in the process, not merely bromides but actual precautionary methods of thinking and acting.
It is necessary to look for corroboration no further than the case of young Billy McCabe and his first boxing match of importance,
– almost certainly as an amateur – a bout he was on the verge of winning yet lost dramati- cally through a single moment of carelessness.
As told to his son Bill, this is what occurred:
Billy was 16 or 17 years of age at the time and was matched against an older, experienced fighter. The opponent approached McCabe in the locker room before the fight and told him he intended to separate him from his noggin. Billy asked one of the elders in the room for the identity of the loudmouth and was told that he was McCabe’s opponent
that evening.,
Billy appeared to have reversed that story line dramatically when he nailed the opponent in the opening seconds and the referee began his count. The young, inexperienced McCabe ambled toward a neutral corner, never looking back. When he did, his opponent nailed him, fulfilling the promise he had made during their earlier meeting.
The story can help us better understand the axiom about not turning your back on some- one, in this case in particular, someone who has threatened to knock your block off.
McCabe went on to have a respectable career as a fighter, but shone brightest as the third man in the ring, a role he performed admirably
in enough top-flight bouts to become one of Minnesota’s all-time great professional referees.
McCabe retired with a 20-10-6 professional record that included seven knockouts. He began his career with a knockout loss – highly unusual in a fighter’s first bout – to Harold Remus at the St. Paul Auditorium on November 15, 1927.
That card was headlined by two fighters of note, St. Paulite Jock Malone, one-time claimant to the world middleweight title, and Maxie Rosenbloom, another middleweight/ light heavyweight of considerable note.
McCabe retried after losing a newspaper decision to Glen ”Kid” Lehr on May 21, 1931 in Waterloo, Iowa. It so happened that Lehr had married one Jessie Logan of Waterloo in that very ring earlier in the evening.
McCabe was something of a celebrity around St Paul during his boxing career. He was graduated from Mechanic Arts High School and taught boxing at the St. Paul YMCA as well as the St. Paul Athletic Club, where he was an instructor from 1935 until 1975.
Frequently, men in pursuit of a new suit or shirt would patronize Theodore Cook’s Clothing Store, where McCabe would outfit them with something from the store’s selection of fine men’s wear.
McCabe’s name became synonymous with boxing among the St. Paul sporting crowd, even more so during the years after his fighting career for his role as referee in bouts featuring several of the city’s brightest stars during the era.
He was referee for matches involving Del Flanagan against Gil Turner, Virgil Akins, Jimmy Martinez, Kid Gavilan, Jim Hegerle and Joey Giardello. He also refereed bouts involving
Buzz Brown, Howard Bleyhl, Glen Flanagan, Jackie Burke, Don Quinn and Don Weller.
Billy McCabe’s given name was Vincent Frank McCabe, but he apparently changed his first name for bouts because results appeared in the St. Paul Pioneer Press -Dispatch. That way there was less danger of upsetting some of his closest relations.
“He took the name “Billy” when he started to box. He didn’t want to concern his mother, so he thought it best to box with a different name,’’ said McCabe’s daughter, Carol Ness.
When it came to his son and daughter, McCabe displayed the kind of tenderness not typically associated with the boxing ring. “He was always so patient and kind with us. It’s hard to even imagine,’’ Carol said.
“He taught us self respect and fairness, ” Carol added, and “tried to instill self esteem and confidence.’’ And with the fighters he trained, he did the same, adding the elements of self defense.
Despite his deep passion for boxing, McCabe did not want his son to pursue the sport.
“He didn’t want me to get into (boxing), so I got involved in football, basketball and things like that in high school,’’ Bill said.
Although the McCabe family did not typically attend the bouts their father refereed, Bill recalls certain aspects of how he plied his craft.
“I went to a few of the matches he refereed and he took a lot of pride of his (role) in there,’’ Bill said. “He always tried to move fluidly around the ring, watch the fight from different angles and not get in the way of the fans.’’
McCabe did just that in enough bouts of importance that he is now recognized as one of the state’s finest third men in the ring by the Minnesota Boxing Hall of Fame.
