Minnesota Boxing
Hall of Fame - Old Timers

His baptismal name was borrowed from the local parish

priest and an advertisement on a passing train, but

anyone familiar with boxing in Minnesota and beyond

knew him simply as My.


My Sullivan, an athlete who could play just about any

sport and excel at it as well, but it was boxing that

become his passion and in which he became known

throughout the state and to sports fans of all stripes.

Well known?


He could walk down the street in Chicago, this St. Paul

fighter, and be stopped by someone or hear his name

called out.


He was second youngest with eleven siblings, born to

parents from Ireland who settled in St. Paul, in the Rice

Street area, and whose DNA endowed this particular

son with the natural ability to play just about any sport

he found appealing.


His daughter Colleen recalls the story her father told of

being drafted by the New York Yankees and assigned

to one of their farm teams. It wasn’t long thereafter

that he took umbrage at the decision of an umpire and

punched him. “He was so scared that he jumped on

a train and came back to St. Paul,’’ said his daughter,

Colleen. “That was always a big regret of his. He wished

he had stayed in baseball.’’


A natural athlete, he won a figure skating contest in

St. Paul, won a horseshoe pitching contest, and was

tough to beat at three-cushion billiards. “It was just

a gift he was born with,’’ Colleen added. “He had

coordination and strength.’’


He was 15 years of age when he played for the Yankees,

a preposterously young age and a source of mystery

to his daughter, until she queried him. “I asked him

one time how he could have gone into sports at such a

young age,’’ she said. “He altered his birth certificate so

that the year of birth appeared as 1901 instead of 1907.’’

Although her father was long since retired from the ring

by the time Colleen was born, he instructed her in the

sweet science at various opportunities. “I asked him one

time why he went into boxing,’’ she said. “And he told

me because he loved it. He loved climbing through the

ropes and into that ring,’’ she said. “I was just a kid when

we’d watch the Friday night fights together.’’


Now, about that name and her father’s baptism.....

As told to Colleen, the local priest came to the house

to baptize the newest member of the Sullivan family.

“What will his name be. You must have a name,’’ the

priest informed her. Colleen’s grandmother, having

already named 10 others, was perplexed. “What’s your

name,’’ she asked the priest. “He said it was Andrew,’’

Colleen added. When asked about a middle name, her

grandmother peered out the window at a passing train

and saw the name Myron on a boxcar. Her newborn

thus became Andrew Myron Sullivan, know much later

in boxing circles as “My.”


A welterweight, Sullivan’s first fight took place on

November 6, 1925 at the Fargo Auditorium in Fargo,

N.D., against Frankie Camden, also making his

professional debut. His last bout took place on June

21, 1934 against Solly Dukelsky at Shewbridge Field

in Chicago. Sullivan’s first bout was declared a draw by

newspaper decision. He and Camden met again, on

February 5 the next year, and Sullivan won on points,

again a newspaper decision. Sullivan retired after

Dukelsky stopped him, having compiled a 34-12-3

record that included 25 knockouts. He was 18-6-1 in

25 additional bouts decided by newspaper decision.

My Sullivan played billiards, owned a billiards hall in his

retirement from the ring and owned a saloon, but never

drank himself. People seemed to know him wherever

he went.


“He’d walk down the street in Minneapolis or St. Paul

and always saw people who knew him, Colleen said.

“He’d be in a restaurant and someone would come to

the table to talk.’’


Vacation? “His idea of vacation was to go to Chicago

and see a baseball game,’’ Colleen added. “My younger

brother went with him once. He later asked me if I

knew what it was like to walk down the street with

dad and everybody knew him. He said it was the same

in Chicago.’’


St. Paul Pioneer Press columnist Don Riley once wrote

that My’s only shortcoming was his aversion to training,

that he sometimes lost fights he should have won.

Without this shortcoming, Sullivan could have won a

world title, Riley opined.


On December 29, 1926, he won by newspaper

decision over Jackie Conway for the vacant Minnesota

welterweight title at Kenwood Armory in Minneapolis.

He kept the title by decision over Billy Light, a fellow St.

Paulite he beat three times, on February 15, 1929.

If My had Light’s number, there were others who had

his. He lost three times to Canadian welterweight

champion Frankie Battaglia and twice to fellow

Minnesotan and Hall of Fame inductee King Tut.

Sullivan undoubtedly had a superior sense of balance.

His daughter has a photo of him that seems to back

up this supposition. “He is sitting on a horse,’’ she said,

“and balancing a billiards stick on his chin.’’


Sadly, Sullivan suffered a stroke at age 62. “He was still

young and active and he lived another 13 years,’’ Colleen

said. “But he could no longer play billiards and lost his

speech and partial use of one of his arms. He could

walk, but he could no longer drive.’’


Yet, by that point in his life Sullivan had already

accomplished a great deal, enough in the boxing ring

to earn a place in the Minnesota Boxing Hall of Fame.

My Sullivan
Born: December 27, 1907
Died:June 24, 1982
Bouts: 49
Won: 35
Lost: 12
Draws: 3
KO’s 25

Newspaper Decisions 18-6-1

Induction: 2016