Crítica
- I WILL BE VERY GLAD TO SEE FIRPO IN THE U.S., SAYS TEX RICKARD
- UNDER THE FURY OF THE CYCLONE, THE OLD SEA DOGS KNEW HOW TO GO DOWN LIKE HEROES
- Today
This Buenos Aires page mixed boxing, a disaster at sea and university politics. The promoter Tex Rickard said he would be delighted to see Luis Ángel Firpo and Uzcudum box in the United States, calling them colorful fighters, though he added that Firpo and Jack Dempsey both needed hard training to recover their lost form. A report on the British freighter Eastway, lost in a hurricane, gave the survivors' account: the storm struck suddenly, the captain was swept overboard at 16:00, the coal cargo shifted, waves carried off all but one lifeboat, and the ship sank shortly before 19:00. The 'Hoy' column mocked plans to limit medical admissions to 400 students in 1928, suggesting that next year's entry rules would need a police certificate of good conduct.
Translation
I WILL BE VERY GLAD TO SEE FIRPO IN THE U.S., SAYS TEX RICKARD
“Naturally,” Rickard adds, “I will take the greatest pleasure in seeing Firpo and Uzcudum in the United States, since both are undoubtedly very attractive and colorful boxers who will add luster to the already brilliant group of heavyweights.
“There is no doubt,” he went on, “that both Firpo and Dempsey will have to undergo intensive training before they can recover their lost form, but there is no reason why a natural ‘fighter’ cannot get himself into good condition if he trains properly.”
UNDER THE FURY OF THE CYCLONE, THE OLD SEA DOGS KNEW HOW TO GO DOWN LIKE HEROES
The survivors say that the storm began to be felt suddenly on Friday morning and that James immediately began calling for help by wireless telegraphy. At 16:00 the captain of the Eastway was struck by a wave and was seen to disappear into the raging sea. Shortly afterward the coal began to shift to one side, leaving the ship listing. Enormous waves swept all the lifeboats into the sea except one, in which the survivors embarked. The Eastway finally sank a few minutes before 19:00.
Today
If admission to Medicine in 1928 is to be limited to 400 chosen ones, the conditions for entering the Faculty next year call for a new requirement: a certificate of good conduct issued by the police.
Context
Firpo's record in American boxing by 1926
Rickard's warm words depend on what Firpo had already done in the United States. Firpo was the first Latin American ever to challenge for the world heavyweight title. In that challenge Jack Dempsey rallied in the second round and knocked him out, and the fight was named Ring Magazine's Fight of the Year for 1923. Firpo then went back to Argentina, fought only three official bouts and planned another return to the United States. When he did return he lost to Harry Wills and then to Charley Weinert, a man he had beaten before. So in October 1926 Rickard was talking about a boxer whose most recent American results were defeats, which helps explain why he spoke of Firpo needing to recover his lost form. Rickard's praise is the promoter's own view as the paper reports it. Firpo later became a Stutz car dealer and a rancher.
Dempsey's loss of the title to Tunney a month earlier
Rickard's remark that Dempsey, too, must train hard came just after the champion's fall. Rickard had been working to stage a bout between Dempsey and Gene Tunney. The fight was eventually moved to Philadelphia and set for 23 September, almost three years to the day after Dempsey's last title defence. In the rain Tunney stunned the world by dominating the champion, and he was awarded a unanimous decision. When the paper printed Rickard's comments, Dempsey had just lost his title after a long absence from the ring, and the heavyweight division had a new champion. The article places talk of Firpo's comeback inside that reshuffled division, with Rickard presenting both Firpo and the dethroned Dempsey as men who could get back into shape.
The October 1926 hurricane and the sinking of the Eastway
The storm that sank the Eastway was the hurricane that devastated large areas of Cuba and Bermuda in October 1926. It passed directly over Bermuda on October 22. It crossed the thousand miles from the Bahamas to Bermuda so quickly that it apparently struck with few warning signs apart from heavy swells, which fits the survivors' statement that the storm was felt suddenly. The Eastway was a British merchant ship travelling from Norfolk, Virginia, to Pernambuco, Brazil, when it sank near Bermuda. The naval dockyard at Bermuda received a wireless SOS from the Eastway at 17:52, and the steamers Luciline and Fort George headed for its position. In a later signal the Eastway said it could not last long, was listing more every few minutes, and had lost its port lifeboats, details that match the paper's account of the shifting list and the lost boats. The Luciline rescued twelve survivors from the crew by 12:34 the next day, 23 October, and took them to Bermuda. The same storm sank the Royal Navy sloop HMS Valerian off Bermuda's southern shore with the loss of 85 crew. The paper's times for the captain's loss and the sinking come from the survivors, while the naval record gives the times of the radio traffic and the rescue.
Houssay and the push to limit medical admissions
The 'Hoy' item responds to a live debate over capping enrollment at the Buenos Aires medical faculty. Bernardo Houssay was then a professor and director of the Institute of Physiology of the Faculty of Medicine of Buenos Aires. In November 1926, a few weeks after this issue, he publicly set out his idea of limiting student admissions to medicine. His stated reason was not a surplus of doctors but that student numbers far exceeded the teaching capacity of the faculty. He said the budget would have to be doubled and the number of students cut by a third, and argued that in a democracy everyone has the right to study but also the duty to do it well. The figure of 400 students for 1928 and the police good-conduct certificate come from the paper itself; the sources consulted here do not confirm either. The certificate reads as the columnist's sarcastic proposal: if the faculty was going to pick a chosen few, the next step would be to screen applicants like suspects.
Original
TENDRE MUCHO GUSTO EN VER A FIRPO EN EE. UU. —DECLARA TEX RICKARD
" Naturalmente - agrega Rickard - tendré sumo placer en ver a Firpo y a Uzcudum en Estados Unidos, puesto que ambos son, indudablemente, pugilistas muy atractivos y llenos de color, que agregarán lustre al ya brillante grupo de pesos pesados. " Es indudable - continuó diciendo - que tanto Firpo como Dempsey tendrán que someterse a un intenso entrenamiento antes de que puedan recuperar sus perdidas formas, pero no hay razones que se opongan a que un " fighter " natural no pueda ponerse en buenas condiciones si se entrena en debida forma ".
BAJO LA FURIA DEL CICLON LOS VIEJOS LOBOS DE MAR SUPIERON CAER COMO HEROES
Los sobrevivientes dicen que la tormenta comenzó a sentirse repentinamente el viernes por la mañana y que, de inmediato, James comenzó a pedir auxilio por telegrafía sin hilos. A las 16, el capitán del Eastway fué alcanzado por una ola, y se le vió desaparecer en el mar embravecido. El carbón comenzó poco después a correrse hacia un lado, haciendo que el buque permaneciera inclinado. Unas enormes olas barrieron al mar todos los botes salvavidas, excepto uno, en el que se embarcaron los sobrevivientes. El Eastway se hundió, finalmente, minutos antes de las 19.
Hoy
Si el ingreso a Medicina, en 1928, se va a circunscribir a 400 elegidos, las condiciones de entrada a la Facultad, para el año entrante, requieren una condición nueva: certificado de buena conducta, expedido por la policía.
Source: Source: Internet Archive / Biblioteca Nacional de la República Argentina