Westbrook Pegler
Bakersfield Californian/June 6, 1925
Most “Educated” Fighters Spell Cat with Letter “K”
NEW YORK, June 6.—There have been half a dozen “fighting students” in the ring but we never met one who could spell cat without the use of a K until we happened into a kid named Phil Goldstein in Columbus. Frank Moran, you may remember, was ticketed in the promotion work for the Willard fight as an alumnus of the University of Pittsburgh, a dentist and a lad with enough old varsity letters kicking around his baggage to spell Sesquipedalian. But that was publicity. Frank doesn’t claim to be an intellectual any more.
This Goldstein of Columbus is a freshman at Ohio State University and one of the best scholars in the commerce and journalism departments. He is also a pretty good fighter. He’s a flyweight. He has beaten his first 16 opponents in the professional ring, the latest being the Cleveland boy, Terry Keller.
Fights His Way
Goldstein is just fighting his way through school. Some kids serve hash, others drive taxicabs, others mow lawns, shovel coal or snow, or, like Red Grange of Illinois, carry ice.
Goldstein gets from $200 up for his fights.
If he ever goes into the fight business in earnest he will have a great educational advantage over the rest of the trade. Most of the boys in the ring don’t need a commerce course to teach them the value of a rap on the nose, their own or the other fellows’. But a little scientific learning on the matter won’t hurt Goldstein. And then there’s the hook-up with journalism. Perhaps this Goldstein will write even better stuff than Jack Dempsey’s literary outgivings and Jess Willard’s and Battling Nelson’s.
(Source: https://www.newspapers.com/image/3510019/?terms=Westbrook%2BPegler)
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