Prize fighting, known more commonly today as boxing, began as a gentleman’s pastime done in the interest of physical health through “manly” exercise. However, the activity progressed beyond the athletic clubs to become a brutal exercise for the benefit of the sporting crowd and the more base elements of the gambling world.

To eliminate the brutalism and reduce potential bodily harm, the London Prize Ring rules were revised in 1868. The rules required “fair-sized” gloves and outlawed the use of spiked boots, which were often employed in bareknuckle fights. They also diminished the role of wrestling or throwing, and mandated 3-minute rounds with a 1-minute rest in between.

The rules were slowly taken up in America, and on the frontier, bare-knuckle fighting continued to dominate the bouts, even though they were deemed illegal in most parts of the country.

At Lawrence, Kan., John Speer, editor of the Weekly Tribune, registered his disgust at “the recitals of the regular prize fight,” found in other newspapers.

The date was Nov. 18, 1869.

“A prize fight,” Speer lamented, “sets all the telegraph operators to work till the wires of a continent tremble with the exciting intelligence of the rounds and the disgusting particulars of cracked ribs and broken noses; and all the papers of the next morning come out with sensation heads.”

“During the summer, one of these disgusting exhibitions came off in Kansas, somewhere near Quindaro,” Speer recalled.

The present-day location is on the northern edge of Kansas City, Kan., overlooking the Missouri River.

Speer wasn’t the first to denounce the Quindaro prize fight. Several papers denounced the “brutal fisticuff.” The fight between the two pugilists took place June 21, “on the soil of bleeding Kansas.”

Bleeding was the least they could say. Three hundred spectators, consisting of a “good many roughs and sports,” were in attendance. On June 26, the editor of the Manhattan Nationalist declared that “Kansas was disgraced by a prize fight last Monday between John Hickey and Jim King. The party clandestinely left Kansas City, landed in Quindaro, pounded each other through nine rounds, and left the ground in a bruised and bleeding condition — all for $500 a side, which Hickey won. Shameful.”

Even the spiked boots outlawed by the new London rules came into play when Hickey “trod on King’s foot, sending one of the spikes of his shoes through (King’s) toes,” and in a low tone said, “Jim didn’t mean to do that.”

In the end, King took a terrific blow to the neck that sent him falling to the ground, gasping and senseless.

Speer reminded his readers that the law of the state was against such bestialities, “but it is such that probably not more than a case of assault and battery could be made out of it, with a merely nominal fine of a few dollars and costs.”

Speer asserted that prize fighting was “a relic of barbarism,” and strongly suggested severe penalties should be attached to such activities.

“Our State makes a duelist ineligible to office, and it ought to disfranchise and disqualify a prize fighter from entering society. The hammering of stone at the State Penitentiary is the best use that can be made of a prize fighter’s muscles,” Speer said.

While Speer was writing those words, another Quindaro prize fight was taking place Nov. 16, 1869. This one was held on an island in the river between “Walker and Nolan, both of Kansas City.” The Wyandotte Gazette posted a tongue-incheek account of the fight, switching the first letters of each man’s name. The second round will provide an example of the editor’s creative reporting.

“Wolan countered heavily on Nalker’s left cheek with a keg of nails, taking three or four buckets of boiling water thrown by Nalker with the utmost nonchalance. Parties then closed, and Nalker succeeded in throwing Wolan across the river and about five miles back into the woods. He landed on the track of the M.V. R.R., just in front of a heavy freight train which ran over him, cutting him in several pieces. First blood for Nalker.”

The Gazette continued to the sixth and final round with Nalker throwing Wolan into a furnace.

“Bets heavy in favor of Nalker. Then, drawing him from the furnace, he threw him several miles above Leavenworth, and Wolan failing to return in time, the fight was declared in favor of Nalker.”

The Fort Scott Daily Monitor reported that Nolan (the Gazette’s Wolan) was badly hurt.

Being critical of prize fighting in general, the editor refused further coverage saying, “We omit the incidents, for they are not of a nature to interest many of our readers.”

Although many opposed the brutal sport, the prize fight would become one of the pillars of the sporting world. The Marquis of Queensberry rules from the London Prize Ring provided further regulation intended to support the idea of prize fighting as a gentlemen’s contest, but that didn’t stop the bleeding within the stakes and ropes of the Kansas fight ring, where “roughs and sports” cheered and bold pugilists pounded each other senseless on The Way West.

“The Cowboy,” Jim Gray, can be reached at 220 21st Rd., Geneseo, KS 67444, (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@kans. com.