The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 87, July 1983 - April, 1984 Page: 50
468 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.), ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
were a religious invocation. Indeed, Professor William Lyon Phelps of
Yale remembered reading the newspaper to his saintly Baptist min-
ister father the day after the Sullivan-Corbett fight: "When I came to
the headline CORBETT DEFEATS SULLIVAN I read that aloud
and turned the page. My father leaned forward and said earnestly
'Read it by rounds.' "25
Texas law first took note of prizefighting in 1889, when a statute
was enacted that lumped boxing together with dogfighting, bullfight-
ing, bullbaiting and bearbaiting. All contests were permitted but a tax
of $500 was levied for each performance. In 1891 the law was changed
and boxing was prohibited. Now those involved "in a pugilistic en-
counter between man and man, or fight between man and bull or be-
tween man and other animal" were guilty of a felony punishable by
a fine between $5oo and $1,ooo and by a jail term between sixty days
and one year. Because the 1889 law was never specifically repealed,
there was a period of general confusion about the status of boxing, but
this was settled in 1895 when Dallas sportsmen arranged to have the
Corbett-Fitzsimmons heavyweight championship fight staged in their
city. The way for this bout was seemingly cleared when Judge J. M.
Hurt ruled that the 1889 law was still in effect. However, Governor
Charles A. Culberson held another opinion, and he was, after all, gov-
ernor of Texas, and therefore a man to be listened to. Spurred on by
a personal controversy with several members of the Dallas sporting fra-
ternity, he saw as his gubernatorial duty the defending of the 1891
law. In the end the governor prevailed, and in September of 1895 a
new law was passed that was essentially the same as the 1891 statute
except that it provided for a penitentiary sentence of between two to
five years for those who engaged in prizefighting.20
Of course, the law did not actually stop prizefighting. No matter
how tightly it was worded, the statute always left room for a certain
amount of local interpretation. For example, prizefighting was legally
defined as any encounter "for money or other thing of value, or upon
the result of which any money or anything of value is bet or wagered,
or to see which any admission fee is charged." For many turn-of-the-
century sports fans, this definition did not rule out exhibitions for
25"A Point in Journalism," The Nation, Mar. 23, 1893, P. 1io (ist quotation); Dale A.
Somers, The Rise of Sports in New Orleans, 185o-1goo (Baton Rouge, 1972), 185 (2nd
quotation).
26Elmer M. Million, "History of the Texas Prize Fight Statute," Texas Law Review,
XVII (Feb., 1939), 152, 153 (quotation), 154-159.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 87, July 1983 - April, 1984, periodical, 1983/1984; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117150/m1/70/: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.