Salt Lake Telegram | 1932-05-04 | Page 10 | Pete Herman, Once Bantam Champ, is Blind and Forgotten by Fans

Pete Herman Once Bantam Champ Is Blind and Forgotten by Fans NEW ORLEANS May 3 From P-From From behind the black curtain of ot blindness Pete etc Herman sits in his small cabael caba caba- ret el in the Vieux Carre and reflects on n the days s 's when he was bantamweight bantam weight champion of the world His gloves have hav been on the hook for or eleven years and the fl fight ht fans n a fickle lot have forgotten Pete Herman Herman Herman Her Her- man acclaimed at one time the great great- est st of little men of the ring From 1914 1911 to 1022 22 he hammered his ils way to fame and fortune but nit lost both in his battle to save his us eyesight knocked out by punches Now he sits in his Club Plantation with his blind mans man's cane and thinks ONCE WAS SAS BOOTBLACK He will tell you that he was chris chris- Peter Gulotta and was a bootblack boot boot- black in a barber shop when the fight ight urge struck him He spent his lis lunch hours in the Royal Athletic club training until he attracted the attention of a fight promoter He was used as a preliminary fighter until 1914 when he was matched with Abe Kabakoff in an round eight bout in Memphis He Hewon Hewon won von this match as a skinny pound pound kid Soon after arter he was entered Ina in ina Ina a bout boul in New Orleans against Joe Wagner and md von v easily From this start he went fr m bout boutto to bout Three times he was matched against Kid Williams the bantamweight bantam bantamweight weight champion and amI in the third bout in 1917 he wrested the crown from the kids kid's head IN BENEFIT BOUT BOUTMy BOUTMy My eye trouble started right after alter that explains Pete It was during dur duro ing tag the war var and I appeared in a four four- round bout in Philadelphia for the benefit of soldiers and sailors I Iwas Iwas Iwas was matched with Lewis and nod during one of the rounds he stuck his thumb in my right eye I was never able to see from rom this eye ce again New Orleans fans Cans will remember when I boxed Charlie Ledoux here We fou fought ht ten rounds and in the last part of the eighth he hit me rae in my good eye For the last two rounds I 1 could not see sec Ledoux and whipped him by talking to him Ill I'll knock Keep away from me or you ou outi I would yell That scared the Frenchman The championship was in his hands and he didn't know it it il Pete tells of losing his title In 1920 to Joe Lynch In Madison Square Garden Garden Gar Gar- Gar I den as his hardest luck SMOKE HURT EYE It was the last fight ever fought In the Garden that they allowed the crowd to smoke Just imagine people with smoking At first firstI I 1 was going good and all of a sudden sudden sud den the smoke began to affect my eye From then on I could hardly see Lynch In a return fight in 1921 Herman recaptured his title from Lynch at at Ebbets field in Brooklyn We fought in the open and I kept him away from my good eye cye and won easily casily After Arter this his good eye began to fail rail from strain and ring punches and he lost his title to Johnny Buff BuC A year later after winning a fight with Roy Moore in Boston Herman hung up his gloves lor br good