Background
Harry Wills was born on May 15, 1889, in the waterfront slums of New Orleans, Louisiana.
Harry Wills was born on May 15, 1889, in the waterfront slums of New Orleans, Louisiana.
At an early age Wills went to work on the New Orleans docks, where he developed the physique and stamina for his later career.
Wills began boxing at age sixteen in dingy gymnasiums in New Orleans. He won his first recorded fight, against Kid Rayarro in 1910, by a first-round knockout.
From 1911 through 1921 he fought throughout the United States, Panama, and Cuba, winning fifty-six bouts, losing only four, with twenty-seven no-decisions or no-contests. Thirty-two of his victories were by knockouts. During this period he had sixteen recorded fights with the legendary black heavyweight Sam Langford, winning five and losing only twice.
By 1920 Wills had become the unofficial black heavyweight champion, known as the "Brown Panther" because of his agility and grace.
Wills's career was at its height between 1922 and 1927, when he was a leading contender for a shot at the heavyweight championship held by Jack Dempsey. Wills and Dempsey signed a contract in July 1922 for a bout, but in February 1923 the New York State Boxing Commission declared that Dempsey would not be allowed to fight Wills in New York. Wills's petition to overturn this decision was denied by the commission in September 1923. Neither Jack Kearns, Dempsey's manager, nor Tex Rickard, the czar of the boxing promoters, wanted a Dempsey-Wills fight. Rickard had promoted the Jack Johnson-Jim Jeffries fight in 1910, when Johnson became the first American black heavyweight champion. Rickard was charged with having allowed the white race to be humiliated by Jeffries' defeat and was blamed for the race riots that followed the fight. Rickard did not want any repetition, and the boxing authorities in New York feared that a Dempsey-Wills fight would lead to similar riots. Rumors circulated that Al Smith, the governor of New York, as well as political figures in Washington, opposed a Dempsey-Wills bout.
Wills fought other leading contenders during 1922 and 1923, winning nine fights and losing two. His most important bout was on September 11, 1924, against the Argentinian Luis Angel Firpo before 80, 000 fans in Jersey City. Although the official decision was a draw, most observers believed that Wills had won decisively. Not only were his $150, 000 earnings the biggest purse of his career, but his strong showing against Firpo, as well as his second-round knockout of Charley Weinert in New York in July 1925, intensified pressure on the Dempsey camp to give Wills a chance. Wills publicly accused Dempsey of cowardice and challenged him to fight.
Finally Wills signed a contract with Floyd Fitzsimmons, a Midwest promoter, to fight Dempsey in 1926. The bout never took place, and Wills pocketed his $50, 000 advance. It was the most famous American boxing match that never took place. By 1926 even the New York State Boxing Commission believed Wills to be the logical contender for the championship and ruled that Demsey could not fight anyone for the title in the state except the "Black Menace. " But Dempsey, under the influence of Rickard and Kearns, continued to avoid Wills and was forced to go outside of New York to fight. In September 1926 he was upset in Philadelphia by Gene Tunney. But Wills always believed Dempsey's claim that he was eager to fight the black challenger. Although Wills was optimistic about his own chances, most boxing authorities share Dempsey's opinion that Wills would have been easily defeated. Both Wills and Dempsey agreed that racism was the only possible reason for the bout not to have occurred. Tunney's defeat of Dempsey ended any possibility that Wills would fight for the championship.
On October 12, 1926, Wills fought Jack Sharkey, a fast, young, and aggressive battler. Sharkey gave Wills a fearful beating, winning every round before Wills was disqualified in the thirteenth round. The fight ended Wills's career as a prominent boxer.
On July 13, 1927, he was knocked out in the fourth round by the obscure Spanish fighter Paulino Uzcudun.
Wills's last fight was on August 4, 1932, when he knocked out little-known Vinko Jankassa in the first round.
After retiring from the ring, Wills went into the real estate business in New York City. With his wife's help, he had saved much of his boxing earnings of approximately half a million dollars. He purchased six apartment houses, including a thirty-family apartment house in Harlem. He died on December 21, 1958, at Jewish Memorial Hospital in New York City of complications from diabetes.
Harry Wills fought at two hundred and twenty pounds, was six feet, two inches tall, and had a reach of eighty-four inches. He was exceptionally strong and had great endurance.
Both during and after his boxing career Wills was famous for month-long fasts during which he lost from thirty to forty pounds by refusing to eat, drinking only water, sleeping a maximum of five hours per day, and walking twelve miles a day.
In 1916 Harry Wills married a former model and Sunday school teacher.
