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“Fighting Spirit”: World War I and the YMCA's Allied Boxing Program
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 January 2020
Abstract
This article highlights the U.S. Armed Forces’ appointment of the YMCA to train American soldiers in boxing during World War I and so contributes to scholarly research on religion and war as well as religion and sports. As the YMCA taught the fistic art to white regiments in stateside military camps and to the American Expeditionary Forces on the Western Front, I argue that World War I was a watershed moment for both Muscular Christianity and boxing. Religious, political, and military leaders announced boxing to be ideal for the close-proximity encounters in the trenches, and they championed the YMCA as being best equipped to turn newly enlisted recruits into hardened trench-pugs. To the YMCA-military, the practical benefits of boxing were that soldiers would not just be “good with their hands” but also have a good manly character, a “fighting spirit.” In the establishment of a new world order, boxing thereby became a bellicose technique for unmaking evil others and a Christian method for remaking “overcivilized” white men. Immediately after the war—because of the Y—the sport of boxing, previously believed unscrupulous, was redeemed. Protestant Christians and a larger public recast boxing as less an activity for the morally corrupt and the criminal underworld and more an enlightened pursuit in the realization of an authentic, God-given human nature. Legalized, mainstreamed, and backed by antimodern logic, Christian theology, and white fears of racial devolution, boxing was for “character” more than crime.
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- Copyright © 2020 by The Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture
References
Notes
1 Johnson, Wait C. and Brown, Elwood S., eds., Official Athletic Almanac of the American Expeditionary Forces (New York: American Sports Publishing, 1919), 17Google Scholar; Special Commission, quoted in Mayo, Katherine, “That Damn Y”: A Record of Overseas Service (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1920), 89Google Scholar.
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11 U.S. Department of War, Commission, 13, 12; Joseph E. Raycroft, Athletic Division Bulletin 2, no. 8 (September 3, 1918); George J. Fisher, Army and Navy Athletic Handbook (New York: Association Press, 1919), 166; Raycroft, Athletic Division Bulletin 2, no. 8 (September 3, 1918); Mayo, “That Damn Y,” 255.
12 Joyce Carol Oates, On Boxing (Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press, 1994); Gulick, “Physical Fitness for Fighting Armies,” 3–4.
13 A. E. Marriott, Hand-to-Hand Fighting: A System of Personal Defense for the Soldier (New York: Macmillan, 1918), 8 (first quote), 13.
14 Elmer Berry and O. L. Fritsch, “War Games and Hand-to-Hand Fighting” (Springfield, MA: Springfield College YMCA, July 26, 1918), 14, 13.
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20 On the relation between and the importance of boxing and bayonets, see also William Howard Taft, Frederick Harris, Frederick Houston Ken, and William J. Newlin, Service with Fighting Men: An Account of the Work of the American Young Christian Associations in the World War, vol. 1 (New York: Association Press, 1922). The authors claimed that the YMCA found “a very close relation between boxing and bayonet movements” (328).
21 Bazin, Henri, “Our Boys in France,” Ladies Home Journal 34 (December 1917): 24Google Scholar.
22 Raycroft, Athletic Division Bulletin 2, no. 8 (September 3, 1918); Glucklich, Ariel, Sacred Pain: Hurting the Body for the Sake of the Soul (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 40Google Scholar; Raycroft, Athletic Division Bulletin 2, no. 8 (September 3, 1918).
23 Gulick, Morals and Morale, xii, 185, xii.
24 Edward Arthur Wicher, “The Gospel and the Good Soldier of Jesus Christ: A Course of Bible Study for Soldiers” (Y.USA.4-1, Box 33) Armed Services World War I-Related Records, Kautz Family YMCA Archives, University of Minnesota, 4; The Committee on the War and the Religious Outlook, Religion among American Men: As Revealed by a Study of the Conditions in the Army (New York: Association Press, 1920), 92; Ebel, Faith in the Fight, 125.
25 The Committee on the War and the Religious Outlook, Religion among American Men, v, 91; Wicher, “The Gospel and the Good Soldier,” 5, 1; Ebel, Jonathan, “The Great War, Religious Authority, and the American Fighting Man,” Church History 78, no. 1 (March 2009): 102CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
26 Scarry, Elaine, The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 23Google Scholar; Wicher, “The Gospel and the Good Soldier, 4, 6; The Religious Work Department, “The Religious Program of the Young Men's Christian Association with the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe” (Paris: American YMCA, 1918), 5.
27 Henry Churchill King, “Forward,” in The Religious Program of the Young Men's Christian Association with the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe (Paris: American YMCA, 1918), 5.
28 Quoted in Gray, “Fighting for Friendship,” 182.
29 Quoted in Mayo, “That Damn Y,” 261.
30 For the video, see U.S. Department of War, Commission on Training Camp Activities (Washington D.C., 1917), 13. In regard to the courses and schools, see “Corbett to Teach Soldiers,” New York Times August 28, 1917: 13, “Famous Boxing Stars Help to Train Troops,” New York Times November 5, 1917, 22; Athletic Division Bulletin 2, no. 8 (September 3, 1918); Athletic Division Bulletin 2, no. 11 (October 1, 1918); and Athletic Division Bulletin, 2, no. 12 (October 21, 1918).
31 T. F. Mock, “World's Largest Boxing Class,” (June 27, 1918), Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2007664557/; Athletic Division Bulletin 2, no. 11 (October 1, 1918); Thomas Foster, “Why Our Soldiers Learn to Box,” Outing 72, no. 2 (May 1918): 116.
32 Geer, Alpheus, “Mass Boxing,” Physical Training 15, no. 8 (June 1918), 375Google Scholar; Taft, Harris, Ken, and Newlin, Service with Fighting Men, 321.
33 Johnson and Brown, Official Athletic Almanac, 49; on the numbers of participants and spectators, see 63.
34 Johnson and Brown, Official Athletic Almanac, 171; Marshall, George C., Memoirs of My Service in the World War, 1917–1918 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976), 37Google Scholar; Athletic Division Bulletin 2, no. 12 (October 21, 1918); Stars and Stripes (February 2, 1919): 6.
35 On the historical eclipse of Muscular Christianity during and after World War I, see Mathisen, James A., “Reviving ‘Muscular Christianity’: Gill Dodds and the Institutionalization of Sport Evangelicalism,” Sociological Focus 23 (1990): 235–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gerald Franklin Roberts, “The Strenuous Life: The Cult of Manliness in the Era of Theodore Roosevelt” (PhD diss., Michigan State University, 1970); Putney, Muscular Christianity; and John Corrigan, Business of the Heart: Religion and Emotion in the Nineteenth Century (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002).
36 Johnson and Brown, Official Athletic Almanac, 153; Albert C. Dieffenbach, “The Barrage of ‘Y’ Canteens,” Christian Register, October 9, 1919, 6; Liggett as quoted in Mayo, “That Damn Y,” 257; Johnson and Brown, Official Athletic Almanac, 15.
37 Johnson and Brown, Official Athletic Almanac, 17; Taft, Harris, Ken, and Newlin, Service with Fighting Men, 316. On the number of soldiers who participated, see Hanson and Burger, eds., The Inter-Allied Games, 35.
38 The publicly credited mastermind behind the Inter-Allied Games was Elwood Brown, director for the YMCA Department of Athletics and Director General of the Games. Brown had been responsible for bringing nations “together as athletes” in the years prior to the war in the Far Eastern Olympic Games in Manila (1913), Shanghai (1915), and Tokyo (1917). Unlike a battlefield, the Games Committee reported, on the sports field a Filipino, a Chinese, and a Japanese “found not only could they meet amicably but, each learning that the other was not such a bad fellow after all, a new and mutual respect each for the other was engendered” (13). The cultural framework for unification through sport was in place. The YMCA sold the American military on it. Sport could solve world problems. Furthermore, Brown reasoned, the lack of warring for the Allied soldier, the idleness, brought about moral temptation. The games were a perfect expression for an army of player-fighters, now with no one to kill. The games enabled the dissipation of pent up athleticism. Without killing, however, the virtuous standing of any given Allied soldier was, indeed, a dubious proposition. “I can think of no better method of elevating the tone of this large force” and “at the same time guarding their morals,” Major-General J. G. Harbord wrote Brown, “as recreational athletic sports that the Y.M.C.A. alone is able to furnish them” (246). When not killing Hun, purposed player-fighters were purposeless, morally unmoored. “If the dangers of disorderly physical expression are to be avoided,” Brown proposed to Colonel Bruce Palmer, “very constructive and interesting bodily activity is necessary” (17). Mass games with official championships to demonstrate the “great play spirit” and the “finest in physical manhood” was the idea (18). The YMCA re-retooled itself from promoter of gamely merriment to bringer of death and destruction and back to gamely merriment again. All page numbers above are from Hanson and Burger, eds., The Inter-Allied Games. See also Mayo, “That Damn Y.”
39 Hanson and Burger, eds., The Inter-Allied Games, 38.
40 Hanson and Burger, eds., The Inter-Allied Games, 176.
41 Sammons and Morrow, Harlem's Rattlers and the Great War, 319; Mayo, “That Damn Y,” 265–66.
42 Hanson and Burger, eds., The Inter-Allied Games, 41, 187, 356, 187; Gray, “Fighting for Friendship,” 181; Eddie Eagan, Fighting for Fun: The Scrap Book of Eddie Eagan (New York: Macmillan, 1934 [1932]), 126; “Pershing a Boxing Fan,” New York Times, September 14, 1919, 100.
43 For circulation numbers on Stars and Stripes, see “Stars and Stripes: The American Soldiers’ Newspaper of World War I, 1918 to 1919,” Library of Congress, accessed November 15, 2016, https://www.loc.gov/collections/stars-and-stripes/about-this-collection/; and Harry L. Katz, The History of the Stars and Stripes: Official Newspaper of the American Expeditionary Forces in France from February 9, 1918 to June 13, 1919 (Washington, D.C.: Columbia Publishing Co., 1921). For early Stars and Stripes coverage of the legality (or illegality) of boxing back home, see “Marty McCue Wants Boxing,” February 22, 1918, 6; “World's Boxing Title to be Settled July 4th,” April 5, 1918, 6; “Same Old Story—No Place to Go,” May 3, 1918, 6; and “Well Meaning, But—,” November 8, 1918, 4. For the paper's coverage of the push for legality back home, see “Boxing Commission Planned for U.S.,” January 31, 1919, 6; and “With the Pugs,” January 10, 1919, 6. For additional coverage of boxing in Stars and Stripes, see the following editions: March 1, 1918, 1; June 14, 1918, 6; June 21, 1918, 6; June 28, 1918, 6; January 3, 1919, 6; January 24, 1919, 6; February 7, 1919, 3; February 14, 1919, 6; February 21, 1919, 6–7; February 28, 1919, 6; March 14, 1919, 6; March 21, 1919, 6; March 22, 1919, 6; March 28, 1919, 6–7; March 29, 1919, 6; April 4, 1919, 6; April 18, 1919, 6–7; April 25, 1919, 6; May 16, 1919, 6; May 30, 1919, 6; May 24, 1919, 6–7; and June 18, 1919, 6.
44 Although Stars and Stripes provided favorable coverage of AEF boxing and the YMCA's efforts, it also covered common complaints about high prices in YMCA canteens, particularly compared with quartermaster prices. See “Y.M.C.A. Canteens to Sell Tobacco at Q.M.’s Prices,” July 26, 1918, 1; “Q.M. to Take over Y.M.C.A. Canteens,” February 28, 1919, 1; “Y.M.C.A. and Other Canteens to Sell Q.M. Stuff at Cost,” December 13, 1918, 2; and “Wet Canteens to be Run by Y.M.C.A.; Transfer April 1,” March 7, 1919, 1. Three YMCA secretaries were also imprisoned for embezzling government funds, which publicly exacerbated the issue of the YMCA's high canteen prices. See “Courtmartial for Y Men,” January 17, 1919, 1; “Ex-Y.M.C.A. Men Jailed,” February 28, 1919, 1; and “The Y.M.C.A.,” February 14, 1919, 4.
45 Ebel, Faith in the Fight, 108.
46 “Boxing Commission Planned for U.S.,” Stars and Stripes, January 31, 1919, 6.
47 “Yanks Don Mitts across the Rhine,” Stars and Stripes, January 10, 1919, 6.
48 “Nevers Bouts Draw Big Holiday Crowd,” Stars and Stripes, January 10, 1919, 6.
49 “Chaplains Matched for Ten Round Fight,” Stars and Stripes, February 2, 1919, 6.
50 Mayo, “That Damn Y,” 231.
51 See Pat Brannon and Lewis W. Riess, eds., A.F. in G. Athletic Hand Book, 1919–1920 ([Coblenz, Germany]: [American YMCA]. Within the sixty-page document, pages 7 through 30 are devoted entirely to the subject of boxing.
52 Patrick Brannon and Lew Riess, eds., A.F. in G. Athletic Hand Book, 1920–1921 ([American YMCA]), 93.
53 “Murray is the Only One of the Old Boxing Champions Still Fighting for the Entertainment of the A.F.G.,” Athletic Bulletin 1, no. 21, September 1, 1921, 5; “Compound Boxing Shows Are Making a Big Hit,” Athletic Bulletin 1, no. 1, November 1, 1920, 1; “Jabs and Jolts,” Athletic Bulletin 1, no. 1, November 1, 1920, 2; “Christmas Boxing Shows at Liberty Hut Ended in Favor of the Yanks,” Athletic Bulletin 1, no. 5, January 1, 1921, 1; “Pugilistic Patter,” Athletic Bulletin 2, no. 7, March 1, 1922, 6; “Boxing Shows Held since September First Would Last over Four Days,” Athletic Bulletin 2, no 10, April 15, 1922, 12; “How to Make a Substantial Punching Bag Platform,” Athletic Bulletin 2, no. 8, March 1, 1922, 6; “The Boxing Promoter Gives a Few Pointers,” Athletic Bulletin 1, no. 4, December 15, 1920, 3; “Huggins Has Held Crown Longer Than Any Other Boxer in the A.F. in G.,” Athletic Bulletin 1, no. 5, January 1, 1921, 5; “Johnny Kilbane Has Been the World's Featherweight Champion Longer Than Any Other Boxer in This Class,” Athletic Bulletin 2, no. 7, March 1, 1922, 5; “Pugilism in Ye Olde Days Was No Pink Tea Affair,” Athletic Bulletin 1, no. 21, September 1, 1921, 7; “Boxing Rules Have Undergone a Great Many Changes since the Olden Days,” Athletic Bulletin 1, no. 21, September 1, 1921, 6; “Why Boxing Lives,” Athletic Bulletin 2, no. 7, March 1, 1922, 8. For additional coverage of boxing in the Athletic Bulletin, see “Some Notes From ‘Boxiana,’ or the History of Pugilism,” Athletic Bulletin 2, no. 6, February 15, 1922, 7; “Some Notes from ‘Boxiana,’ or the History of Pugilism,” Athletic Bulletin 2, no. 7, March 1, 1922, 7; “Some Notes From ‘Boxiana,’ or the History of Pugilism,” Athletic Bulletin 2, no. 8, March 15, 1922, 7; “Why Boxing Lives,” Athletic Bulletin 2, no. 7, March 1, 1922; and “Christmas Boxing Shows at Liberty Hut Ended in Favor of the Yanks,” Athletic Bulletin 1, no. 5, January 1, 1921, 1.
54 Lears, No Place of Grace, 302.
55 “Boxing Near Its Death?” Kansas City Star, March 12, 1917, 8; “Boxing Is on High Plane, Says Report,” New York Times, March 17, 1922, 23; Hanson and Burger, The Inter-Allied Games, 41.
56 Gorn, Elliott J., The Manly Art: Bare-Knuckle Prize Fighting in America (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1986)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 12 (first quote), 31 (second and third quote).
57 Quoted in Gorn, The Manly Art, 183.
58 Barak Y. Orbach, “Prizefighting and the Birth of Movie Censorship,” Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities 21, no. 2 (2009): 251–304.
59 Gorn, The Manly Art, 248, 254.
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61 See Sammons, Beyond the Ring; Isenberg, Michael T., John L. Sullivan and His America (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988)Google Scholar; Gorn, The Manly Art; and Boddy, Boxing.
62 On boxing laws in New York, for instance, see, “Whitman Wants New Boxing Law,” New York Times, February 1, 1917, 7; “Wenck Dropped from Board,” Evening Times, March 17, 1917, 4; “Boxing Reprieved in the Assembly,” New York Times, April 18, 1917, 11; “New York Bill to Kill Boxing Beaten,” Boston Journal, April 18, 1917, 8; “New York Assembly Defeats Bill to Repeal Boxing Law,” Evening Times (Washington, D.C.), April 18, 1917, 6; “Slater Bill in Morgue,” New York Times, May 2, 1917, 8; “Legislature Passes Boxing in State Gets Deathblow,” New York Times, May 11, 1917, 8; “Slater Bill Becomes Law,” New York Times, May 20, 1917, S2; “Boxing Bill Passed in Assembly 91–46,” New York Times, April 25, 1920, 19; and “To Raise Boxing to a Higher Plane,” New York Times, January 10, 1921, 18. For secondary-source coverage of the history of boxing laws, see Jack Anderson, “The Business of Hurting People: A Historical, Social and Legal Analysis of Professional Boxing,” Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal 7, no. 1 (Summer 2007): 35–59.
63 Captain Sullivan, “Boxing in the U.S. Army,” Ring, September 1925, 32; Gene Tunney, “Tunney Boosts Boxing for National Defense,” Ring, May 1941, 45.
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65 “Boxing in Colleges Jumps into Favor,” New York Times, January 4, 1920, S3; Harrison S. Martland, “Punch Drunk,” Journal of the American Medical Association 91, no. 13 (October 13, 1928): 1103–107.
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67 Katharine Fullerton Gerould, “Ringside Seats: A Woman at the Big Fight,” Harper's Monthly Magazine, December 1, 1926, 21, 28, 27, 24; Boddy, Boxing, 218; Dempsey quoted in Boddy, Boxing, 218.
68 “Minister Approves Boxing,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, May 10, 1920, 13; “Pastors Advocate Boxing at Hearing,” New York Times, May 21, 1920, 13.
69 See “Boxing in Church,” Wilkes Barre Times Leader, January 3, 1917, 8; “Boxing Good for the Men Says Ex-Pastor,” San Jose Mercury Herald, April 10, 1918, 16; “Henry Ford Praises Y.M.C.A. Army Work,” New York Times, June 30, 1918, 17; “Clergyman Gives $1,000 to Promote Dartmouth Boxing,” New York Times, January 31, 1920, 13; “Boxing Match Held in Church Basement,” Albuquerque Journal, February 2, 1920, 2; “Church Pulpit Used as Ring for Boxing and Wrestling Match,” Albuquerque Journal, December 21, 1920, 2; “Good Book Upholds Boxing, Says Pastor,” Anaconda Standard, March 27, 1921, 3; “Fighting Parson Heads Unique Church,” Salt Lake City Telegram, December 11, 1921, 42; “Church to Foster Bout,” Morning Oregonian, February 13, 1922, 4; and “Tabernacle of Billy Sunday in Illinois to be Boxing Arena,” Southeast Missourian, June, 6, 1929, 5.
70 “From Prize Ring to Pulpit,” Wheaton Record, November 4, 1936, 1; Wheaton Record, May 20, 1941, 1; “Doc Cardiff to Initiate Boxing Classes,” Wheaton Record, October 3, 1939, 3; “Boxing is a Bully Sport, Says Rev. Billy Sunday,” Milwaukee Sentinel, April 10, 1917. For additional coverage of Billy Sunday, Doc Cardiff, and boxing at Wheaton, see Reed, John, “Back of Billy Sunday,” Metropolitan 42 (1915): 9–12, 66–72Google Scholar; Wheaton Record, May 20, 1941, 1.
71 Eddie Eagan, “Have You a ‘Fighting Heart’?” Boys’ Life, April 1933, 20–21; Sol Metzger, “The Art of Boxing,” Boys’ Life, December 1930, 28; C. Ward Crampton, “Keeping Physically Fit,” Boys’ Life, January 1936, 24 and 45; C. Ward Crampton, “Fighting for Fun,” Boys’ Life, March 1939, 24 and 42. See also Earl Reed Silvers, “The Professional,” Boys’ Life, June 1924, 34–35, 49–50; Sol Metzger, “Wrestling, the Oldest of Sports,” Boys’ Life, March 1932, 28 and 34; C. Ward Crampton, “Better than Speed!” Boys’ Life December 1936, 24; George G. Livermore, “The Great Grudge Fight,” Boys’ Life, May 1937, 8–9, 35–37; and C. Ward. Crampton, “Fighting around the World,” Boys’ Life, April 1939, 28 and 41.
72 Graham Curry, “The Place of Amateur Boxing in the Young Men's Christian Association” (Master's thesis, Department of Physical Education, The Young Men's Christian Association College, Chicago, 1924), 1, 18, 29, 29, 44, 44, 50, 50, 10.
73 Cameron, J. Y., “Report of the Committee on Boxing,” Physical Training 18, no. 1 (November 1920): 9–11Google Scholar; Walter Eckersall, “Boxing Adopted for Y.M.C.A. by Athletic Directors’ Vote,” Chicago Tribune, December 13, 1918, 15; Earl W. Brannon, “Boxing,” Physical Training 20, no. 1 (November 1922): 5–7.
74 Stone, John Timothy, “Boxing Gloves and Bibles,” Association Men 45, no. 5 (January 1920): 292, 323Google Scholar; Miller, A. L., “Handling Son with Gloves,” Association Men 47, no. 3 (November 1921): 99Google Scholar; Frank Baker, “Boxing in the Y.M.C.A.,” Physical Training 18, no. 1 (November 1920): 14, 16; George M. Pinneo, “Boxing—How to Promote It,” Journal of Physical Education 26, no. 3 (November 1928): 47; Gus Shinn, “Amateur Boxing—There's a Difference,” Journal of Physical Education 57, no. 1 (September–October 1959): 14; George R. Draper, “Boxing for Education,” Journal of Physical Education 36, no. 5 (May–June 1939): 84; Max Marek, “Boxing in High School for Character,” Journal of Physical Education 43, no. 3 (January–February 1946): 47. For additional coverage of the YMCA's postwar boxing efforts, see L. L. McClow, “Boxing,” Journal of Physical Education 26, no. 9 (May 1929): 173–74; R. Paul Fowler, “Boxing in the State of Texas,” Journal of Physical Education 35, no. 2 (November–December 1937): 23, 27; C. L. Ball, “Amateur Boxing,” Physical Training 14, no. 9 (September 1917): 399–402; Alpheus Geer, “Mass Boxing,” Physical Training 15, no. 8 (June 1918): 375–78; J. M. Groves, “Democratizing World's Sport,” Association Men 46, no. 2, (October 1920): 60; Frank Crane, “The Last Punch,” Association Men 46, no. 4 (December 1920): 151; James G. Brown, “Boxing,” Journal of Physical Education 35, no. 2 (November–December 1937): 30, 32; Steinhaus, Arthur H., “Boxing in High Schools,” Association Boys’ Work Journal 18, no. 3 (May 1945): 3–7Google Scholar; and Arthur H. Steinhaus, “Is Boxing Legalized Murder?” The American Forum of the Air (newsletter) 13, no. 23, June 3, 1950, 1–15.
75 Steiner, Jesse Frederick, Americans at Play: Recent Trends in Recreation and Leisure Time Activities (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1933), 94, 95, 97Google Scholar.
76 See Putney's conclusion to Muscular Christianity, in particular.
77 Mayo, “That Damn Y,” 9.
78 Foucault, Michel, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, trans. Sheridan, Alan (New York: Vintage Books, 1995)Google Scholar.
79 Putney, Muscular Christianity, 195, 200; Crane, “The Last Punch,” 151.