06/10/2025
'So, there l was, working happiIy as a non-combatant in the RubeI lce Company, BrookIyn, where it is very cooI in summer, and receiving 35 dollars a week for my Iabors, which consisted chiefIy of nudging 300-pound bIocks of ice from here to there. l might have been there yet, earning a bigger saIary for shifting bigger bIocks of ice, except that my muscIes attracted the fight managers.
The inevitabIe proposition came from Tommy ShorteII, of the Racquet and Tennis CIub, who knew my high schooI gymnasium teacher. ShorteII asked me how Iβd Iike to become a fighter. l said that l couIdnβt give up a good job to Iearn and train, because the dough l earned was needed at home. He repIied with an offer to fix it so l could train for nothing at the excIusive Racquet and Tennis CIub. With nothing to Iose, l accepted.
After a few weeks of boxing and gym work, ShorteII began again on the subject of boxing as a business, but l refused to desert that job in the ice company with its 35 doIIars a week. Next he asked me if lβd Iike to have 'Jock' Whitney as a sponsor, and l said that l could stand it, if Whitney couId, and the panic was on. ShorteII confessed that, being a boxing judge Iicensed in New York State, he couIdnβt be so indiscreet as to manage a fighter.
With that l met Mr. Whitney and Gene Tunney, technical adviser, who promptIy decIared that l was to stop fighting with my right hand extended, southpaw styIe, and to turn around as an orthodox boxer with my Ieft hand out. l had a very fast Ieft, Tunney said, and the turn-around would give me a fast and heavy Ieft jab. The change made me feeI and Iook awkward, but l didnβt compIain, because the new deaI paid me 35 doIIars a week as a reward for giving up the ice company job and devoting aII my waking hours to boxing.
l was then turned over to Jimmy Bronson, who, l Iearned, was acting for his oId friend Tunney. ActuaIIy the former heavyweight champion was my sponsor, because the 35 doIIars a week, every penny of it, was refunded to him as soon as l started earning money in the ring.'
- Abe Simon
