Donald C Stewart looks in his Rear View Mirror at the career of ‘Our Benny’ Lynch
How can you have a hero, you never saw, of which there is very little footage and whose entire story ends in tragedy? Perhaps coming from a country where tragedy is all part of the collective DNA? Welcome to Scotland… There have been books, films, stage plays of this man who only lived till he was 33 years old but captured the heart of a nation.
Benny Lynch, 88-14-7, 34 KO’s, was more than the working-class hero that he is stereotyped as but less of a man that we should lionise. He is a cautionary tale but a magical presence in the history of Scottish pugilism and any reflective night of glory for a Scottish boxer – Josh Taylor and Ricky Burns included – is not complete without a nod, a mention or a thank you to a man who became Scotland’s first boxing superstar and world champion. Scotland gave the world more than boxing heroes: it is the home of golf, and our rundown of the best golf betting sites UK covers the markets built around that game.
We know that he was born in a tenement flat, 17 Florence Street in the tough Gorbals area of Glasgow. As a raw teenager, he was spotted by bookie Sammy Wilson; Wilson was to turn the rugged into the diamond that eventually won world honours. Starting to learn his craft in carnival booths as well as the gym Wilson opened, the New Polytechnic at 49 Clyde Place, Lynch began a training regime that took few prisoners. Runs up the famous Cathkin Braes, sparring 20 rounds per day were added to exercises designed to strengthen Lynch’s scrawny neck. There were even tales of him dipping his fists in brine collected every night from a local fishmonger – such stories begat legends.
It created a small man with huge punching power, and after his debut in 1931, where he stopped Young Bryce, Lynch went on a rollercoaster ride of a career. Lynch lost plenty of early contests, though in 1933 he fought 17 times! And four years after his debut, Benny Lynch was to become Scotland’s first world champion.
Ranked in the top boxers of all time by BoxRec and Ring magazine, he was a flyweight, born just before the beginning of the First World War in 1913; his life was cut off within one year of the end of the Second. The esteem in which he was held led in 1986 being elected to the Ring’s Hall of Fame and then inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame two years later.
His first title fight was for the Scottish flyweight title at the Olympic Sports Ground in his home city when he beat Jim Campbell on points in a tough 15 rounds – we make tough wee guys. He rematched Campbell in Cathkin Park for the same title, winning again on points not long after. Then in 1935, in Manchester, he took the British, European and world flyweight titles from Jackie Brown. Lynch dropped Brown no fewer than 10 times before the fight was stopped in the second round! They had fought a draw 6 months beforehand, and even though the rematch was in Manchester, the crowd was sizably enhanced by an early version of the Tartan Army!
Returning home by train, Glasgow Central Station held thousands waiting to welcome their hero’s return.
In 1936, Lynch fought 9 times, winning all 9 including a title defence by knocking out Pat Palmer, and winning the Lonsdale Belt outright, at Shawfield Park, Glasgow.
With the shadow of war and Nazi Germany to the east of us, in amongst us was the man we adored. What we did not realise was that he too had demons and those demons would end up destroying him.
There came hints in 1936/7.
In his fight with Gaston Maton, he missed weight, then in Belfast Jimmy Warnock beat him. He was then apparently sued for the sum of £2,000 by the man who had guided his career, Samuel Wilson for alleged breach of contract – Lynch countersued, but the truth was that this only promoted instability and would not help prepare Lynch for bigger and better fights.
Then came his biggest fight…
At the beginning of 1937, at the Empire Pool in Wembley, London, Filipino, Small Montana, the man the Americans called the world flyweight champion met Lynch in the centre of the ring to decide who was actually the world flyweight champion. Sanctioned by the National Boxing Association, the fight went the full 15 rounds. Lynch won on points.
Benny Lynch was world champion.
It could be argued there was only one way for Lynch to go. However, Benny Lynch decided he would take the escalator, before it was widely available to mere mortals, and he began careering down it, his career increasingly behind him.
Trouble began to appear more regularly – a disqualification against Len Hampston when the second entered the ring, though his popularity saw 10,000 turn up to watch him train before his fight with an undefeated Peter Kane where he defended both his British and world titles. Then he got knocked out… in a car crash, then came a second fight with Kane where Lynch failed once more to make weight and paid a forfeit.
Lynch was also arrested. Driving a car when drunk, he hit a telegraph pole and a pram with a 12-week-old baby inside. He had fled from the scene, but his trial was delayed so he could face Jackie Julrich to defend his world title.
Lynch lost his title, though he beat Jurich, stopping him in the 12th round but again he had failed to make the weight and was stripped of his crown. Later he was fined £20 and banned from driving for a year.
Lynch was now firmly in the end game of his career and his life: in the firm grip of his alcoholism.
In 1939 the British Boxing Board of Control piled on more pressure as they removed his licence due to him not passing their fitness test; he was 26 years of age. They had already stripped him of both the British and European titles, against which he unsuccessfully appealed. The National Sporting Club got involved and tried to help him, and then he was sent to a monastery near Waterford in Ireland. He was unable to get sober by sport or in spirit.
In 1939 as we were in the grip of the greatest battle of the Twentieth Century, Lynch was battling with everyone. Having gone missing during a training camp he was found half a mile from his Stirlingshire training base in pyjamas and a dressing gown, suffering from hypothermia. Further charges were laid against him of assaulting family and police officers, then came the Inland Revenue, before being fined for being drunk in 1940, and then in 1942 he was charged with offences against children.
In his final fight, on the 3rd of October 1938, he was knocked out for the first time in his career in a ring, but his final knockout blow came in 1946. The streets of Glasgow came to a standstill as this giant of a wee man, who died of malnutrition and respiratory failure, was laid to rest at St Kentigern Cemetery. 2,000 people attended his funeral.
Unfortunately, it is a familiar Scottish tale. Lynch rose from his childhood in the Gorbals’ slums, to boxing success then global stardom, which led ultimately to his demise and untimely death in 1946. Perhaps we Scots like wee hard men and a good hard luck story and that is why, along with the nod to Dick McTaggart, Evan Armstrong, Ken Buchannan, Burns, Taylor and whoever comes next, we shall remember the man who started our love affair with the sport.
More articles by Donald C Stewart
