January 24, 1920

Boxer Bob York, whose real name was George Dewey and was from Pueblo, Colorado,
died in Fort Worth, Texas.

February 28, 1924

A popular former middleweight fighter from St. Louis, "Banker" Johnny Kern passed
away in his hometown at 33 years of age.  The newspaper indicated that Kern was "not of
a championship class," he was a hard puncher, and always gave it his best.  He had
some memorable fights against Mann Dugan of Plainview, Illinois and Nick Taylor of
Belleville.

February 24, 1928

A lightweight boxer 20 years earlier, Willie Fitzgerald (William Fitzgerald) died in
Brooklyn at the age of 40.

February 22, 1928

Two boxers died in England as a result of separate fights.  George Cairney died in
Edinburgh after collapsing during the fifth round of a fight and Bill Blake died in
Southampton after a bout on February 13.

February 7, 1933

Longtime manager of fighters, Hyman Cantor passed away in Sydenham Hospital in New
York City at 47 years of age.  He was survived by his widow Sadie, brother Joseph, and
sister Rose.  He was originally from Russia.  He boxed as a lightweight and later trained
Stanley Ketchel, Willie Beecher, Ben Touchstone, Ruby Goldstein, Leach Cross, and Joe
Bedell.

February 23, 1934

Former manager of Georges Carpentier, Francois Descamps passed away in Paris,
France at 59 years of age.

January 24, 1943

Joe Choynski, a California boxer who went 20 rounds with Jim Jeffries, and known
during the bare-knuckle era, passed away at the age of 74 in Cincinnati.

September 23, 1946

Raymond Vidal of New York City passed away two hours after being knocked out by Red
McGrath in a fight at the Valley Arena in Holyoke, Massachusetts.  Vidal was a lightweight
fighter and his KO came in the third round of a four round engagement.

January 1, 1954

65 year old Tommy Ginty, a famous lightweight boxer in the 1910s, passed away in
Scranton, Pennsylvania.  Ginty reportedly had around 250 matches, and could have
annexed the championship had he not had broken bones in his right hand.

April 5, 1976

Nearly five days after being injured in a Sydney, Australia boxing match against Hector
Thompson, American Chuck Wilburn died.  He was 23 years old.  He had been knocked
out in the match and never regained consciousness.  Wilburn was from Cleveland.









Research by Tim Hornbaker
Boxing Obituaries