Johnny Coulon
The Cherry Picker From Logan Square
Bantamweight World Champion
In the first half of the twentieth century Canadian boxers seemed to do very well in Boxing’s lighter weight divisions. One of the first boxer’s from Canada to help Canadians shake their ingrained inferiority complex when it came to all things American was the great bantamweight world champion from Toronto, Ontario, Johnny Coulon.
Johnny Frederic Coulon was born February 12th, 1889 in Toronto, Canada’s most populous city. Toronto was also the home of America’s Sweetheart, silent screen star Mary Pickford. While Mary Pickford made her mark on the big screen, Johnny Coulon marked his spot in fistic history by dominating all comers in the squared circled in the early 1900’s.
Ironically, Johnny parents were American citizens by birth that had immigrated to Canada in search of a better life. Early on in Johnny’s childhod, his parents, father Emile Eugene Coulon (1857-1911), and his beloved mother Sarah Loretta Waltzinger (1857-1923), decided to move the family to Chicago to improve their job possibilities and meagre stations in life. Growing up in turn-of-the-century Chicago provided Johnny with plenty of opportunities for mischief and mayhem. In Chicago in the early part of the last century, kids who could fight ended up in street gangs or in boxing.
Johnny found out at a very young age that although many young boys fought out of necessity to provide food for their family, or to protect their turf, he actually loved to fight. He also seemed to win much more often than he lost. This transplanted Canadian possessed something most of the other broken nose toughs didn’t have. Johnny Coulon had skill and agility to go along with his ever-present moxie. He also had tremendous hand and foot speed. There’s an old adage in sports that says, “speed never slumps.” In boxing that translates into a simple equation. He who lands first and often usually wins. Now take all those physical advantages and then mix it with the final ingredient – smarts – and you have a fighter that’s almost impossible to beat. Early on critics would always praise Coulon’s ring smarts. Smarts wins you fights, guts get you hurt. Boxing is controlled fury. Control comes from discipline, something Johnny had in abundance.
Chicago has always been a wonderful fight town and back then in the early 1900’s was no exception. Johnny proved so adept at fisticuffs that he was urged to turn pro at the tender age of 16. Hey, as the old saying goes, if you are going to get punched in the face on a regular basis, you might as well get paid for it. Given Johnny’s skills and supreme confidence, he was usually the one dishing it out. Coulon believed that when it came to pushing leather it was far better to give than to receive.
Coulon became known as “The Cherry Picker from Logan Square,” at the start of his career. The nickname was colorful and helped to keep him in the public’s mind between matches. Having the public on your side is half the battle in arranging the fights you want and need to further your ring career.
Coulon’s rise up the bantamweight rankings was meteoric. It is incredible to contemplate that he turned pro at 16 and a mere five years later at 21, he was the bantamweight champion of the world! So many fighters toil for years before getting a title shot, if they even get one at all. The only way to achieve such success in five short years is to keep the public behind you, and your opponents below you on the canvas.
Coulon set a blazing pace to begin his career, rattling off 26 consecutive victories before finally coming down to earth. Kid Murphy punched his way to a ten round decision over Coulon. In a much-anticipated 1908 rematch with Murphy, Coulon used all his boxing savvy to avenge his only loss thus earning recognition as the bantamweight champion of America.
Coulon went on to annex the world bantamweight championship when he defeated England’s Jim Kendrick in 19 hard fought rounds on March 6th, 1910. As Kendrick was from England and recognized universally as the champion bantamweight of his time, Coulon’s victory reinforced his claim for universal recognition as bantamweight world champion.
Coulon went on to successfully defend his title many times. He defeated such top bantamweights of his era as Earl Denning, power-punching Harry Forbes, Frankie Conley, Frankie Burns and the always-tough Kid Williams. Coulon was always proud of the fact that he faced three futures hall-of-famers during his career. The aforementioned Kid Williams, the immortal Pete Herman (whose fame eclipsed Coulon’s) and ring legend Charley Goldman, who is probably best known for training Rocky Marciano.
Johnny Coulon was trained and managed by his father Eugene, known affectionately in boxing circles as, “Pops.” Pops Coulon trained many other fighters too but his main focus was always on his son Johnny. You don’t really make money in boxing until after you win a world title. His father knew this and always took pains to protect his best investment.
Coulon’s magic championship carpet ride atop of the bantamweight division came to a sudden, clubbing end, when Kid Williams, whom he had defeated years earlier, stretched Coulon for the full ten when he knocked him cold in three rounds in 1914.
Coulon served his adopted country well during World War I, often teaching his fellow American soldiers the finer points of the art of self-defense. After his tour of duty during World War I ended, he fought a couple of more times and retired from the ring in 1920 with a record of 97 career bouts, with 56 wins, 24 of which came via the KO route. He had 4 losses, 4 draws and 32 fights that were ruled no contest, in accordance with the law at the turn of the last century.
Boxing careers that rise as swiftly as Coulon’s usually peter out quickly and end sadly. This wasn’t the case with Coulon, who fought at the highest levels of his sport from 1905 to 1920. Coulon’s career longevity is even more remarkable when you consider that boxing was not even legal in most parts of the United States, during his hey day.
Although boxing gradually was becoming more socially accepted it was still not condoned or even protected by law until 1920 with the introduction of the Walker Law, which led to the formation of the New York State Athletic Commission. By this time, however, Johnny Coulon had retired from the prize ring. Coulon always claimed to have had well over three hundred professional fights in his career, although this is hard to verify. The official record book lists him as suffering only 4 defeats in 97 total career bouts.
Coulon’s claim of over 300 pro bouts may very well have been closer to the truth than we realize as it is almost impossible to track down all of a fighter’s bouts from that era. Records back then were not kept as meticulously as they are today. Coulon often fought several times a night and sometimes 20 or 30 times a month! Some fights were deliberately under the table back then with fighters using aliases, thereby allowing them to earn extra purse money without having to share it with Uncle Sam or their managers.
Sometimes fighters filled in for other fighters, as a favor. He main reason Guys fought under the table is because this was their job and then wanted to get all the money they could while they were still able. There were hundreds of little boxing hamlets scattered all throughout the United Staes. If they were offering you some dough for an easy tune-up fight, hell, why not take their money? The quieter they kept it the better for all involved. The more people who knew, the more people there were to pay off to keep them from going to the authorities.
In retirement, Johnny Coulon did not shy away from the public spotlight. His retirement from boxing coincided with the golden years of vaudeville. There was a lot of money to be made for an undisputed world-boxing champion whose name still carried prestige with the public nationwide.
Coulon performed the same stupefying physical feat every night to the constant amazement of each audience. He would strip down to his waist and appear on stage. Now, given that he was a bantamweight. Coulon was just five feet tall and maybe 112 pounds soaking wet. Simply put, he dared anyone in the audience to simply come onstage and lift him up. No one ever managed to call his bluff. To say audience members were confounded was an understatement. He later revealed that whenever anyone tried to lift him, he would grab their neck (as if to balance himself) and, surreptitiously pinch a nerve in their neck, momentarily immobilizing them.
Johnny was smart and waited to after his boxing career to marry Marie Maloney in 1921. Mary never saw Johnny fight. This proved to Johnny that she genuinely loved him for himself and not for his fame. Along with Johnny she ran Coulon’s Gymnasium on the tough South Side of Chicago. Marie was the business manager, an arrangement still preferred by many smart husbands today. The list of fighters who trained at Coulon’s in Chicago reads like roll call at the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Champions such as Joe Louis, Jim Braddock, Sugar Ray Robinson and The Greatest, Muhammad Ali all showed off their fistic talents under the gym lights at Coulon’s Gymnasium.
In fact, in answer to the often-asked question, “What did Muhammad Ali do with himself while in exile?” He could always be found almost daily at Coulon’s Gymnasium staying fit and sharp.
Johnny Coulon was also a topnotch boxing trainer with a keen eye for spotting up and coming talent. He was the manager of former welterweight world champion Eddie Perkins and fringe light-heavyweight contender Allen Thomas.
Johnny Coulon’s circle of friends was as eclectic as it was wide. For instance, whenever he was in Chicago, Ernest Hemingway would always visit Coulon’s gym to kibbitz with Johnny about the old days and, to spar with some of the fighters hanging around the gym. Boxing artist leroy neiman would always bring his canvas and easel to Coulon’s gym where he would spend days at a time sketching various boxers, some famous, some not.
Johnny Coulon is immortalized on screen in the cult classic Medium Cool, which shot some scenes at his gym.
Johnny was unique for turn of the century boxers in that he never drew a color line in or out of the ring. He accepted people on merit. He was a very close friend of world heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson. When Johnson ran into tough times and was abandoned by most of his entourage, he could always count on the financial support and friendship of Johnny Coulon. Coulon was one of the few white people who frequented Johnson’s Chicago restaurant, Café de Champion. Johnny was even a pallbearer at Johnson’s funeral, heartbroken though he was.
Johnny Coulon was a reknowned boxing historian. He was there in the heyday of the gloved era and hee proudly reminded reporters and fans that he knew every heavyweight champion of the world from John L. Sullivan to Joe Frazier.
Johnny Coulon was the exception to the rule for retired prizefighters. He was not forced to live out his remaining days in some old, dilapidated room in some broken down old tenament building, living off of handouts from others.
He became more famous with each passing year during his retirement, becoming a celebrity in Chicago, revered for his achievements in the ring and his compassion and kindness out of it. By the 1960’s Johnny Coulon was a living legend in Chicago, a warm link to a better time. Johnny retained his mental and physical faculties all of his life. In fact, when he 75 year-old, he would stun onlookers in his gym, leaving a boxing ring by jumping over a top rope and landing safely and calmly on his feet.
He accepted a bet on his 80th birthday and walked the entire length of his gym on his hands. This Canadian giant of the prize ring went down for the final count of ten in 1973 at the age of 84. He lies in rest at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Chicago.