by Chris Boucher
“It was rough but worth it.” Those were the words Bucky Lew used to describe the grief he took integrating pro basketball in an interview he gave a Springfield Union reporter late in life. But exactly how rough the game was then likely goes way beyond our understanding of the term.
In those days, fistfights were often treated as simple fouls. That might not sound so bad considering the fighting skills of today’s players, but some of the players in Lew’s day were also professional boxers. With skilled pugilists behind them, it’s understandable that many punches resulted in serious damage. And based on what happened to one basketball player who doubled as a fighter, one could have proven fatal.
The Lowell Courier Citizen reported on one game between Lowell’s two pro clubs with the headline: “Two Teeth Gone from Tighe’s Set—Devlin’s Blow Loosens Ivories in PAC-Burke Game.” The matchup involved the teams sponsored by the Pawtucketville Athletic Club and Burkes Temperance Institute.
After a player lost the ball in a scrum, “Devlin seemed to lose his head for a moment; his fist shot out and met Tighe’s mouth, knocking a bit off two of the PAC man’s teeth. Tighe was sent into dreamland for a few moments as a result of the blow.”
When the Lowell Sun later described the matchups between the cross-town rivals as bitterly-contested combats, it wasn’t an exaggeration: “In the days of the P.A.C.-Burkes combats many a fan forgot all about supper, so anxious was he to get to the hall and land a seat. By game time the hall was generally packed to its capacity. And the games were among the most bitterly contested ever seen in this city.”
The rules of the day almost seemed to encourage rough play. There were no free throws. Instead, a point was awarded to the fouled team every third time they took a hit—if it was called. And foul limits were often lifted so player expulsions didn’t disappoint fans. The results weren’t surprising. Fifty fouls were committed in one game, and Lew himself had 10 fouls in another.
The players took full advantage. In Cages to Jump Shots: Pro Basketball’s Early Years, Robert Peterson quotes early player Rody Cooney on their approach to the game: “It wasn’t a case of speed and brains…. It was more a case of brute force, hard tactics, and all the dirty tricks you could put into it without arousing the antagonism of the officials or spectators—more likely that of the latter, for the officials were not too strict.”
Lost teeth and consciousness was bad enough, but the outcome could be even worse. Pro boxing was more popular than basketball in those days, and the year before Lew joined the PAC, one of the club’s players was killed in a match.
John Dion was killed after a fight at the Knickerbocker Club in downtown Lowell’s Urban Hall in August of 1901. According to the Sun, in its story on the “Fatal Boxing Bout,” Dion was knocked out in the ninth round of what was supposed to be a 20-round fight. After a right-left-right combination, the final blow landed “on the point of the jaw and Dion went down like a log.” Doctors at ringside were unable to revive him and he was taken to St. John’s hospital, where he died a few hours later.
The opposing fighter, referee, and club owner were arrested by police and subject to a grand jury inquiry. Basketball may have played a role in raising the suspicions of authorities. Dion appeared on the roster of both of Lowell’s teams that season. He started with the Burkes, where he played with Billy Kelleher, the referee for the fight, before moving on to the PAC. All involved were ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing, however. They were released without charges after it was determined the fatal blow was not the result of a punch but from Dion’s head hitting the floor.
Chris Boucher is the author of “The Original Bucky Lew: Basketball’s First Black Professional.” He’ll be at the Lowell Book Company’s Boozy Book Fair at the Worthen House Cafe Wednesday at 6 pm. The book is available in local bookstores and on all platforms via books2read here: https://books2read.com/u/bwy6ze
