Best referees of late 19th-early 20th century.

1917-11-03 The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, PA) (page 14)

WHITE REFEREED MANY GREAT FIGHTS
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Well-Known Official Who Is Critically Ill Was One of Ring's Famous Judges. Counted Out Several Champions.
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BY JOE VILA.

Referee Charley White, who lies critically ill at his home in New York, did much for the boxing game. He refereed some of the biggest ring battles and gave general satisfaction. White's honesty was his most valuable asset. He withstood temptation when the sport fell into the hands of gamblers and crooks. Yet, like other square ring officials, White was victimized by the sure thing manipulators. He knew nothing of the Maher-Morrissey frameup when he stepped into the ring with those greatly over-rated Irishmen at the old Lenox A. C. But as soon as he had counted Morrissey out in less than fifteen seconds of the first round, White denounced the alleged fight as a cold-blooded fake.

White was kept entirely in the dark when he accepted the offer to referee the Corbett-McCoy fiasco in the Garden. He counted McCoy out in the fifth round, believing that the latter had been honestly defeated. When this affair was exposed a week later White was exonerated for the simple reason that his integrity never had been questioned.

White was the third man in the ring when the late Bob Fitzsimmons stopped Gus Ruhlin in six rounds in the Garden and two weeks later knocked out Tom Sharkey at Coney Island in the second round. White always regarded those battles as the most important over which he presided. When he counted ten fateful seconds over Terry McGovern in the second round at Hartford and then declared Young Corbett the winner, White saw one of his closest friends deprived of the featherweight title and a fortune.
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In the old days it was a tossup as to which was the more capable referee--White or George Siler, who died fifteen years ago. Siler was an ideal ring official--square and fair. He refereed the Corbett-Fitzsimmons battle at Carson City, also the Corbett-Jeffries and Sharkey-Jeffries combats at Coney Island. When Siler was in the act of counting Corbett out in the Carson City affair the latter's seconds claimed a foul. During the excitement around the ring when some hard citizens threatened all kinds of trouble, Siler did not lose his nerve. He declared Fitzsimmons champion heavyweight of the world and ignored the protests from the Corbett crowd. Siler, therefore, showed that he couldn't be bluffed, and at the same time he won the confidence of Fitzsimmons. As a result Fitz, still champion, named Siler to referee his fight with Jeffries at Coney Island. Siler was absolutely fair to both men, although he had to count the tenth second over the Cornishman in the eleventh round. White might have refereed this scrap if Siler had not been so highly regarded by Fitzsimmons.
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White was prevented from refereeing Jeffries' title bouts with Corbett and Sharkey at the Island by the intervention of ring politics. The principals admitted White's recognized impartiality, but the men behind these matches couldn't agree. So White had to give way to Siler in each instance. Siler would have been forced to hand the heavyweight championship over to Corbett on scientific points if Jeffries hadn't landed a left-handed sleep wallop in the twenty-third round. Corbett outboxed the big boilermaker by a wide margin up to that point, when he suddenly became careless. Jeffries caught him bounding off the ropes and quickly dropped him for the full count. After the battle Siler declared that he would have given the verdict to Corbett if the latter had been on his feet at the end of the twenty-fifth round.

Siler was unjustly panned for declaring Jeffries the winner over Sharkey in their memorable twenty-five-round encounter. Sharkey forced the issue for eighteen rounds, after which Jeffries began to administer terrific punishment in the body. He broke three of Sharkey's ribs and the burly tar was in serious trouble. Just after the twenty-fifth round began one of Sharkey's gloves came off and Siler called a halt until the mitt could be replaced. This accident probably saved Sharkey from a knockout.

When Siler decided the battle in Jeff's favor there was a howl, but the ruling was correct if only for the reason that Sharkey was taken to a Brooklyn hospital, while Jeffries, in less than half an hour was receiving congratulations in a neighboring saloon. Siler never refereed in the East after that. He was too honest.

In the same class with White and Siler was the late Timothy Hurst, but the latter didn't preside over any of the big heavyweight combats. Hurst was the soul of honor. He was competent and fearless. His most important engagement was at Maspeth, L. I., when Joe Walcott and Kid Lavigne put up the most sensational fight in the history of American pugilism. Hurst did not believe in stopping a glove bout when one of the principals was shedding blood. Consequently, he kept Lavigne in the ring in spite of the fact that the latter was cut into ribbons at the end of nine rounds. Hurst's refusal to interfere enabled Lavigne to score a memorable victory, for, in the fourteenth and fifteenth rounds, the lightweight champion had Walcott hanging on the ropes in a groggy condition. According to the conditions that governed the mill Lavigne had to stay fifteen rounds to win, so that Hurst's decision in his favor was inevitable. White, Siler and Hurst, in my opinion, were the best referees that ever officiated in this country. They worked hard to keep the sport clean, and it will be many years before they will be entirely forgotten.

1917-11-05 The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, PA) (page 14)

BY JOE VILA

I was in error when I said that George Siler refereed the Corbett-Jeffries fight at Coney Island. Charley White was the third man in the ring. White always regarded this battle as the most important over which he presided. Siler was among those considered by the principals when they were making the match, but White, being a New York man, finally got the plum. White was getting ready to hand his verdict to Corbett on points when Jeffries suddenly scored a clean knockout in the twenty-third round. Up to that stage of the mill Corbett had so much the better of it that he looked like a sure winner. If Corbett had been on his feet at the end of the twenty-fifth round White would have been compelled to hand the heavyweight title back to him. Such a decision would have been eminently fair, and White had the nerve required to decide the fight that way, but "Old Eagle Eye's" task was made easy when Jeff got in the big wallop.