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Ringside Report Looks Back at Scottish Boxing World Champion Jackie Patterson (1920 -1966)

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By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

When you are but a child in Scotland you get history at school. When you are my age it was only British history that was taught. It makes you feel, somehow, that your own country does not have anything good enough to put in a text book.

That inferiority stays with you.

When you grow up, you have the opportunity to put childish things away.

But there are still things I never knew.

Each week I look over whatever assignment that Brad has given me the month before to view boxers of the past and who would merit not just a mention but a review in praise of their career. And then I look away. Just long enough to find other names from other places and I came across this week’s whilst I was doing that.

A history lesson as needed for a Scottish boxer of whom I was aware but not of his exploits…

Jackie Paterson, 63-25-3, 40 KO’s was a little man. Fighting at flyweight and bantamweight he was born in 1920 in the same county of Scotland in which I too was born, Ayrshire. His achievements included becoming World, Commonwealth and British champion at flyweight, and Commonwealth and European champion at bantamweight. In any era, this was an extraordinary achievement.

Tragically, like the one massive Scottish fighter of yesteryear, we all know and love, Benny Lynch, Paterson was to suffer the same fate as Lynch; an early death that was typified by a relationship to alcohol, and he added to that gambling. The difference being that Lynch died close to where he was born in Glasgow whilst Paterson lost his life well away in South Africa.

Born in 1920, his family took him to Pennsylvania when he was just 8 years old and emigrated for a better life. You have to wonder what in 1928 was so attractive in the USA but over he went. By the time he was a teenager, he was back in Scotland, working in the shipyards on the River Clyde and then he entered a gym to discover he had a gift. By the age of 17 he was a professional fighter and earning from that gift.

His professional career began in the Clydeside town of Greenock and it did not take long until he was getting his hands on the British belt by knockout, in Glasgow, at the Carntyne Greyhound track against Paddy Ryan on the 30th September 1939. We had already been at war with Germany for one month. Already the Scottish champion, he had won that belt in Dundee in May of the same year, Paterson fought Ryan in the open air with barrage balloons flying around the stadium. The referee allowed the fight to enter the 13th round but by then Ryan had taken punishment that led the referee to step in at that point and stop the contest.

It was at this point that some problems arose over his management as his manager, George Dingley hadn’t put up enough cash with the British Boxing Board of Control, the crowd had been much smaller than anticipated and it all led to Paterson going unpaid.

And we were now at the frightening phase of the Second World War.

During the war Paterson served in the Royal Air Force, rising to the rank of Sergeant but continued to box. In March 1940 he won the British Empire title (Now the Commonwealth title) against Richie “Kid” Tanner at the King’s Hall Manchester and winning on points. In 1941 he defended both in a rematch with Paddy Ryan in an ice rink in Nottingham before, in the same year going in at bantamweight to fight for the bantamweight Empire title which he lost on points in a fight at Hampden Park in Glasgow against Jim Brady.

His world title was to come when he fought Peter Kane, at Hampden Park in Glasgow for the vacant World Flyweight title. The fight was held back at Hampden Park and Kane, who had lost in 1937 to Benny Lynch in a world title challenge in Glasgow had much to be concerned about – he was fighting once more in Glasgow with a world title on the line. He had won the world title in 1938 against Californian Jackie Jurich. Kane had beaten Jurich so severely that Jurich had his little finger on his right hand amputated so he was able to handle himself – if you pardon the pun!

Paterson won it in one minute and one second after Kane was counted out from the second knock down as Paterson the British champion and Lonsdale belt holder was taking on the world number one. He was not number one any more at flyweight, Paterson was!

Jackie Paterson made history as the first southpaw to win a world flyweight title. Recognition for this world belt came from the NYSAC so his legacy appeared secure, especially as he had defended the British title twice, meaning he now owned a Lonsdale Belt outright.

Having lost his first attempt at a Commonwealth title to Jim Brady in 1941, four years later on the 12th September 1945, Paterson took him on again at the same venue as before, Hampden Park, and took the title on points. He then added the European title at that weight when he took on and beat Theo Medina in the Royal Albert Hall, London on the 19th March the following year. He defended the British and Commonwealth titles at flyweight as well as his European bantamweight title against Joe Curran, once again back at the Scottish National Stadium, Hampden Park. 45,000 came to see him win but he was drained making the weight and things were beginning to turn for the world champion. He moved up to bantamweight to try and help himself.

That European belt was to be lost in October, 1946 as he re-matched Theo Medina, once again at Hampden. The loss was a strange one as Paterson, unsteady from blows from medina swung wildly at him in the fourth round, fell onto the canvass and could not get up! His European belt was lost.

He continued to box for more years than was healthy though winning the British and Commonwealth bantamweight titles in 1947, in Haringay against Norman Lewis would make you think he was still very much at his peak. He was of course still the World flyweight champion.

The fact was that he was waning and finding it increasingly difficult to make the weight when he was due to defend his world title against Dado Marino he actually collapsed at the weigh in due to the efforts he had made to get down to the punishing eight stone limit at flyweight. He was unable to make weight. The National Boxing Association of America and the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBC) took his title away. The promoter called in John “Rinty” Monaghan to fight Medina instead but Monaghan proved to be a much lesser opponent and was disqualified for persistent holding.

Paterson though, was a proud Scot. He refused just to take this lying down and he appealed with a court injunction which stated that they could not hold a contest for the title without him. Winning back his titles in a court room meant he had now to defend them in the ring and strangely again it was against the man who had replaced him in the Marino fight. Once again Paterson struggled to get down to eight stone again but this time managed it without fainting at the weigh in. He lost his titles in the ring when he was stopped by Rinty Monaghan in the seventh round in Belfast in March of 1948.

Paterson had been wooed to go to Belfast by promoter Bob Gardiner, for a fight that would cement a trilogy between the two boxers – in previous contests both had won one apiece – with a very decent purse for the time – reputed to be £5,00. Paterson may not have fainted at the weight I but he was looking terrible. He was terrible. He was knocked out by Monaghan in the 7th round, unable to respond to the count. As well as his world title he also lost the Commonwealth and British belts.

Paterson had lost his flyweight titles, but he still held his bantamweight belts. He was still the British and Commonwealth champion but when he defended these against Stan Rowan in Anfield football ground, Liverpool a year later in March 1949, they went in a 15 rounds points decision and now he was now heading towards retirement.

Stubbornly, he was still a proud Scot, he held on and fought till finally retiring in 1950, coming back for one fight in 1951 and the settling in retirement in South Africa.

His death, came as a result of a fight after a drinking session where he was stabbed with a broken bottle, and died at the tender age of only 46. He was someone who had earned well in his career but a move to Detroit after retiring was followed by settling in South Africa where he ran hotels and worked as a lorry driver.

In a career that spanned such a tremendous amount of time, that included fights in football grounds and outdoor venues including the homes of Scottish clubs, Dundee United, Celtic, Clyde, Hibernian, and Hamilton academical, went to football grounds of Glentoran and Liverpool, and of course the National Stadium of Scotland as well as the Royal Albert Hall, the Kelvin Hall, the King’s Hall, the Palais De Sport in Paris and Wembley in Johannesburg, I now know more about the man who filled them with such grace.

As a gap in my own Scottish education is now filled, and I know of one proud Scot who was worthy of being in any textbook, I hope and trust that a gap you never knew you had has been filled too…

And now to the next assignment from “Bad” Brad…

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