Willard Mullin - 1944 Boxing Cartoon - Beau Jack & Bob Montgomery

Beau Jack (1921-2000, born Sidney Walker) and Bob Montgomery (1919-1988), both born in the south, were lightweight division world champion boxers in the 1940s. Jack and Montgomery fought each other a total of four times, each boxer winning one championship fight from the other. This cartoon by the great Willard Mullin was drawn previous to their third fight, which was a Madison Square Garden in NYC, on March 3, 1944. Mullin briefly recaps the results of the first two fights, mentioning at the bottom, "...and Friday night at the Garden they run the string up to 45 rounds..." Montgomery wound up winning that fight in a 15 round split decision.

Jack and Montgomery's most famous fight was their fourth and last one, held on August 4, 1944, also at Madison Square Garden. Known as "The War Bond Fight", both men, who were privates in the Army at the time, donated all of the gate receipts to the War Bond drive. Additionally, tickets were only made available to folks who purchased war bonds. Some folks left tickets for servicemen at the ticket window. In all, the fight raised over $36,000,000 for war bonds, with nearly 16,000 bonds being sold. Jack took the fight on points in 10 rounds, with Joe Louis watching from the front row.

This cartoon is a bit different from Mullin's work, in that he incorporated much more tonal work in the piece. The line work is rather sparse, as he used it to support the litho crayon tones on the Coquille board. A wonderful montage image by the Dean of Sports Cartoonists.