Sport: Secret Sport

Illegal in every State except Florida, the ancient sport of fighting gamecocks—a sport that fascinated George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and other famed Americans—still persists throughout the U. S., followed by hundreds of thousands of devotees. Last year more than 1,000 “mains”* were held in the 48 States, nearly $5,000,000 changed hands at the pitside (in bets and admission fees), and some 20,000 respectable U. S. citizens (from ministers to politicians) subscribed to the four national magazines published for the dissemination of cocking news.

Bound together by their common passion for the courage of the gamecock, the coast-to-coast cocking fraternity ranges from millionaires to moochers. Top crust are the socialite members of exclusive cock clubs who hold tournaments on their estates for a pedigreed handful of their friends. Bottom crust are the bands of shady promoters who operate in sinister back-road barnyards or city hideaways— sometimes traveling in a circuit with a portable pit that folds up as simply as a bridge table. But 90% of the U. S. cocking fraternity are plain, everyday citizens.

Fifty years ago, before cockfights became the target for reformers, New Or-leans—and its interstate mains in the old Spanish pit—was the mecca for cocking fans. Today the No. 1 event is the $8,000, four-day Orlando Tournament, held the last week in January. The tournament is open to any reputable cocker who thinks his batch of birds are worth risking the $500 entrance fee. Only 16 entries are accepted, however, the 16 owners each entering 15 cocks—one for each of the 15 regulation weight divisions ranging, in two-ounce jumps, from 4 lbs. 12 oz. to 6 lbs. 2 oz.

But the backbone of U. S. cockfighting are the sub rosa hack fights and mains. What went on at an abandoned farmhouse outside Fayetteville, N. C. last week was typical of hundreds of bootleg cockfights that will take place every Saturday and Sunday this winter. Some 250 fans, who had reached the rendezvous by secret signs, sat on tiers of benches around a sand-covered circular pit. Eagerly they watched two handlers with bright-colored cocks on their arms advance to the centre of the pit, let their fighters peck at one another to get up their dander. There were no bookmakers. Bets (some as high as $100) were verbal, made with one’s neighbor on the basis of the cocks’ breeding or their fighting spirit in the centre of the pit. Then, at a command from the referee, the handlers returned to opposite sides of the pit, crouched down and, at the command “Pit your cocks,” let their birds go. In a split second the cocks were five feet in the air. beak to beak. They lit and leaped again, dancing up & down in a swirl of feathers, the lightning death strokes of their steel gaffs* too quick for the human eye.

Gamecocks kill each other with thrusts of their legs. There are two types of fighters: the shuffler (who strikes as rapidly as his legs can move) and the single-stroker (who waits for an opening, then knocks out his opponent with a well-placed stab). Some matches are over in five seconds, others last 45 minutes; but a really game cock never quits until he can crow over his dead opponent—or is dead himself.

Like prize fighters in their ring technique, cocks train for their fights too. For two weeks before a match a cock is put “in keep.” His road work consists of being “run”‘ around a mat. He is ”bounced” strenuously in his trainer’s hands, gets daily sun baths, rubdowns, and a special diet. Twice during training cocks are given workouts with sparring partners, their spur-stumps covered with leather boxing gloves instead of steel gaffs.

Unlike prize fighters, however, few fighting cocks rise above anonymity. The strain of cock, rather than the individual, becomes famed. One of the few immortal U. S. cocks is Jaybird, a Red Cuban, who in 1898 won $10,000 in a single fight, is said to have crowed over 27 opponents (a survivor of five fights is considered a veteran) before old age finally retired him.

*There are three kinds of cockfights: hacks (single matches), mains (series of matches arranged by two owners), tournaments (series between cocks of several owners).

*Steel gaffs (or heels) are the fighting cock’s ring weapons: curved spikes fastened over the sawed-off stumps of their natural spurs. Southerners like long heels, short fights. Northerners like short heels, long fights.