Sport: Ring Death

Last week Max Baer, second rate California heavyweight, won a bout from Frankie Campbell, San Francisco Italian, by a knockout. In the second round Baer fell in Campbell’s corner, half-slipping, half knocked down. Campbell went to a neutral corner and stood with his back to his fallen opponent, looking out over the crowd. The referee ruled that Baer had slipped, motioned him to get up. Baer rushed across the ring and while Campbell stood with his back turned hit him terrific punches. “I feel as though something in my head had cracked,” Campbell told his handlers in the rest period. He fought back till the fifth round, the most brutal ever seen in a San Francisco ring, when Baer propped him. semiconscious, against the ropes and hit him at will for some time without interference from the referee. When Baer’s blows slowed to the extent of allowing him to fall, Campbell slipped forward on his side. He was counted out while the crowd stormed the ring trying to get at Referee Toby Irwin. Never regaining consciousness, Campbell died a few hours later because his brain had been snapped from its supporting tissue.