HOLLANDERSKY, ABRAHAM

HOLLANDERSKY, ABRAHAM ("Abe the Newsboy "; 1887–1966). U.S. boxer credited with fighting more bouts than any other boxer in history; heavyweight champion of Panama. Hollandersky was born in Berznick, in the Russian Pale of Settlement, the son of a pants presser. His father immigrated to New London, Connecticut, to earn money to bring the rest of the family, which arrived when Hollandersky was seven. His father had gone blind, forcing Abe to support the family by selling newspapers to Navy men, who adopted him and taught him how to box. In 1906 President Teddy Roosevelt, reviewing the fleet aboard the presidential yacht Mayflower, was introduced to Hollandersky, who stood 5′ 4″. Roosevelt grabbed Hollandersky's ears playfully and said that lots of people believed "a Jew won't fight." Hollandersky promptly pummeled the president in the ribs. "My cauliflower ears showed that I could take it, and my jabs to his ribs showed I was boring in for more," Hollandersky wrote. When Roosevelt returned to the White House, he created a new post for Hollandersky: Newsboy of the Navy, permitting him to travel on any Navy ship anywhere in the world and sell newspapers. Hollandersky sold papers during the day and boxed at night, fighting exhibition rounds for the benefit of the Navy Relief, fighting 1,309 boxing matches and 387 wrestling matches between 1905 and 1918. His professional record was 4–3–1, with Hollandersky winning the Panama championship on August 11, 1913, and wrestling's welterweight championship in 1907, in a bout that took four hours and 18 minutes. He also took on animals, wrestling a muzzled bear in New York but losing to a kangaroo in Australia when the animal knocked Hollandersky out of the ring with his tail. Hollandersky is the author of The Life Story of Abe the Newsboy, Hero of a Thousand Flights, the Newsboy with the U.S. Navy (1930), which he published himself and reprinted many times.

[Elli Wohlgelernter (2^nd ed.)]