Harry Wallach: Conqueror of Jackie Fields

Dominant amateur Harry Wallach made the 1924 U.S. Olympic team as a featherweight, but never got the chance to compete in Paris. After the disappointment of the Games, Wallach turned pro and stitched together a noteworthy nine-year career as a contender.

Harry Wallach was born on March 20, 1907 in Brooklyn, New York. Or maybe he was born on May 17 that year, as his 1924 immigration form states. Either way, he lived on 462 Bradford Street in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn. Harry was introduced to boxing by his uncle Dr. Louis Wallach, a well-known dentist. Uncle Louis was well-known because he was also a future Hall of Fame boxer who fought from 1905-1921. Nicknamed "The Fighting Dentist" and using the pseudonym Leach Cross, he was idolized by the Jewish boys of New York, including the great Benny Leonard.

Leach's nephew Harry trained in a local gym in East New York. Beecher's Gymnasium was run by a fellow Jew, ex-boxer Willie Beecher, whose brother Charlie joined him in running the enterprise. Wallach first appeared in the newspapers early in 1923 when he won an amateur tournament at 118 pounds. Amateur opponents couldn't deal with the power-punching southpaw. Wallach later swept through the competition at Madison Square Garden to win the New York state featherweight title.

Harry was so dominant as an amateur, he not only beat all of his opponents, he also knocked out most of them. Only the flu could stop Wallach, who doctors deemed medically unable to fight in a local qualifier to make the Olympic trials in 1924. Because of his impressive amateur record, he was given an opportunity to fight in the national championships in Boston two weeks later in late May.

Wallach made it to the semifinals of the featherweight tournament when he faced the hottest rising star in amateur boxing: Jackie Fields. Wallach posed two problems for young Fields: Fields had re-broken his right hand and Wallach was a southpaw. "I never fought a southpaw before," Fields recalled. "He walked out and I said, 'Hey, turn around. You're fighting wrong.'"

Wallach beat Fields by decision and went on to face Fields's best friend, Joe Salas, in the finals. Harry came up short, but in 1924 countries were allowed to send two boxers in each weight class. As a runner-up at nationals, which also served as the Olympic trials, Wallach was all but assured of a spot on the Olympic team.

The coach of the U.S. boxing team, Spike Webb, made the strange decision to take four featherweights aboard the USS America, bound for Paris, France. Wallach, Fields, Salas, and Patsy Ruffalo set sail on June 16, 1924. On the ship. Fields beat Ruffalo, who would experience internal injuries and was rushed to a French hospital upon arrival in Europe. That left three featherweights: two competitors and one alternate. Joe Salas had won the national title, so he made the team. It seemed as if Wallach would be the second featherweight entry and Fields the alternate.

Once in Paris, the U.S. team trained at Raquencourt. Fields remembered, "I fooled around, not training diligently, because I didn’t think I was going to fight." Assistant coach Al Lacey alerted Fields that Webb was going to pit Fields and Wallach against each other for the right to make the team. Salas helped Fields with how to fight a lefty. After their sparring, Webb picked Fields. Wallach, 17 years old at the time, must have been crushed.

Fields went on to beat Salas in the Olympic final, the youngest boxer ever to win gold. He received glory and fame; Wallach, who had beaten Fields two months earlier at the trials, could only watch. He never got the chance to fight at the Olympics, though he did battle in an exhibition in Paris. The papers would later report he didn't fight because he came down with an illness as a way so he could save face.  Wallach arrived back home with the rest of the team on August 6, 1924 via the USS America.

Harry turned pro on September 10 against Arnold Ryan. Wallach looped a left in the second round to score a knockdown and carried the fight the rest of the six rounds. He then fought seven times in two months beginning on November 3. His only loss in the stretch came to the experienced Sid Rabin. Wallach then won ten fights in a row over the next six months.

Frank Churchill managed Wallach. Churchill conjured up a headshot of his charge with the title "conqueror of Jackie Fields" written on top. Churchill was an associate of feared mobster Owney Madden, a major bootlegger. Churchill and Madden collaborated to guide the farcical career of future heavyweight champion Primo Carnera.

In the summer of 1925, Churchill took Wallach on a west coach swing. He was in tough against Billy Wallace and Tod Morgan, Wallach's two losses on the trip. Churchill tried to arrange a blockbuster rematch against Fields, but the Olympic gold medalist was a sought-after man. It would've been a natural fight for Wallach, but not so much for Fields, who was chasing a popular young fighter named Jimmy McLarnin. Fields would go on to win the welterweight world championship twice and become a Hall of Famer.

Though Churchill was undoubtedly tied to gangsters, it didn't necessarily mean Wallach's fights were fixed. Boxers needed deep-pocketed backers, and gangsters were obvious choices. Welterweight contender Ruby Goldstein explained that all top boxers had mob sponsors in those days.

Wallach worked his way to Madison Square Garden during the summer of 1926. He fought there twice and both resulted in disappointing knockout losses. Against Harry Cook, Wallach put on a clinic before a thumb caught his eye and forced him to pull out in the seventh. Hilario Martinez blasted the New York southpaw out of the Garden for good in the second round of their September 30 fight. Harry lingered at lightweight for a few more fights before he moved up to 140 pounds by 1927.

The Ring rated Wallach as the eighth best junior welterweight in its 1929 February edition, but Harry couldn't quite get past the other top contenders. Bruce Flowers, Tommy Cello, Andy DiVodi, and Baby Joe Gans all bested him in the late 1920s. In 1928, he stopped Joey Silvers in the seventh round in a rematch. The two had faced off four years earlier, not in the ring but on the billiards table.

As a welterweight, Wallach dropped two decisions to Manuel Quintero in 1930. Harry won his share of fights, but not against top opponents. He moved up to middleweight by 1932 and was stopped by former welterweight world champion Tommy Freeman. Wallach retired from the ring in 1933. BoxRec lists his record as 55-21-4, including newspaper decisions. Though he was a puncher as an amateur, his power didn't transfer to the pro game. He stopped 13 foes and was halted six times. His southpaw stance, often treated like a case of the Spanish flu during his career, and his inability to get a signature win in the pro game, prevented his prizefighting career from reaching the heights that would've avenged his Olympic snub.

Wallach lived until the age of 62, passing away on January 30, 1970 in Los Angeles. In the last decades of his life, he was remembered as the conqueror of Jackie Fields, slighted from competing at the Olympics.

Sources
Acevedo, Carlos. "The Duke of the West Side: Owney 'Killer' Madden." Hannibal. 2019.

"Baker Stops Ryder; Wallach Wins Award Over Ryan." The Brooklyn Standard Union. Sep. 11, 1924. Pg. 14.

"Harry Wallach in Pro Debut at the Ridgewood." The Brooklyn Citizen. October 26, 1924. Pg. 16.

"Harry Wallach Picked to Win Olympic Title." Brooklyn Eagle. Jul. 10, 1924. Pg. 24.

Heller, Peter. "...In This Corner." 1994.

The Ring. February 1929.

"Wallach and Silvers in Billiards Match." The Brooklyn Standard Union. Oct. 3, 1924. Pg. 17.

"Wallach, Stopped by a Thumb, Will Return to Ring Soon." Brooklyn Eagle. Aug/ 1, 1926. Pg. 38.