The sod house boxing champion

Two of the early pioneers to Southwest Nebraska were A.P. McCarty, and his first wife, Maggie Scott McCarty. A.P. (Aaron) McCarty was an adventurous sort of fellow, and in 1886 he moved from the relative ease of Ohio to make his fortune in the Irish community south of Trenton.

Together, they took a tree claim, a homestead, and later a pre-emption, and built their 12-foot x 18-foot sod house in the area known as Wild Horse Canyon.

By 1886 the days of the Wild West were gone. Indian battles, trail herds, roundups and wild horse hunting had been replaced by the problems of wresting a living off the land. Social events were numerous in the community. A.P. McCarty liked to talk, and made quite a name for himself as a debater in the "Upper Driftwood Literary Society," which met regularly during the winters in the late '80s.

At first, crops were good for Mr. and Mrs. McCarty and their neighbors. They settled in and started their family. By 1892, life was good. They were the parents of a daughter, Hazel, and a son, Luther (Lute). However, a year later Mrs. McCarty died, giving birth to a stillborn son. Since there was no woman in the home, the two surviving children were taken in by two of McCarty's good neighbors, Mr. & Mrs. John Houlahan, while A. P. worked away in his fields of broom corn. But to compound Mr. McCarty's troubles, Southwest Nebraska was hit by a severe drought in the early '90s that thrust the region into a prolonged depression.

McCarty tried to wait out the drought, and hung on for a few years, until the bank would no longer lend him money. Then he took his two children to Lincoln, where he landed a job on the railroad.

It wasn't long before McCarty realized that working on the railroad was no job for him. He used his talent for speech (his gift of gab), and reinvented himself, as "Chief White Eagle," the Medicine Man, and began peddling a "Cure-all" Medicine, by horse and covered wagon through the towns and countryside of the Republican Valley. For a time son, Lute, accompanied his father and assisted him in the Medicine Shows. But after his father remarried in 1904 Lute left the Medicine Show and returned to their native Ohio.

By 1910, Lute, now 18 years old, decided to go west to lead his life as a cowboy. He had become a strapping lad, well over six feet tall, weighing 200 pounds. He found work on a farm in Montana, as an itinerant farmhand, breaking horses.

Boxing was a popular sport in Montana at the time. That first winter he began boxing with some of the locals, and soon caught the eye of the local fight promoters. On Jan. 7, 1911, in his first recorded fight, he knocked out another unknown fighter in the second round, and thus began an upward spiral, which would last for another two and a half years.

Though Lute McCarty's boxing career was short, it was spectacular. That winter he had bouts in Montana, North Dakota, and Canada, fighting five times, winning five fights, by knockouts. By 1911, the bare-knuckle fighting had become a thing of the past, and professional fights were conducted according to the Marquis of Queensberry rules, which are pretty much the rules followed today.

The difference then was that most bouts were not judged by awarding fighters points, so bouts that were not ended with a knockout were declared draws, or no-decisions.

Soon after Lute's professional career began to show promise he acquired the services of the legendary boxing trainer, William Leo "Billy" McCarney, as his manager. (McCarney later, in the '30s, became one of the German fighter, Max Schmeling;s American managers, and still later, he was one of Joe Louis' associates.)

About that same time, Lute McCarty's father, A.P., joined his team. With McCarney's boxing know-how, and Lute's father's showmanship, the young fighter embarked on a very colorful, if short, boxing career.

In all, Lute fought nine bouts in 1911, winning seven by knockouts. The other two were declared no-decisions. In 1912, there were 12 bouts. He won eight of the matches with knockouts. The other four were no-decisions. One of the no-decisions was against Jess Willard, who later would become a world champion. On New Year's Day, 1913, Lute McCarty fought and defeated Al Palzeer. This victory brought him the title of "White Champion," which brought him great notoriety. His every word and deed meant newspaper headlines -- thanks in no small part to the publicity work done by his father.

A.P. McCarthy worked tirelessly generating publicity. He went along on Lute's tour of major cities, wearing the most expensive suits and carrying a gold-headed cane -- talking endlessly about his "ranch" in Wild Horse Canyon, in Nebraska. He flooded the cities they toured with publicity shots of Lute -- as a "bronco busting cowboy" -- of Lute wrestling a bear -- of Lute wearing a tuxedo -- and of Lute posing with his father and step-mother. His cowboy outfits were outlandish, things to be seen rather than believed. News stories referred to him as "The Cowboy Boxer," and "The Sod House Boxing Champ." He fought frequently, but the bouts he fought were in the nature of exhibitions.

After the Palzeer fight Lute McCarty spent so much time on his publicity tour that the national sports writers complained that he was not willing to fight a major opponent. Finally, in May, 1913, manager, McCarney obliged the press by arranging a bout with the British Champion, Arthur Pelkey, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The arena was packed for the fight, with over 7,000 fans in Calgary's new sports center.

The fight lasted less than one minute. Pelkey drew McCarty off guard and threw a mighty blow to the left side of his head. McCarty sank to the floor. Boos filled the arena, but the Champion from Wild Horse Canyon, Nebraska, did not move. Doctors arrived, and all was chaos. Nine minutes after he hit the floor he was declared dead.

A jury later decreed that McCarty had died from a brain hemorrhage, caused by a fall from his horse in Central Park earlier in the spring.

Before Lute McCarty's last fight he had planned to visit Trenton, to erect a marker at his mother's grave. The trip was never made but through the efforts of Mrs. Grace Riley, a grave marker was erected in 1988 for the first Mrs. McCarty and her infant son.

Lute McCarty himself, is buried in the Forest Hill Cemetery, in Piqua, Ohio. The monument at the head of his grave reads, "He Knew No Wrong", and at the foot of his grave, "The Champion Rests."

Billy McCarney spent more than 40 years in the fight business, and was involved, in various capacities, with scores of the top-notch fighters over that period of time. Shortly before his death in 1948 he was asked to rate the heavy weight fighters that he had known. Number one on his list was Luther (Lute) McCarty, from Trenton, Nebraska.

Source: A Century of Progress, Trenton, NE, 1885-1985, compiled by the Hitchcock County Historical Society, Marie Upton and Angie Bowman