Speaker 1: It's the twenty seventh of October nineteen sixteen. The First
Speaker 1: World War has been raging for two years and won't
Speaker 1: come to an end for a couple more. In Australia,
Speaker 1: the nation is about to vote in a referendum on
Speaker 1: whether to introduce conscription for young men. The issue is
Speaker 1: hotly debated and the atmosphere in the country is tense.
Speaker 1: The government has even gone so far as to deny
Speaker 1: passports to men of military age to prevent them from
Speaker 1: fleeing overseas. It's in this political climate that sees a
Speaker 1: man named Les Darcy secretly stowed away on a ship
Speaker 1: bound for New York mere hours before his twenty first birthday.
Speaker 1: But Les isn't your everyday citizen. He's famous. He's Australia's
Speaker 1: raining heavyweight boxing champion. Hi. Welcome to the ballroom where
Speaker 1: we celebrate the winners, losers and the weird stuff between.
Speaker 1: I'm Tony Armstrong. Les Darcy was one of ten children
Speaker 1: in an Irish Catholic family. He was born in Maitland,
Speaker 1: New South Wales, and grew up with a love of boxing.
Speaker 1: It's one of our oldest sports, and in Less's day
Speaker 1: it was also one of the biggest and most profitable
Speaker 1: boxes were professional athletes known all around Australia. When Les
Speaker 1: was just twelve years old, he left school and went
Speaker 1: to work. Apparently child labor was still rife in those days.
Speaker 1: Initially he was a carter, someone who transports goods with
Speaker 1: a horse and cart. At fifteen, he became a blacksmith's apprentice.
Speaker 1: The physically demanding work swinging a hammer soon had Les
Speaker 1: developing a boxer's build. He challenged other kids in bare
Speaker 1: knuckle fights and he learned quickly. Standing at just five
Speaker 1: foot six, Les was small for a middleweight, but he
Speaker 1: made up for it with his strength and skill. Still
Speaker 1: fifteen years old, he won his first professional fight by
Speaker 1: knockout in the second round and was paid fifteen shillings.
Speaker 1: Les Darcy's boxing career took off immediately cue the montage.
Speaker 1: For the next three years, he went undefeated, winning seventeen
Speaker 1: fights from nineteen ten to nineteen thirteen. He was still
Speaker 1: a teenager, but Les had well and truly announced his arrival. Eventually,
Speaker 1: he was tested when he faced Bobby Whitelaw, the Australian
Speaker 1: welterweight champion. Bobby was in his early thirties. Les was
Speaker 1: just eighteen. It was November nineteen thirteen and a sold
Speaker 1: out crowd packed into a theater in Newcastle. Bobby was
Speaker 1: the clear favourite, having held his title for eight years,
Speaker 1: while Les was worse for wear. He'd injured his hands
Speaker 1: in a previous about just nine days earlier. You'll probably
Speaker 1: know what's coming, yep. Bobby Whitelaw won the match. It
Speaker 1: was a brutal encounter, but Les could hold his head high.
Speaker 1: He lasted an incredible twenty rounds, losing on points. The
Speaker 1: following March, a rematch was held in Maitland, Les's hometown.
Speaker 1: He wasn't going to let this opportunity pass him by.
Speaker 1: With the crowd on his side, Les knocked Bobby out
Speaker 1: in just five rounds and Australia had a new weld
Speaker 1: toweight champion. The next twelve months were up and down
Speaker 1: for Les. He won four straight matches before two defeats
Speaker 1: to American boxer Fritz Holland. Next up was an American
Speaker 1: Jeff Smith. When Le's complained about a low blow, the
Speaker 1: referee mistook his objection for quitting and automatically handed the
Speaker 1: win to Smith. That was a hard one to take
Speaker 1: for Les, but it was also the last time he
Speaker 1: would lose a match seriously. In a rematch with Jeff Smith,
Speaker 1: Les was given the win after Smith punched him in
Speaker 1: the groin. Oh, I guess he wasn't kidding with that
Speaker 1: low blow. From there, Les was in cruise control. He
Speaker 1: defeated challenger after challenger, including a whole bunch of middleweights.
Speaker 1: Seeking an even greater test, in nineteen sixteen, he took
Speaker 1: on the Australian heavyweight champion, Harold Hardwick, and he won.
Speaker 1: Les had fought above and beyond his weight class, proving
Speaker 1: that size really doesn't matter. He earned the nickname the
Speaker 1: Maitland Wonder bub for his boxing prowess and youthful looks.
Speaker 1: He'd become a national hero, especially among fellow working class
Speaker 1: Irish Catholics, but things were about to change. As the
Speaker 1: Great War passed the halfway mark, pressure was mounting on
Speaker 1: Australia to send more troops. Young Men were encouraged to
Speaker 1: volunteer and treated with suspicion if they refused. A fit
Speaker 1: and strong man like Les was an easy target for criticism,
Speaker 1: but the pressure on him to enlist was far greater
Speaker 1: than most Les was one of Australia's most famous and
Speaker 1: respected athletes, so it was believed that if he led
Speaker 1: by example, others would follow. It seems Les wasn't keen
Speaker 1: on the idea. Understandably, neither was his mum. In fact,
Speaker 1: you would have been hard pressed to find any Irish
Speaker 1: Catholic in the country in favor of the war. But
Speaker 1: on the thirtieth of August nineteen six the Australian government
Speaker 1: announced that a referendum to introduce a military conscription would
Speaker 1: be held on the twenty eighth of October. Alarm bells
Speaker 1: were ringing for Les. He was due to turn twenty
Speaker 1: one on voting day. If conscription became law, he'd have
Speaker 1: no choice but to join the army and be shipped
Speaker 1: off to war. Luckily, Les had a plan. He'd previously
Speaker 1: considered going to the United States to challenge for the
Speaker 1: world title. That was now made a little more difficult
Speaker 1: under the political pressure and the fact that the government
Speaker 1: had canceled the passports of men who were eligible to serve.
Speaker 1: But that didn't stop Les. With the help of friends,
Speaker 1: he was secretly granted passage on a ship leaving Newcastle
Speaker 1: bound for North America. When he eventually arrived, he was
Speaker 1: welcomed with excitement by the big time boxing promoters, who
Speaker 1: at least initially all wanted to offer him a contract
Speaker 1: In New York, you can be a new man. Less's
Speaker 1: goal was to win four or five big fights, earning
Speaker 1: enough money for his family's financial security. He even vowed
Speaker 1: to join the Air Force if he could just find
Speaker 1: success fighting in America. Back home in I was the
Speaker 1: press court wind of his great escape, Les was branded
Speaker 1: a coward and a deserter. Meanwhile, fifty one percent of
Speaker 1: Australians had voted against conscription. Eventually, the news of Les's
Speaker 1: controversial departure reached the States, and it looked like he'd
Speaker 1: made a huge mistake. Lez had a big fight lined
Speaker 1: up in New York before it was abruptly canceled. The
Speaker 1: major boxing promoters didn't want a bar of him. They
Speaker 1: actually banned him from competing for a while. Les was
Speaker 1: forced to seek out boxing matches with traveling Vardelle shows. Then,
Speaker 1: in April of nineteen seventeen, he became a US citizen,
Speaker 1: which he hoped would make getting back in the ring
Speaker 1: much easier. Finally, an offer came his way. An old
Speaker 1: foe wanted to face him one more time. Jeff Smith,
Speaker 1: the groin punching American middleweight. You better believe Les was
Speaker 1: up for it, and the match was set to take
Speaker 1: place in Louisiana, but perhaps having heard about Les's story,
Speaker 1: the governor of the state put a ban on the fight.
Speaker 1: Les Darcy was at a crossroads. He made the decision
Speaker 1: to join the United States Armed Forces. He enlisted and
Speaker 1: was sent to aviation school, obtaining the rank of sergeant.
Speaker 1: But Les wasn't ready to give up on his boxing career.
Speaker 1: Another offer for a fight came in and he immediately
Speaker 1: entered training. He wanted to give it everything he had,
Speaker 1: and as it turns out, he did. After going on
Speaker 1: a long run, he collapsed and ended up in hospital.
Speaker 1: Doctors observed that he'd had a serious tonsil infection, which
Speaker 1: led to blood poisoning and an inflamed heart. After his
Speaker 1: tonsils were removed, Les continued to battle the illness, but
Speaker 1: it was too much. He contracted pneumonia and died less
Speaker 1: than a week later, on the twenty fourth of May
Speaker 1: nineteen seventeen. On one hand, Les Darcy was a man
Speaker 1: of unfulfilled potential, a true athlete. Tragically cut down by
Speaker 1: illness at just twenty one years old. Who knows how
Speaker 1: much better he could have become, maybe a world champion.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, his record speaks for itself forty
Speaker 1: six wins, four losses and he was never knocked out.
Speaker 1: By the time Les Darcy's body was sent back to Australia,
Speaker 1: the nation had had a change of heart. Thirty five
Speaker 1: thousand people attended his funeral and he was honored as
Speaker 1: a sporting hero once again. No doubt he was one
Speaker 1: of the greatest. Thanks for dropping into the ballroom. You've
Speaker 1: been listening to an iHeart production. I'm Tony Armstrong and
Speaker 1: I'll catch you next time.