Our sources of information are sketchy, but it would appear that in 1932 an African American drifter known as Jimmy "Kid" Swanson found his way to McCleary, Wash. and somehow connected with Frank and Ruth Fox. They owned the Fox Cafe as well as the (still in operation today) McCleary Hotel. Little is known of Swanson's past, except he claimed to have been the welterweight boxing champion of North and South Dakota. We don't know the circumstances surrounding the Kid's arrival.

During 1933-34, Frank Fox acted as Kid Swanson's manager. Ken Boling recalls the boxer being known as "Frank's guy." Swanson used to practice on a punching bag behind the McCleary Hotel, and these sessions would draw a crowd of admirers. In 1992 Doris Buzzell Irwin told historian Charles Fattig she remembered those workouts, and "supposed that he lived in the McCleary Hotel."

He was in several boxing matches in the Olympic Arena, corner of 4th and Jefferson in Olympia. The Kid broke his hand in his Apr. 21, 1933 bout with Tiger De Villa. By Jan. 1934 he was back in the ring and appearing in Tacoma fights. The Elma Chronicle of Jan. 25, 1934 called him, "The McCleary colored boy well thought of in Tacoma boxing circles."

Read more...

The fight of Swanson's career was in the Greenwich Coliseum, Tacoma, on Feb. 1, 1934. His opponent was another newcomer named Al Hostak. In a pre-fight comparison, the Tacoma News Tribune reported, "Swanson is better known to Tacoma fans. He has made several appearances, and has always shown to good advantage. He is a terrific puncher, and is believed by many to be an exceptional prospect."

But it was not to be. Hostak survived six rounds, and in spite of a knockdown by Swanson, was declared the winner. The fact that Hostak was able to "stay out of the way of Swanson's terrific right smashes most of the time," and take "Swanson's best licks without quivering," made boxing fans sit up and take notice. Hostak went on to become the national middleweight champion.

The Kid disappears from our record after that bout, except for one last article. A piece from the Oct. 16, 1937 issue of the Aberdeen World by Ray Craft finds Swanson in a sanitorium in Galen (Craft calls it Galena by mistake), Montana. After that, we have no information on his fate.

An excerpt from Craft's article:

"Black as ink and as homeless as smoke, Kid Swanson drifted into McCleary five years ago, and found a home here. He settled down in McCleary like coming home to the folks ... His fastidiousness was the cause of much comment. They do say he wore out his clothes pressing them, and he was accused of taking a bath twice a day. Also-- besides being a fighter-- Swanson was considered something of a racconteur, and earned his 'citizenship papers' by spilling a good yarn now and then."

"The fight fans always got a laugh out of his Swedish moniker, when he fought around this state. He did some main-eventing, when he wasn't nursing broken hands. He has shoulders like a gorilla and a waist like a wasp, but his hands were those of a piano player, and kept him in trouble."

"Those wise to the fight game say Swanson had the makings for the title, if his hands had stood up."

As a couple of trivia asides: Boxing champ and Kid Swanson friend Freddie Steele, who is mentioned later in Craft's article, lost his middleweight title July 28, 1938 to, yes, Al Hostak. Steele died in Aberdeen, Wash. July 23, 1984. We also wonder if Swanson ever had a chance to talk with Alex "Sandy" Dickson, the former welterweight boxing champion of Scotland. Dickson lived near McCleary, down the Mox-Chehalis Road area and died in May 1933 in his late 70s.

Swanson almost certainly must have crossed paths with another well-known McCleary boxer of the 1930s, Ernie Bailey. Yet we have not found their names together on any sources so far. Bailey, at 122 pounds, was in a lighter fighting class than Swanson. His circuit was much broader, fighting in rings from Seattle down to Klamath Falls. Aberdeen was his main boxing territory. Bailey's mother, Mrs. John Miller, lived in Garden City, just west of McCleary.

Ernie Bailey appears in Elma Chronicle articles from 1932-1938. In many ways Bailey anticipated the modern American athlete by making as many headlines about his lawbreaking behavior as his boxing exploits. A June 1932 article described Bailey becoming "disorderly and raucous" at a McCleary dance and being sent to an Aberdeen hospital after Deputy Sheriff Joe Cartell "was obliged to use both a 'sap' and a gas gun to subdue" the boxer. In Mar. 1938 Bailey was jailed after literally twisting the arm of an elderly Vance Creek man in order to extract 50 cents.

If anyone out there has more information on Kid Swanson, I would appreciate hearing from you.