[LeeSkye]

Talking about "tomato cans" and "trial horses"...I came across a group of interesting fighters in the 1920's & early 30's that caught my eye. They are difficult to rate because they didn't really fight anyone you could compare them to in our database but I'm posting one of them here, George Trafton.

Trafton is an NFL Hall of Famer and he got involved in some pro boxing in his early 30's, KOing some no-names and finally getting KO'd himself in one round by Primo Carnera.

Among the "no-names was a guy by the name of Art [The Great] Shires. Shires himself was a pro baseball player. BoxRec says "Shires is a famous and popular Chicago White Sox baseball player (first baseman) at this time, and Trafton is a Chicago Bears professional football player (and later became a Pro Football Hall-of-Famer)."

Take a quick look at Shires record-must have been some interesting times for sports fans. He fought other pro baseball players, Al Spohrer and Tony Faeth and was also involved in some controversial bouts. BoxRec says at one point he gave up boxing and "Shires attempted to be "a bigger success at basket ball than at boxing" when he played forward for the Philadelphia Spha team, but found that none of his team-mates would pass him the ball."

I'm sure these stories have to come up in my universe down the road!

p.s I put a pic of him in the "Missing fighter photos" thread.