Crazy Fourth - by Toby Smith (Paperback)

About the Book

In Crazy Fourth Toby Smith tells the story of how the African American boxer Jack Johnson--the bombastic and larger-than-life reigning world heavyweight champion--met Jim Flynn on the Fourth of July in Las Vegas, New Mexico.

Book Synopsis

In Crazy Fourth Toby Smith tells the story of how the African American boxer Jack Johnson--the bombastic and larger-than-life reigning world heavyweight champion--met Jim Flynn on the Fourth of July in Las Vegas, New Mexico.

Review Quotes

A tale of ambitious promoters, desperate fighters, and America's obsession with the color line. It's a Las Vegas story set in the other Las Vegas.--Randy Roberts, author of Papa Jack: Jack Johnson and the Era of White Hopes

Filled with an assortment of colorful characters, Crazy Fourth is a highly entertaining and funny account of the events that take place in the run-up to a heavyweight title defense by the great Jack Johnson in the unlikely setting of tiny Las Vegas, New Mexico.--Jack Cavanaugh, author of Tunney: Boxing's Brainiest Champ and His Upset of the Great Jack Dempsey

Many know of this 1912 fight, but few realize that the contest was a complete fiasco, from the first day of planning to its controversial last round. Toby Smith uses his wit and storytelling skills to write this boxing equivalent to Jimmy Breslin's classic The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight.--Richard Melzer, coauthor of A History of New Mexico Since Statehood

Smith, a former sportswriter for the Albuquerque Journal, researched microfilm news clips and photographs at the New Mexico Highlands University library in Las Vegas, New Mexico, to produce this delightfully entertaining yarn about a farcical fight and the colorful characters who somehow made it happen. Smith's remaining sources, ninety-six books and newspapers, yielded literary gold in collective histories and personalities.--Michael Hurd, Southwestern Historical Quarterly

About the Author

Toby Smith is a former sportswriter for the Albuquerque Journal. He is the author of nine previous books, including Kid Blackie: Jack Dempsey's Colorado Days and Bush League Boys: The Postwar Legends of Baseball in the American Southwest (UNM Press). He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.