By: Jerome Kleiman
In 2005, when Joe Lynch was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, it was already 40 years since his death. He had twice been the Bantamweight Champion of the World back in the early 1920s, the Roar- ing Twenties, an era known as the Golden Age of Boxing, when boxing was the preeminent sport in the world, and when there was only one champion in each weight class. During this period Joe Lynch was a household name, known far and wide by both boxing fans and non-fans alike, so popular was the sport and so famous were its champions.
Although he has largely faded into obscu- rity, remembered mostly by sports historians, there is a side to Joe Lynch’s story that is very relevant to Rockland County, for he spent most of his life here as an extremely active and civic-minded resident of New City, NY. Joe Lynch was born in 1896 to an impover- ished Irish immigrant family on Manhattan’s West Side. Today it is upscale and known as Hell’s Kitchen, but at the time it was a rough and poverty-stricken area in which one had to learn to defend himself to survive. Lynch is quoted as saying, “I had to fight in the neigh- borhood or wouldn’t have been a good Irish- man.” But street fighting helped prepare him for his future profession. Always good with his dukes, he realized that if you are going to fight anyway, why not get paid for it, and hence he took an interest in boxing, the manly art of self-defense. In 1918, at the age of 18, and fol- lowing a short stint as an amateur, he had his first play-for-pay fight
Always very skinny, Joe was able to box as a bantamweight, which has a 118lbs limit. At the time, unlike today, the smaller fighters were numerous and also extremely popular with the fans. Lynch had a major advantage over most of his opponents since at 5’8” he was several inches taller and had a significantly longer reach. Besides that, he packed an explosive right-hand wallop, was an intelligent ring gen- eral, and owned a chin of stone (he was never knocked-out). With all those tools, he rapidly made his way up the ladder in his division.
Fighting almost on a weekly basis, he per- fected his skills — pacing, knowing when to attack and when to stay out of range, how to counterpunch and how to adjust his style to different opponents. World War I interrupted his career. Lynch became a Doughboy, serving in France for over a year as a member of the 27th h Infantry Division.
Once back in the states, he rapidly became a top contender. On December 22, 1920, at Madison Square Garden, despite fighting with a broken left thumb, Joe Lynch defeated Pete Herman of New Orleans in a 15- round deci- sion to become the Bantamweight Champion of the World. Lynch would defend his belt several times, only to lose it to Herman in a rematch. Then, on July 10, 1922, he regained the title by KO’ing the then World Champion Johnny Buff of Jersey City.
Two years later Joe relinquished the title again, this time losing a decision to Abe Gold- stein. By 1924, it was becoming very dif- ficult for Lynch to make weight. Before the Goldstein fight, he had to spend hours in the steam room sweating off pounds to get down to 118lbs. In doing so he depleted his energy, which contributed to his loss to Bernstein, a man he had knocked out a few years before.
Joe had followed his father’s advice to save his money, and with in excess of 150 profes- sional fights under his belt, at age 30 the frugal Mr. Lynch was already a very wealthy man. Realizing that it was becoming too difficult to continue as a Bantamweight and tired of starv- ing himself before big fights, Lynch decided to retire.
In 1926, with his wife, the former Anna Harvey, who had been his childhood sweetheart, Lynch purchased over 70 acres of farmland in New City, bounded on the south by New Hempstead Road, opposite today’s Rockland County Courthouse and Government Office buildings, where the now deserted Sain build- ing, and the Animal Medical of New City stand.
With no intention of personally doing any farming, they leased the fields to local farmers. Friendly, gregarious and now finally able to eat without having a trainer constantly looking over his shoulder, Joe Lynch joined many local civic groups in New City. Far away from the West Side slums, and the hustle and bustle of the big city, once relocating to the New City of nearly 100 years ago, a sparsely populated, ru- ral community with trees instead of tenements, and fertile soil instead of hard asphalt side- walks, Joe spent a lot of time involved with the New City Fire Department and the local Democratic Party club.
In 1928, for a short while, Joe Lynch togeth- er with his partner, George M. Cohan, the most famous entertainer of the day, owned the Elms Hotel, across the street from the then newly build County Courthouse. Joe was a very ac- tive member of the fire department for many years, serving several terms as firehouse fore- man and then fire chief. He was known as the “fire-fighting chief and fighting fire-chief”. He also served as president of the New City Dem- ocratic Club and V.P. of the Rockland Coun- ty Democratic club. He even ran for County Constable and is said to have been a County Deputy Sheriff. In addition, among his other involvements, Lynch was a member of the Elks. In 1926 at the induction ceremony there were three new members, the former world boxing champion, a local judge and a priest from Nanuet — quite a threesome.
During the FDR administration, the Postmaster General was James “Big Jim” Farley from Stony Point. Back when Lynch had been champion, Farley had been the Chairman of the NY State Athletic Commission, and the two proud Irishmen had become acquainted. In the late 1930s, Postmaster General Far- ley appointed his old boxing buddy and now hard- working Democrat, Mr. Joseph Lynch, as the Postmaster of the New City Post Of- fice. Lynch would continue in that positionuntil the early 1950s. Following the elec- tion of Dwight Eisenhower as President, a Republican was appointed as the New City postmaster. Anna Lynch, who had been very active in local church activi- ties, died in 1955. She and Joe never had children. Joe Lynch, after losing his Post- master position kept a low profile. He be- gan to lose vision in one eye. Maybe the effects of absorbing punches in over 150 professional bouts were finally catching up to him. On September 1,1965, at the age of 68, he accidentally drowned in Sheepshead Bay where he had been vis- iting family members. For a few days, stories about the death of this once great boxer appeared throughout the nation and beyond. Joe Lynch is still considered one of the greatest Bantamweight boxers of all-time. The eminent boxing writer Nat Fleischer ranked him #4. Boxing Scene has him at #8. And, as previously men- tioned, he was inducted into the Inter- national Boxing Hall of Fame in 2005. However, Joe Lynch would also want to be remembered as a proud, long-term res- ident of New City and Rockland County, as a neighbor who was very involved in civic activities, and as an indispensable part of his community. Joseph and Anna Lynch are buried in the St. Anthony’s Catholic Cemetery in Nanuet.
Our Forgotten but Notable Neighbors: Joseph Lynch added by BQE Admin on
View all posts by BQE Admin →
You must be logged in to post a comment Login