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John Gutenko: Kid Williams the Baltimore Tiger

2024; Polish American Historical Association; Volume: 81; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5406/23300833.81.1.10

2330-0833

Thomas Tarapacki,

Eastern European Communism and Reforms

There were many outstanding Polish American athletes in the early twentieth century, and their accomplishments have been widely celebrated in Polonia. However, there is one Polish American athlete who attained extraordinary success during that time but has not been widely recognized by his sport or the Polish American community. That athlete is boxing champion John Gutenko, better known as Kid Williams.In John Gutenko: Kid Williams the Baltimore Tiger, Thomas L. Hollowak provides readers a carefully researched examination of a largely forgotten American boxing champion, his life, career, and his Polish roots. Standing just a bit over five feet tall, Gutenko was a small but dynamic boxer who took on the best fighters in the bantamweight division in the early twentieth century, and held the title from 1914 to 1917. According to boxing records, he fought more than 200 bouts and lost just seventeen fights.In the boxing community, Gutenko's achievements have largely faded over time. While most fight fans follow the heavier weight classes, Gutenko fought as a bantamweight, with a weight limit of 116 pounds. He frequently makes boxing historians' "all-time greatest" lists for his weight class, but he is not remembered by most followers of the sport like the old-time heavyweight or even middleweight greats. In addition, there were no video recordings of any of his fights to show future generations his dominance in the ring.In the Polish community, Gutenko's Polish roots have been largely forgotten as well, and Hollowak details the reasons in the book. One of them was the myth that Gutenko was Danish. Even today, many Internet sites claim that he was born in Denmark. That fable was the creation of Gutenko and his manager, Sammy Harris. At the time, there was a very popular lightweight American boxer named Oscar "Battling" Nelson, who was a native of Denmark. Apparently, they thought they could capitalize on the popularity of the "Durable Dane" by claiming that Gutenko was also born in Denmark. It was just one of many myths about Gutenko created in order to generate publicity for the fighter.Adding to the confusion about Gutenko's ethnicity was the fact that he, like many fighters of the day, fought under a pseudonym: Kid Williams. Not surprisingly, there were several different stories about how that name came about.It is also likely that Gutenko was not widely embraced by Polonia at that time because of his difficulties outside the ring, including getting arrested. Sensitive about how Poles were perceived by mainstream America, many Polish Americans were probably discouraged from boasting of Gutenko as "one of our own."John (Janos) Gutenko was eleven years old when he, his parents, and four siblings arrived in the Port of New York on February 11, 1904. They came from the province of Galicia, which had been a part of Poland before being annexed by Austria-Hungary during the partitions. Wincenty, the father, a carpenter, was born in Nadwórna, and Hollowak points out that in the 1920 census, his place of birth was recorded as Galicia, and his mother tongue was listed as Polish. John, who was the oldest of the five children, was born in Rahó, Hungary, in 1893.The Gutenko family settled in the part of East Baltimore known as Fell's Point, which had a large colony of Galician Poles. Hollowak does a great job of describing Baltimore's bustling Polonia in the early 1900s, which was served by three Polish Roman Catholic parishes and three Polish-language newspapers. In fact, John worked as a typesetter at an early age and may have been employed by one of those Polish papers, though records proving such no longer exist.In 1910, Gutenko fought his first professional boxing match and won by a knockout. His fight name was Kid Williams, but he was also called "The Baltimore Tiger" for his aggressive, crowd-pleasing boxing style. It is believed that the nickname came from the pen of Bat Masterson, the famous Western marshal who had become a sports writer and gambler late in life.Quickly rising through the ranks, on June 9, 1914, Gutenko became the new World Bantamweight Champion when he knocked out Johnny Coulon in the third round of their fight in Vernon, California. Gutenko defended his title an incredible thirty-one times before finally losing his crown on January 9, 1917; he never regained it. Hollowak tracks his boxing career in workmanlike fashion, mostly focusing on his rise to the championship.John married a Baltimore native, Agnieszka Związkowska, in May 1916, and they would have two daughters. However, his personal life had its challenges, and he ran afoul of the law more than once. In 1927, he was arrested for a violation of the prohibition statutes and then jailed when he could not pay the fine because he was "practically penniless" (p. 293). He kept boxing well past his prime, until the Maryland State Athletic Commission refused to issue him a license in 1929. The commission expressed concern that Gutenko would suffer "serious injury" if he were allowed to fight (p. 293). He later held jobs as a taxi driver, salesman, and steel worker. He was not completely forgotten but living in relative obscurity when he died at the age of seventy-two in 1963. A Requiem Mass was held at Holy Rosary Church, and he was buried in the Gutenko family plot at Holy Rosary Cemetery.Later, Gutenko did receive some recognition for his accomplishments in the ring. This included induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame on June 9, 1996, the eighty-second anniversary of his winning the bantamweight title and more than thirty years after his death. Not surprisingly, perhaps, the citation stated that he was "Born in Denmark."Sifting through the myths, mysteries, and misinformation, Hollowak has written a book that provides a great deal of insight into "The Baltimore Tiger." It goes a long way to give John "Kid Williams" Gutenko some long-overdue recognition and establish his rightful place in boxing and Polish American history. Anyone interested in the history of Polonia or professional boxing would find this book to be very informative.