No Contest Ruling

By STU DUNBAR
State Journal Sports Editor

     The act of Bill Hargiss, executive secretary of the Kansas Athletic commission, in ruling Thursday's Bickle-Brandt fight was a matter of bringing
justice to all; injustice to
none.
     In most common usage the term "No Contest" is attached to the stigma of one or both contestants doing less than his best.
     Hargiss quickly pointed out that this is not that type of "No Contest," but instead a ruling has been made which wipes all records of this bout off the books, holding that Brandt's accidental injury prohibited him from continuing.
     THAT MEANT that Brandt, disabled thru no act of Bickle's, thus had no chance to continue to a decision—win, lose or draw.
     Bickle with Brandt eliminated, then neither could win or lose.
     It not being the fault of either boxer, so both received their purses with the state properly, assuming each had done all within his power to fulfill his contract to fight.
     HARGISS, dissatisfied with the Kansas boxing code, on the general assumption that it fails to cover a good many salient points, is at the; present time busy rewording the entire code.
     That means that some future legislature will pass a bill giving the state newer and more streamlined boxing control.
     Hargiss has found, for example, that under the Kansas code there actually is no such thing as a "Technical Knockout." That will be amended among other things.
     The Kansas commissioner is decidedly displeased with the lack of a law-provided scoring system in the state, and will pattern his wording there to match that of the busier fistic states in the union.
     IT WOULD BE a very good guess that when the new Kansas laws are completed and changed that the "No women contestants" clause—a joker which the late, Frank Gilleece, slipped into the code when it was re-done in 1946 —will be eliminated.
     Women contestants had not been barred before that time.
     But, following World War II women wrestlers became great gate attractions in 40-odd states —but not in Kansas because freshly re-woven laws of a sudden said "no dice."
     Some days since the state com - mission granted the muscular mommas a 180-day trial period.
     That means, no doubt, that if the gal grapplers—representing the difference between profit and loss to every promoter in the state—behave themselves that the commission will grant a further period of grace.

Broken Bone In Instep Cause of Hargiss' Order
Brandt Hurt in Collision With Referee—Knockout Victories for Sudduth, Maldonado, Demery

By STU DUNBAR
(State Journal Sports Editor)

     H. W. (Bill) Hargiss, Kansas boxing commissioner, Friday ruled that Thursday's Bobby Sickle-Eddie Brandt fight at Municipal auditorium, originally scored as a sixth-round technical knockout for Sickle, shall be entered into the Kansas and' National Boxing association records (Kansas is an NBA member) as "No Contest."
     Hargiss pointed to Section 16, of the Kansas boxing code in making his ruling.
     Paragraph 7 of that rule provides, "If a contestant claims to be injured during a bout, he shall be carefully examined by the licensed physician on duty at the bout, and if it is found he is injured and unable to continue, the bout shall be declared, 'No Contest."'
     HARGISS hastened to point' out that the 'No Contest' ruling—not to be confused with a 'No Contest' decision because one or both boxers refuse to make their best efforts—casts no reflections upon either Sickle or Brandt.
     Neither does the action call for a holding up of purses. Both boxers have been paid.
     Brandt announced, to Referee Walter (Dutch Geiser) after 1:13 of the sixth round that he was unable to continue because of pain in his left foot which had been injured in a freak accident during the fifth round.
     WITH 42 SECONDS remaining in the fifth, Referee Walter (Dutch) Geiser started to move between the clinched fighters to break them, but Brandt retreated a step and in so doing planted, his left foot squarely on Geiser's instep.
     Geiser, caught thus, with one foot in the air and the other nailed to the floor, fell face-forward, landing across Brandt's foot and lower leg,
     Brandt grimaced with pain, and the bout was held up at the instructions of Commissioner Hargiss, who ordered a 5-minute rest and treatment period. Brandt's instep and ankle were bound with tape and the remaining 42 seconds of the round were fought.
     They resumed in the sixth, but soon Brandt signaled he could not continue.
     The State Journal scorecard on the bout had Sickle winning three rounds, Brandt one and one even thru the first five rounds. All of!, the fighting had been cautious, but Sickle held the edge at close
     DR. H. L. CLARK, state physician, announced after an examination that a metatarsal bone second from the small toe on the left foot, had been shattered, and that Brandt could not have continued to fight.
     Brandt and his manager, Tom Leeper, returned to Indianapolis Friday night; and there Brandt will undergo X-ray and have the broken bones set and the foot put in a cast.
     HARGISS HAD said earlier he would ask the National Boxing association for a ruling for which there is no precedent in the history of Kansas fighting.
     The outcome was originally announced as a "Technical Knockout."
     It was Hargiss idea, before (making a check of the rules to find that Kansas' laws adequately cover the case, that the bout should not be entered as a knockout of Brandt.
     Hargiss said the spirit of the rules, providing for a TKO in event either fighter is unable to continue, apparently is to cover case of injury inflicted by one boxer upon another and not to cover an instance when the fighter was disabled for any cause, even accidentally by the referee.