Tunney Out

Following the retirement of James Joseph Tunney, champion with a mind of his own, from the prize ring with $2,000,000 in his wise old sock, three schools of thought developed:

1) He quit because he wanted liberty--liberty to eat pie, all kinds of pie. This school founded its major premise on Tunney's shout in the office of a Wall Street broker, as he did a merry dance: "I am free, free. Yes, free to eat lemon meringue pie--or anything else for that matter."

2) He quit because he was afraid of going stark, staring mad. This school had faith in the New York Daily News and the Chicago Tribune. These potent papers quoted Tunney as he expanded on an incident which occurred while he was training for his second fight with Jack Dempsey:

"I went into a clinch with my head down, something I never do. I plunged forward, and my partner's head came up and butted me over the left eye, cutting me and dazing me badly.

''Then this fool stepped back and swung his right against my jaw with every bit of his power. It landed flush, and stiffened me where I stood. Nobody saw the punch but Eddie Eagan who was standing there. And that was the last thing I remembered for two days.

"They tell me that I finished out the round, knocking the man out. I punched him so hard he rolled under the ropes. Then I boxed two rounds with Eddie Eagan. But I don't remember it. I walked around dazed and almost in the dark.

"I didn't know where I was. I didn't know my own name. When I looked out of the window at the landscape it looked dark and unfamiliar. Nobody will ever know how I struggled with myself to remember things. It took me 48 hours before I could win back enough reason to know I was Gene.

"Strangely, the subconscious took the place of the conscious. I lived in the past of 12 or 15 years ago. I remember to minute details things that happened then, things I had said and places where I had been. But the present was gone. . . .

"From that incident was born my desire to quit the ring--forever, the first opportunity that presented itself. I wanted to defend my title. I wanted to make enough money, but most of all I wanted to leave the game that had threatened my sanity before I met with an accident in a real fight with six-ounce gloves that would permanently hurt my brain.

"And here is the strangest thing. Do you know what finally cleared up my head? Those seven socks to the chin Dempsey hit me in the seventh round in Chicago. From that time on I never had that tight feeling in the head or that haziness before the eyes.

"But I had learned my lesson. I feel that my mind is clear and free and as keen as it ever was. I want it to stay that way. It means more to me than anything the ring can give me in the future.

"The same thing drove Dempsey out. Dempsey is a rich man now, but he knows that if he ever fought me again his money wouldn't be worth a nickel.

"The beating he would have to take around the head and eyes would impair him for life. I think I was lucky to have had the accident that warned me in time. And that is why you will never see me back in the ring again."

3) He quit because he knew he had reached his fighting peak, because there was nobody else of any importance to fight, because he wanted to do something big in other fields--business or philosophy, for example. This school had the largest enrollment.