Morale Victory

Britons wanted something to make them feel better, and London's press had built Heavyweight Bruce Woodcock, a conscientious pug-ugly, into a minor national symbol of hope. Then Joe Baksi, an invader from the U.S., rudely flattened the symbol by breaking Woodcock's jaw in the first round and going on to a seventh-round technical knockout. The BBC announcer made the fight sound as if a big bully had picked on a nice little man in the street who was harmlessly minding his own business.

Next day the newspapers did their patriotic best to make it a pugilistic Dunkirk. The Tory Daily Mail stout-fella'd: ". . . a Briton has once again proved his ability to 'take it' in the face of hopeless odds. . . ." The Laborite Daily Herald gave it the headline of the week:

IT WAS BRUCE'S GREATEST FIGHT

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