“Two years ago I’d never believed I’d be boxing today,” admitted
Baby Bear James in 1978 while preparing for her junior-lightweight world title
fight against Toni Lear Rodriguez. “Nobody likes to get hit, but I have the
ability. I can take a punch. I’ve gotten black eyes sparring with guys in the
gym, but I can hold my own.”
Baby Bear’s journey toward championship contention began in
Cheltenham, England where she was born Tansy Louise James. Only a young girl
when her mom passed away, Tansy and her three older brothers were raised by
their dad, who shared his passion for the fight game with his daughter.
“Without my father knowing it, he may have influenced me
getting into boxing,” James reflected. “We loved Muhammad Ali. We used to sit
together and watch him on television.” Although she insists she “wasn’t a
tomboy,” Tansy was left little choice in the matter of learning to fend for
herself amongst her trio of rough and tumble male siblings.
Then weighing a stocky 180 pounds, Tansy migrated to Canada in
her late teens to take work as a live-in nanny. James supplemented her income
with sportswriting assignments on a freelance basis. She is also credited with
having co-written a 1976 song entitled “Thoughts” which was performed by Mel
Moore and released on Sterling Records. Inspired to begin boxing as a way to
both get in shape and better learn her way around the sporting world from an
insider’s perspective, this led to a fortuitous introduction to Vern Stevenson.
A widower and former middleweight then in his mid-50s, Stevenson had invested
his entire $200,000 life savings into a venture as manager, trainer, promoter,
and matchmaker specific to women’s boxing.
“He said I had natural talent. And from day one he trained
me,” said Tansy of the benefactor who nudged her toward becoming a practitioner
in the hurt business. “People say I’m well-schooled.” Her daily training
regimen consisted of five mile runs, jumping rope, shadow boxing, and punching
the heavy bag. Two years later and more than fifty pounds lighter, Baby Bear
was well on her way to her date with potential world championship glory. Though
the road would be bumpy, James would have Stevenson with her every step of the
way, not just as her manager but her husband as well.
Fight fans and reporters alike couldn’t help but be curious
about the origins of her unusual choice of nickname. “For some reason I’ve
always liked bears,” Tansy mused. “Baby bears are cute and cuddly, but there’s
nothing more terrible than a bear when it’s aroused.” When she was given a
standing-eight count in her first fight, the beast emerged from within. “I
thought he was stopping the fight and I went crazy because I knew I wasn’t
hurt,” said Baby Bear. “When we began again I went ballistic. They said I
fought like a baby bear and the name stuck.”
As a result of faulty memories, unreliable record keeping,
and a general lack of media coverage given to women boxers of that era, the
particulars of James’ record are hard to get a handle on. This, of course, is
far from unique to the earlier generations of female pugilists. All five bouts
in her rookie year of 1976 seem to have been contested on Canadian soil, most of them in the southwestern Quebec town of Granby, roughly an hour
east of her adopted hometown of Montreal.
Baby Bear later remembered her aforementioned pro debut
being a knockout of Genevieve Thibault that January, following that up by
mangling three additional opponents before the final bell—Elizabeth Lefebvre,
Marie Francoise, and Louise Guyana in March, July, and October respectively.
However, contemporary newspaper accounts contradict these
recollections to some extent. An October 20, 1976 article in the Montreal
Star reported James’ TKO victory over New York State lightweight champion
Joanne Gilmore. Wearing eight-ounce gloves, Baby Bear sent Gilmore to the
canvas courtesy of right hands on two occasions in the third round, and Joanne
was either unable or unwilling to answer the bell for the fourth.
And, although James recalled having fought to a four-round
draw with Diana May Brown in December 1976, Pat Harmon of the Cincinnati
Post offered an account which gives the date of that fight as September 12.
“Other information requested, such as her other fights and her opponents, has
not been supplied,” wrote Harmon.
“I was told she was a novice, but she moved like Ali and hit
me from all angles with her great combinations, so I had my doubt,” recalled Baby
Bear James of Diana May Brown (or Tiger Brown, as she was referred to by Pat
Harmon in the Cincinnati Post), further muddying the waters. “I was
later told she was Gwen Gemini, but that was never confirmed.” Gemini is
supposed to have been locked in a showdown opposite Theresa Kibby in
Sacramento, California on September 14 which, accepting all of these variables at
face value, makes the allegation regarding Diana Brown’s assumed identity extremely
far-fetched.
Furthermore, in December 1976, Baby Bear James had evidently
relocated to Miami and was otherwise engaged, having become unwittingly
embroiled in a controversy with the Cincinnati Boxing and Wrestling Commission
over her proposed appearance on an upcoming fight card in the Queen City.
With ‘Hawk Time’ still in its professional infancy, promoter
Steven Reece was putting together a card at the Cincinnati Convention
Center on January 14, 1977 partially as a showcase for the second fight in the
young career of future light-welterweight world champion and hall of famer
Aaron Pryor. If Reece had things his way, the ‘Hawk’ would have shared the
occasion with Baby Bear, as Tansy was to have been matched against Joanne Lutz in
one of the undercard’s special attractions. The City Athletic Commission,
however, was having none of it.
“If this is approved I will resign from the Commission,” said
Rollie Schwartz, an influential member with a reputation in amateur boxing that
was known and respected nationwide. “I don’t want my name associated with this.
It smells from bad cheese.” Schwartz was quick to point out that the pronouns
used in the Commission’s rulebook were distinctly and deliberately of the male
variety.
Commission Chairman Richard Castellini added that the
“proper costume” mentioned in the regulations called for “shoes, trunks, and
cup” with no other apparel to be permitted. Ostensibly, this literally and
figuratively ruled out women from competing with the absurd exception being, as
it was suggested in jest by Bob Hertzel of the Cincinnati Enquirer, “the
women would have to go topless.”
Even if the Commission agreed to hold a special meeting to
debate the matter, Rollie Schwartz clung steadfast to his opposition. “This is
the antithesis of women’s lib. It is exploiting women,” he professed, calling the
very notion of a female fight “a wrestling act, burlesque. It is an attempt to
fool the public.” The thing of it is, though, the bout between Baby Bear James
and Joanne Lutz, contrary to statements made in the press crediting the
potential matchup with being the first of its kind in Cincinnati, would not
have been completely unprecedented.
Featured on a card headlined by local welterweight prospect
Fred Newbill and promoted by a company called Socko AC which was owned by
Cincinnati Reds radio announcer Harry Hartman, trailblazers JoAnn Hagen and
Audrey Miller came together at Cincinnati’s Parkway Arena on August 10, 1949
for a bantamweight exhibition consisting of four ninety-second rounds. “The
girls really put on a bout,” enthused referee Tony Warndorf, who officiated the
no-decision scrap. “I seem to remember that one of them wound up bleeding.”
As for Baby Bear vs. Joanne Lutz, it wasn’t to be. The
Cincinnati Boxing and Wrestling Commission released a statement on January 1,
1977 in which they disallowed the women’s fight based on “the difference in
their anatomy to men.” Promoter Steven Reece threatened litigation, proclaiming
that he would take the case to the NAACP and the Ohio Civil Rights Commission,
but whether he followed through at a later date or not, it ultimately made no
difference.
Instead, Baby Bear James would travel to Las Vegas in
January where she would be outpointed by Aggie Henry, losing for the first time
in her brief career. A piece in the November 27, 1977 edition of the Kansas
City Star announced a fight between Baby Bear, then #3 junior-lightweight,
and top-ranked JoJo Thomas to take place on December 20 at the Memorial
Auditorium. There is no documentation concerning whether or not this bout
occurred, and James makes no reference to it in her reminiscences.
Nevertheless, Baby Bear was granted a crack at the vacant
WWBA world junior-lightweight championship by squaring off against the vastly
more experienced Toni Lear Rodriguez (reportedly 14-6 going into the fight) before
a crowd of approximately 1,000 fans at Memorial Hall in Kansas City on
January 14, 1978. The Women’s World Boxing Association, it bears mentioning
(pardon the pun), was run by James’ manager and husband, Vern Stevenson. This
experience was highlighted by Tansy’s encounter with her childhood idol Muhammad
Ali at the legendary 5th Street Gym where she trained for the bout.
Both women were paid $400 plus expenses for the ten-round
title fight which went the distance and was won decisively by Rodriguez, who
consequently took possession of the WWBA belt. Referee Jerry Morales expressed
his opinion that “the women fought very well, even better than some of the men
on the card.” Morales would prove to be influential to Baby Bear James in her
next endeavor, which we will get to momentarily.
“We think this is going to put women’s boxing over,” said
James hopefully back in her dressing room in the saturated Yogi Bear t-shirt
she had worn during the bout. “It was the experience that was the difference,”
she theorized. “She’s a good fighter, and with more experience I can take her.”
Rodriguez’s manager Don Dugger remarked that Baby Bear had
“a helluva right hand. She had a jab on her but it was a little too slow for
Toni.” Baby Bear initially blamed her lackluster performance on a neck injury
which kept her from the requisite amount of sparring. Later, however, she would
say, “I lost due to my untimely bout with hepatitis, which I’m sad to say
finished my days in the ring. I was diagnosed with hepatitis, which laid me low
shortly before my fight. I was so drained by the hepatitis. I had no stamina.
Toni Lear was just too strong for me.” Seven months after their first go-round,
hepatitis was indeed the reason given in the Kansas City Times for the
postponement of a rematch between the two.
Rodriguez appeared to have little sympathy for Baby Bear
James one way or the other, claiming she was misled, told that her adversary
was a newcomer before their fight. “She got all the glory and I think it’s
because I was the underdog,” Toni groused after seeing Baby Bear receive an
invitation onto The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson despite her
losing effort. “If they see you fighting to get to the top, you’re nothing.
When we look like slobs, they want to put us on TV, but when we can fight, they
don’t.”
In the meantime, Baby Bear had been sanctioned as a referee
by the Kansas State Athletic Commission and would soon after officiate her
first bout, a ten-rounder between middleweight prospects Leroy Green and Toro
Revas, at Memorial Hall on March 17, 1978. Vern Stevenson told the press that
Tansy was the first ever female referee, a claim that was printed repeatedly,
not to mention erroneously. That distinction actually belongs to a pioneer of
the 1930s and 40s by the name of Belle Martell (see my previous entry for Belle’s
story).
Regardless of her rightful place in boxing history, James
was mentored by Jerry Morales, who had refereed her title fight against Toni
Lear Rodriguez and worked his way up to the status of Chief Referee as
appointed by the Athletic Commission. Admittedly, he was a bit skeptical about
women’s boxing based on potential medical complications, worrying that “It just
doesn’t seem right. They could end up with breast cancer.” However reluctant at
first, Morales saw his way to lending his support to Baby Bear's cause.
Two and a half months later, James presided over an entire
evening’s worth of boxing and kickboxing matches, seven to be exact, plus a
special attraction featuring the world famous Victor the Wrestling Bear. A
defanged, declawed Alaskan black bear estimated to stand eight feet tall and weigh
anywhere between 450 and 800 pounds depending upon who you talked to, Victor
had appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, in the movie Paint Your Wagon
with Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin, and during halftime at a 1975 Indiana
Pacers game, to name just a few of his most notable outings.
Fitted with a muzzle and chained choke collar for precautionary measures (but also allegedly “drugged out of his mind”), when he wasn’t tussling with his owner Tuffy Truesdell during public appearances, Victor would perform in exhibitions opposite professional wrestlers the likes of Gorgeous George, ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper, and Wahoo McDaniel, as well as heavyweight boxing contender Chuck Wepner. Victor would be rewarded each time with a celebratory bottle of Coke.
The night Baby Bear refereed
Victor the Bear, his task was to take on any and every challenge from audience members
intrepid enough to step between the ropes. Marshmallows were an essential part
of the trick to keeping Victor docile, Baby Bear learned. “I was in good
company,” she laughed. “As long as I fed him sweets, he knew not to wrestle me.”
The paper trail on Baby Bear James pretty much runs into a proverbial dead-end from that point forward,
although she is said to have officiated a number of fights before retiring from
the fighting life for good. When her boxing career was said and done, Tansy James returned home to England where she remarried, had five kids, and became an
author of children’s books.
Sources:
Mike Corrigan. Fistic Firsts (Montreal Star, October 20,
1976)
Terri Gunkel. Woman Fighter Says She Gets No Respect (Reno
Gazette-Journal, December 1, 1979)
Pat Harmon. Some of the Truth About Baby Bear James
(Cincinnati Post, January 11, 1977)
Bob Hertzel. Women’s Boxing Match Under Fire (Cincinnati
Enquirer, December 28, 1976)
Bob Hertzel. Wedding Bells? Nope, They’re Fighting Belles
and They Squared Off Here in 1949 (Cincinnati Enquirer, December 30, 1976)
Roland Julian. Women’s Boxing Match Disallowed (Knoxville
News-Sentinel, January 1, 1977)
David Pincus. The Amazing True Story of Victor, the
Wrestling Bear (Dead Spin, February 27, 2014)
Mike Pryce. You Don’t Want to Pick a Fight With Baby Bear!
(Worcester News, June 11, 2011)
Sherri Ricchiardi. Boxing For Women? It’s No Joke (Des
Moines Register, January 29, 1978)
Bill Richardson. Baby Bear James To Referee Fight (Kansas
City Star, March 8, 1978)
Diane Stafford. Baby Bear With a Roar (Kansas City Star,
January 9, 1978)
Bill Turque. Baby Bear James Loses In Women’s Boxing (Kansas
City Star, January 15, 1978)
Title Bout Here For Baby Bear (Kansas City Star, November
27, 1977)
Baby Bear James Postpones Fight (Kansas City Times,
September 23, 1978)
Fresno Investor Banks on Women’s Boxing (Hanford Sentinel,
November 4, 1983)
Baby Bear James Profile on WBAN (Women’s Boxing Archive
Network)
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