San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
The boxer who KO’d Jim Crow
The white boxer’s left hook exploded into the right side of the Black boxer’s head, dropping him to the canvas. There was no need for the dazed
Black boxer, I.H. “Sporty” Harvey, to get up. Whatever the outcome of this fight, he’d already won.
Not this fight but the fight to be here, the right to be here; he, a Black journeyman boxer with a losing record, fighting Reagan “Buddy” Turman, a white and young rising star, and future Texas light heavyweight champion.
When Harvey stepped into the ring in the Dallas Sportatorium, on the night of Feb. 24, 1955, victory and history were already his.
In 1933, the Texas Legislature banned boxing matches between White boxers and Black boxers.
Harvey wasn’t the first Black Texas boxer to imagine himself having the chance to fight for the title of champion. But he was the only one who imagined it to the point of forcing that image into existence. He would never come close to fighting for a title, but he cleared the path for others to do so.
The ban against mixed-race boxing lasted more than 20 years until Harvey and his attorney, Maury Maverick Jr., challenged it in court and won.
During the 1953 session of the Texas Legislature, Maverick, a civil rights attorney and state representative from San Antonio, introduced a bill to repeal the ban on interracial boxing and wrestling matches. It failed.
That summer, Harvey walked into Maverick’s downtown law office and introduced himself. “I’m Sporty Harvey,” he said. “I could be champ of Texas in the heavyweight division, but they won’t let me box.”
Harvey was born in Hallettsville, about 100 miles east of San Antonio, in 1925. He was named I.H. That’s how his name appears in the Lavaca County birth registry and how it appears on his headstone. No one knows what, if anything, the initials stood for.
He earned the nickname “Sporty” because he was always splendidly dressed.
By the time he was 12 and moved with his family to San Antonio, he’d begun to box. In 1947 he began fighting professionally as a light heavyweight, getting knocked out in his first four fights and losing his first eight.
BoxRec, boxing’s official record keeper, lists his record as 10-23-2. It takes courage to take physical punishment from another man inside the ring but an even more courage to challenge an entire state’s legal system and way of life, risking all the forms of punishment the state could inflict.
But Harvey and Maverick did it. In October 1954, the Texas Court of Civil Appeals ruled in their favor and ended segregated boxing in Texas.
Harvey’s fight against Turman, four months later, was the first interracial fight after the decision. Despite its historical significance, the fight scheduled for 10 p.m. wasn’t expected to last long. After being floored by Turman’s left hook, Harvey got up. In the eighth round, Harvey was knocked down two more times and got up two more times. The fight went the distance, with Turman winning on a unanimous decision.
Harvey died in 1997.
In a few weeks, the San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame will announce its 2024 inductees.
After falling off the list of nominees for three years, Harvey is back on the ballot. To the judges, I implore: Vote him in.
There are athletes who revolutionize their sport with their style and reimagine how the game is played. Sporty Harvey looked at a wall of segregation and imagined it coming down before fighting to tear it down. In essence, he said, “I may not have the talent to win, but I have the right to compete.”
There are great athletes and contributors rightly enshrined in the San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame. They are there because they overcame great odds and competition. But how many of them confronted an entire state and the laws of segregation and won?
Sporty Harvey stood up and knocked out Jim Crow.
Vote him in. If not this year than in 2025, the centennial of his birth. Vote Sporty in.