Mushy Callahan

Mushy Callahan (November 3, 1905 – June 14, 1986) was the 1926–1930 light welterweight world champion of boxing. After retiring from boxing in 1932, Callahan refereed hundreds of matches, and he had a 30-year career in Hollywood, taking small roles in movies, most with boxing themes, as well as working as a stuntman, trainer and boxing adviser on movie sets. Early life and start in boxing Callahan was born Vincent Morris Scheer in Manhattan's Lower East Side. His father was a produce merchant. His family moved to the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Boyle Heights District in Los Angeles from New York when he was two. He was into amateur boxing by ten, and when he finally started professional boxing in 1924, four rounds were the limit in California, so his progress in gaining experience was limited. He took the ring name of Mushy Callahan, discarding his more ethnic-sounding name, as most Jewish boxers did at the turn of the century. He was nicknamed "Mushy" from his Hebrew name Moishe, or Moses. According to Callahan, he took his last name from an Irish fight promoter at his Newsboy's boxing club, in hopes it would keep his family from finding out he was boxing. Callahan was a great counter puncher and possessed a fine defense. In 1925, when ten-round fights were legalized in California, Callahan ran through a number of opponents, including Russel LeRoy and Pal Moran, knocking both out in three rounds. He also fought James Red Herring and Spug Myers. Callahan fought Ace Hudkins to a draw in their first meeting on September 16, 1925, in Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, and then defeated Hudkins in ten rounds on November 14, 1925, in Vernon, California, despite having broken bones in both hands.