Inducted on September 22, 1974
A New Jersey World’s Champion. First southpaw to win a World’s title, when he stopped George Chip on April 16,1914. Held 160 Lb. title for four years, losing to Mike O’Dowd. From 1908 to 1919 had 146 bouts, losing 5.
Al McCoy had many managers during his boxing career, including A.I. Rudolph. T. Brennan, Jack Daugherty (until 1914), Dan Morgan (1914-18) and Leo Flynn (1919). Morgan, who was McCoy’s manager during his best years, was well known to often call in to the wire services and give false results of fights in which his men appeared. Of course his aim was to make it appear that his fighters were better than they were. Therefore, for the period 1914-18 in McCoy’s career, one should (if possible) avoid newspaper decisions from wire reports.
McCoy was trained by Charley Goldman, who would later go on to train undefeated world heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano.
The linked record contains only verified fights. McCoy’s published record does not accord with the results of research (probably containing duplications and other errors), and it would appear best to just list verified possible fights here, adding others whenever evidence justifies. Here are other fights that have appeared in his published record:
1908: Unknown, W ko 2. 1909: Dave Seide, W ko 6; Willie Scott, ND 4; Mickey Flynn, ND 6. 1910: Tommy Riley, ND 6; Arthur Cote, ND 6. 1911: Jack Ryan, W ko 3; Eddie Hamburg, W ko 2; Billy Shea, ND 12; Billy O'Brien, ND 6; Jack Langdon, ND 12; George Niedoff, ND 6; Spike O'Neil, ND 6. 1912: Dick Grant, W ko 3; Jack Beekman, W ko 2; Sailor Maher, W ko 3. 1918: Billy Neal, L Pts 10; Chicago Tommy Murphy, ND 10.
A number of fights often attributed to Al McCoy actually belong to Al Thiel (New Al McCoy), whose record may be consulted for comparison. The fights of Al McCoy and Al Thiel have been verified as much as possible, to keep their fights separate.
Factoids
- He was the brother of Los Angeles matchmaker Babe McCoy. (Their mother was Anna Rudolph, who died in Los Angeles Jan. 21, 1951, at age 86. Ja. 22 New York Times)
- The 24 April 1914 Tacoma Daily News reported that McCoy had started boxing at age 14 and that his record was 174 bouts so far.
- He was born in Woodbine, NJ, the second of nine kids.
- The family moved to Brooklyn three years later.
- His father was in real estate, and also made a small fortune raising kosher chickens.
- When his father forbade him from boxing, Al left home at age 14.
- Died 22 August 1966 in Los Angeles, California.
- McCoy is a member of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
Boxing Record: click