Miss Lemko and the Champ

Bogdan Horbal, New York

At the time of this year’s Oscars I once again ran across a couple of articles in old Lemko calendars (1933 and 1934) about something that I had wanted to investigate before. The story is like one of those taken from Hollywood movies, so I got extra motivation to write it up.

The place was Jersey City, NJ and the time 14 January 1933, old-style New Year’s Day. The president of the Lemko Association, Stefan Herenchak, and Lemko entertainer Stephen Skimba/Škymba (who was behind recordings of Lemko folk music on such labels as Columbia and Okeh, and the production of the movie Lemkovske vesilia) organized a Lemko beauty contest – Miss Lemko. The winner was Mary Kostik/Kostyk (American spelling unknown) from Stewartsville, NJ, daughter of Mykhal Kostik/Kostyk, a farmer from the Lemko village of Mszana, who frequently contributed articles to the newspaper Lemko. One of the high points of the evening was the arrival (with an entourage that needed six cars) of Johnny Jadick, the then-current junior welterweight boxing champion of the world!

Unfortunately we do not know much about this first (and only?) Miss Lemko. Dymytrii Vyslotskii wrote only the best things about her: pretty, kind, caring, gentle, all around good Lemko girl, and her father also such a big patriot and a modern man.

The champion’s last name was in fact Dziadyk, but in America it was somehow turned into Jadick. His father was Vasyl’ Dziadyk, born in the Lemko village of Florynka. After arriving in America he moved a lot, working in various places including Montreal and Philadelphia.

It was in Philadelphia that Johnny was born on June 16, 1908. His father, however, continued to move around and spent some time working in the anthracite coal region, but eventually made Philadelphia his permanent home. He prematurely lost his wife and mother of his six children in 1921. Two years later Johnny made his first pitch to help out his father financially, but being only 15 and small of stature, he could not land a job. Having an interest in boxing, he turned to professional managers but failed to impress. In such a situation, he spent one year fighting amateurs. He won 59 out of 66 bouts. This allowed him to open up professional career (in the 135-140 pounds category) which he did with a win over Mickey Birket in his hometown on 11 November 1924. Jadick followed up with 19 professional victories and two no-decisions before losing on March 21, 1927 to Eddie Anderson.

Jadick was in several more bouts (most victorious for him) before he first gained a measure of prominence by knocking out the very tough perennial contender with the fascinating name of King Tut in 7 rounds (25 November 1929, Philadelphia). He followed up his victory over Tut by again defeating him in a 10 round decision (19 October 1930, Milwaukee). He closed 1930 by losing to former Featherweight Champion & then-current Junior Lightweight Champion Benny Bass (8 December 1930, Philadelphia).

In 1931 Jadick fought with ever changing luck. He won only 4 out of 9 bouts (1 draw, 1 no decision). On 13 July in Pittsburgh he “…dropped Tony Herrera as the final bell sounded having rolled up a comfortable margin in the early rounds" (according to the Associated Press), but in his final bout that year, he was KO’d in six by Herrera (30 November 1931, Pittsburgh).

Nevertheless, Jadick was unexpectedly given a junior welterweight title shot against the great Tony Canzoneri, considered absolutely one of the greatest fighters pound for pound in the history of boxing. He is a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame and his record is 141 wins (44 knockouts), 24 losses, and 10 draws. Astonishingly, Jadick won the title (18 January 1932, Philadelphia). The New York Times wrote: “Jadick went down beneath a left to the jaw in the first round but bounced up before the referee started counting and fought the Italian on more than even terms throughout the battle.”

After fighting six more opponents (loosing one bout when his title was not at stake), Jadick even more surprisingly defended his title against the same Canzoneri, who still owned lightweight title, but that title was not at stake. Exactly six months after the first fight, they met again in Philadelphia and Jadick won with another ten round decision.

Eight thousand people watched the fight about which the New York Times wrote:

The New Yorker had Jadick’s nose bleeding from the second round on and fairly bombarded the Philadelphian with body punches. Jadick’s only effective punches were his left jabs, which did not seem to do any damage, except raise a welt under the lightweight champion’s left eye. (…) In the eighth round, Jadick wrestled Canzoneri out of the ring, and from that time on it was a regular free-for-all. Referee Joe McGuigan had a hard time separating the two rivals in their bull-like runs.

When Jadick was declared victorious, all hell broke loose. “The verdict was booed by the fans and immediately the ring was showered with cautions, papers, and everything handy. It was one of the wildest demonstrations seen here in years. Even Canzoneri was hit by baseball cushions.”

Jadick closed out the year with a defense against Lew Raymond, which resulted in a rare KO’s. However, only weeks after encounter with Miss Lemko, he fought Johnny Lucas only to a draw (3 February 1933, Philadelphia).

The worst was still to come.

During his next fight, Jadick lost his title to Battling Shaw in a 15 round decision (20 February 1933, New Orleans). Shortly after that, Battling lost his title to Canzoneri.

It’s not known what conspired in Jersey City on 14 January 1933. Did Jadick take Miss Lemko out to dinner? Was there a little romance? One thing is sure: after loosing the title, Jadick’s boxing career pretty much went into free fall. Even though he fought on for four more years, he lost more fights that he won – just the opposite to what was happening before.

His last moment of glory was a 10 round decision over the young future Welterweight champion Fritzie Zivic (18 Febraury 1935, Washington, DC). However, the next year Canzoneri got his revenge by beating Jadick (9 March 1936, St. Nicholas Palace, New York City), while Zivic, considered one of the best (158 wins, incl. 80 KOs!, 65 losses, 9 draws) and dirties boxers ever, got his revenge in a form of a brutal 6 rounds KO (11 February 1937, Pittsburgh). After loosing all seven bouts that year, Jadick retired. His record is somewhat controversial: 104 wins (9 Kos), 58 losses, 10 draws and 2 no-decisions according to Cyber Boxing Zone, but 71 wins (11 KOs), 53 losses, and 9 draws according to BoxRec (which also provides details on each bout).

Johnny Jadick died on 3 March 1970. The obituary in the New York Times says that he was survived by a wife (no children mentioned). Was that our Miss Lemko? It would have been a nice … Hollywood romance.