Talk:Tommy Burns (Canadian boxer)

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I should like to know ir Tommy Burns was a Mason?

I do not know but he was likely a Catholic and at the time Catholics could not join the Mason.

I think this article is full of wrong information but I do not know for sure. Brusso can also be spely Brusseau and he was French Canadian. He was born in a township near Hanover, Ontario. His mother's name was likely Schroeder. But I am not sure of any of this.

Can we get some more experts on this one? Tommy Burns is an amazing character not only in Boxing History but for the very important reason he is one of the KEY figures in desegregating American Sports. Its been said he deliberately 'ducked' Johnson if only to antagonise more 'hype' and force a title fight in which he expected to be retired by Johnson. Rumour had it that Burns and Johnson were both in an 'understanding' of what he was doing.

Even more interesting is that Burns became a devout Christian Pastor and wrote letters about how this conflicted him inside - to be a Christian but to be a Prizefighter too.

Please.. some historians on this Great Canadian Boxing Legend please?

The McCaffrey biography is questionable re the author's evaluation of Burns the boxer. McCaffrey claimed to be astonished that Canada had a world heavyweight champ but Burns is certainly not unknown to boxing fans. McCaffrey thinks Burns belongs among the top 10 heavyweights of all time based on his 13 title wins. What he is not aware of is that most of those wins were against mediocre opposition. Only Philadelphia Jack O'Brian was Hall of Fame material. While not a poor boxer, Burns was just not in the same league as Louis, Ali, Dempsey, Foreman et al. He would have been a great light heavy but just was not big enough to be a real threat. At times I thought McCaffrey was more intent on a revisionist history burnishing Canada's sporting image than giving any real evaluation of Burns the man and boxer. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.151.12.250 (talk) 19:21, 10 November 2012 (UTC) I wrote the above. I might also add that Burns and other white fighters of the day were not always 100% against fighting blacks. The colour line was often drawn if the black was a better fighter and also becuase many fights with blacks would draw little in the way of gate money. Burns ducked Johnson for a long time because he knew he would probably lose. It was more acceptable for him to draw the colour line than to admit the fear or possibility of defeat. McCaffrey suggests it was because Burns was a fair man, non-racist. This suggests to me that the author may have been trying to hype a Canadian anti-racist image developed many decades after the fact. Whether Burns was racist or just wise is hard to say now. Even Jack Johnson drew the colour line in his own way. He had little to fear fighting other blacks (save perhaps Sam Langford)since he had already defeated their top men many times. But he new that fights against blacks would net him little money. His only black defence was against Jim Johnson (no relation). by Dresdin Archibald, Edmonton, AB

1907 prizefight
Just ran across this, which may or may not be of interest. 2m.40 film clip; a 1907 championship fight between Burns and Squires, whoever he was. Shimgray | talk | 13:25, 13 November 2005 (UTC)

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Additional Tommy Burns Information
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I don't know if Burns was a Mason, but I can clear up a few things, as there are indeed a few errors in this article, and quite a few ommisions.

Noah Brusso was indeed born on a small farm outside of Hanover, Ontario (Lot 13, Concession 15 of Normanby Township). He was not born in Chesley, but the family did move there when he was 12 when his father worked at a furniture factory there. I don't know his mother's maiden name, but he was born to Frederick and Sofa Brusso. The Brusso's (at least to my knowledge) are of German descent, not Italian, and are Lutheran (but I'm unsure of his family's faith). It is quite possible that the family emmigrated from France to Germany and the name was changed to a more Germanic spelling, but that is based on speculation, I can't verify this at all.

I have a page dedicated to Tommy Burns, mostly based on clippings and articles my mother has collected over the years. The URL is http://www.geocities.com/tommyburns1906/. I haven't updated the site in a long time, and I should revisit it soon. There was a book written on him by Dan McCaffery titled of "Tommy Burns: Canada's Unkown World Heavyweight Champion". I have yet to read it, so I don't know all that he covers. Matt7821 05:26, 18 January 2006 (UTC)


 * You are correct in saying he was German-Canadian and Lutheran. He was a first cousin to my grandfather. 70.66.232.209 (talk) 18:24, 29 July 2022 (UTC)

Irish
Does "Tommy Burns" sound very Irish? Tommy is quite Irish sounding, but Burns is a Scots surname. Benson85 02:32, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

Yes, "Tommy Burns" sounds extremely Irish. However, if you do a bit of research, you'll find that Noah Brusso changed his name to Tommy Burns to hide his identity from his mother because she didn't like him fighting. He also almost killed a figher in Michigan which also prompted the change of name. Sorry, above comments put on by --Matt7821 06:16, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

The more Irish version is "Byrne" or "O'Byrne", while "Burns" is Scottish, none of which were "Tommy Burns", although he often liked to give the impression of being Irish, perhaps to gain their support. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rolledandpleated (talk • contribs) 19:23, 8 May 2012 (UTC)

References.
This appears to be a nice article but has absolutely no references. Find a Grave, Cyber Boxing Zone, and BoxRec are in the external links but this is not references. Otr500 (talk) 00:11, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Hugh D McIntosh
In the Jack Johnson fight, we name McIntosh as both Burns's promoter and the match refereee. That doesn't sound at all accurate to me. Who would have believed any decision Burns's way was a fair, unbiased and impartial decision? --  Jack of Oz   [your turn]  20:43, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

MacIntosh was the fight's promoter, NOT Burn's "promoter". He did indeed also serve as referee for the bout. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rolledandpleated (talk • contribs) 19:20, 8 May 2012 (UTC)

Personal life
No family? Was he ever married? Any children?

Powered by the Human Spirit Mhotep (talk) 19:26, 21 June 2020 (UTC)

Native American opponent
The article says that Burns fought a Native American opponent on his way to the championship, but doesn't say the name of that Native American boxer. Who was he? --Metropolitan90 (talk) 06:09, 16 February 2022 (UTC)