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Sunday, Sep. 27, 2009

The good died ‘Young’

It was a Sunday morning, much like this one, with the promise of fall on the way.

You have to roll back the calendar 76 years to get there — Oct. 1, 1933.

Jim Sheehan was 8 years old and in Sunday School at the Vineville Methodist Church. Before the worship service began, he slipped away to walk a few blocks down Vineville Avenue to a corner drug store.

He turned when he heard the motorcycle. The man had the most recognizable face, jaw, fists and forearms in town.

W.L. “Young” Stribling was his hero. The boxer was everybody’s hero, the city’s most revered sports figure.

When Stribling fought Germany’s Max Schmeling for the world heavyweight title in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 3, 1931, every RCA, Philco and Zenith radio in town had the volume up.

They hung on every left jab and right hook, lifting him across the canvas with their hearts and ears from 600 miles away. When Schmeling knocked him out with 14 seconds in the final round, they took a hard punch, too.

But Stribling, the proud son of two vaudeville actors, was still a champion in their eyes. He only lost 12 times in his 288-bout boxing career in the 1920s and ‘30s.

Jim waved at Stribling, who recognized him. He knew the Sheehan family. He had a son almost the same age as Jim.

Jim was in awe. He had watched Stribling train at the YMCA. He had seen him and Italian heavyweight Primo Carnera spar at a downtown gym.

“Where are you headed?” Stribling asked the boy.

“To the drug store,” Jim said.

“C’mon,” said Stribling. “I’ll give you a lift.”

It was quite a thrill for the second-grader at Joseph Clisby Elementary School. The store was only three blocks away, but Jim was hoping the whole world would notice him parading down Vineville, holding on to the shoulders of a man who was larger than life.

Stribling dropped him off and rode to Idle Hour Club for a round of golf. He turned down several lunch invitations so he could head back to town to visit his wife, Clara, and newborn son at the Macon Hospital.

Traffic was heavy as he pulled onto Old Forsyth Road. It was just past noon, and local churches were letting out of morning services.

Stribling turned to wave to a passing motorist, longtime friend Roy Barrow. At that time, another man, who was behind Barrow, tried to pass on the left. Stribling attempted to swerve but was thrown over the handlebars.

His foot was severed and he suffered massive internal injuries.

He died two days later. Jim doesn’t remember attending the funeral, but he almost certainly was there because everyone else was.

More than 10,000 people viewed the casket at the memorial service at the City Auditorium, the largest funeral service in Macon’s history.

Jim is 84 now and a retired vice president of C&S Bank. With another Oct. 1 anniversary approaching, he thinks a lot about that day and the fate wrapped up in it.

“I’m not sure I told my mother about riding on that motorcycle until later,” he said.

A measure of sadness still envelops when he thinks about the man, the motorcycle and the tragic Sunday forever etched in his memory.

Reach Gris at 744-4275 or gris@macon.com.