On Monday, February 14, 2000 at 1:00:00 AM UTC-7, Paul Dalrymple wrote:

Published Sunday, February 13, 2000

Reusse: The fighting Flanagan brothers
By Patrick Reusse / The Star Tribune

The economic boom that took place after World War II provided the masses
with assets only a few people possessed earlier: money and cars. People
could afford entertainment, and they could get to the location of this entertainment at their convenience.

One sport that benefitted from this was boxing. Prominent Twin Cities sports columnists such as Dick Cullum, Charles Johnson, Bill Hengen, George Edmond and Don Riley wrote almost as much on the subject of boxing as they did Gophers football in the late '40s and through the '50s.

There were only eight weight classes and only eight world champions. There were five weight classes between 108 pounds (flyweight) and 145 (welterweight). There were three classes above that: middleweight (160), light heavyweight (175) and heavyweight (above 175).

For the most part, it was a small man's game. The sub-145 pounders provided action -- movement and combinations of punches -- and the fight crowd was willing to pay to see that. If you found power in one of these smaller men, it added to his popularity.

The last boxing boom in the Twin Cities can be traced from October 1946,
when featherweight Glen Flanagan made his professional debut, to June 1959, when Del Flanagan was knocked out in the first round by middleweight Joey Giardello.

The Flanagan brothers moved around Minnesota with their family before settling in St. Paul. Glen was born in November 1926 and Del in November 1928. Newspaper clippings indicate Glen finished with a record of 115 wins, 19 losses and seven draws, and Del was 104-22-2, with one no contest.

In 1954, Del rose to Ring Magazine's No. 2 rating among welterweights. In 1950, Glen was No. 3 among featherweights. Often, the Flanagans were both in the ratings, such as in the June 1952 issue of Ring, when Glen was No. 7 among featherweights and Del No. 10 among lightweights.

Glen had become a main-event fighter on a St. Paul card in January 1948 when he stopped Norman Mastrian of Minneapolis. Mastrian announced his retirement after the bout. He resurfaced in the news years later -- charged and then convicted of arranging the stabbing death of Carol Thompson, at the behest
of her husband, St. Paul lawyer T. Eugene Thompson, in March 1963.

The other great Minnesota boxer early in the Flanagan era was Austin's
Jackie Graves, a featherweight, and the main attraction for Minneapolis promoter Tony Stecher from 1944 through 1950. Glen Flanagan's goal was to earn a fight with Graves.

It happened for the first time in October 1949. Graves won a 10-round decision, but the fight was close enough for a rematch a month later. Glen knocked out Stecher's prized attraction in the third round.

On Dec. 28, 1950, Graves moved up in weight to fight Del. Again, the "Austin Atom" was knocked out in the third round, and now the Flanagan brothers were officially the hottest attractions on the Twin Cities boxing scene.

Del had started his pro career in April 1947, when he was 18. "Del was a charmer, and Glen was a bulldog," said Jim O'Hara, a friend of the Flanagans and the longtime director of the State Boxing Board. "Glen was either battling with his managers or managing himself.

"Every fight -- everything in his career -- was a war for Glen. He was 5-7 and always fighting uphill, taking punches to get inside. Del was 5-11 and smooth. He would come in, throw a combination, and move away."

Del was 20 when he signed a managerial contract with Lou Viscusi in December 1948. Viscusi was tied in with James Norris' International Boxing Congress, which took its marching orders from mobster Frankie Carbo.

The sportswriters glossed over the mob's connection to boxing. So did television. Boxing was television's first prime-time sport. In 1954, the
four networks of that era -- ABC, CBS, NBC and DuMont -- totaled 209 nights of fighting on their schedules. During their career, Glen had 10 nationally televised fights and Del had 11.

Del was unbeaten in his first 52 fights. Then, in the summer of 1951, he
lost a decision to Tommy Campbell in a lightweight bout. Glen, vowing to
gain revenge for his family, fought Campbell a week later. He also lost. And two weeks after that, Del fought Campbell to a draw.

Three fights for Campbell in a month against the Flanagans? "Yeah, and Campbell was blind in one eye, and still had approval to fight," O'Hara
said.

Glen's biggest fight came in the Boston Garden in August 1952, when he
fought Tommy Collins for the interim featherweight title. It was interim because the reigning world champion, Sandy Saddler, was in the service. Glen lost a 15-round decision.

Glen was retired (except for a brief comeback) by the time Del was having
his biggest fights -- and paydays -- in St. Paul, from 1957 until the Giardello knockout in June 1959.

In September 1958, Flanagan defeated Virgil Atkins, the reigning
welterweight champion at the time, in a non-title fight. "At 145 [welterweight], there wasn't a fighter in the world who could stay with Del Flanagan, but by the time he was getting his best shot he couldn't make that weight," O'Hara said.

"Del still was fighting in 1961 or 1962, sort of hanging on. I was in a car when he was told [promoter] Jack Raleigh had a fight for him in St. Paul.
Del said, 'Who?' The answer was 'Hurricane Carter.'

"Del told the driver to pull over the curb and he got out. Del wasn't going to fight Carter. Del always liked his face. And he knew Hurricane was a mean hombre."

Glen had a history of heart trouble and died while vacationing in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in January 1979. He was 52.

Del, 71, lives with Beverly, his wife of 49 years, in the Phoenix area. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1993 and no longer remembers old friends, such as O'Hara.

"I'm Del's full-time care-giver and happy he still can be at home," Beverly wrote in a recent letter.

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