The $35,000 Counterpunch

In the sports pages of U.S. newspapers few holds are barred. Sportswriters swing freely when criticizing the performance of athletes, managers and promoters, rarely worry about libel suits. Last week this free-swinging confidence was rabbit-punched in a libel suit against the Hearst Publishing Co. and its Los Angeles Examiner sports columnist, Vincent X. Flaherty. Two years ago Flaherty fell to reminiscing, in print, about the fight in 1941 when Heavyweight Lou ("Cosmic Punch") Nova lost by a six-round technical knockout to Champion Joe Louis. Wrote Flaherty: "The cowardly [appearance of] Nova was like a frightened, screaming child at vaccination time . . . They lugged his carcass and towed it in abject disgrace toward his corner. He smiled bravely in the safety of his dressing room, wiping out the manliness of every victory he had ever won."

Ex-Boxer Nova, now playing the part of a gangster in a Manhattan revival of Guys and Dolls, took umbrage at Flaherty's column. "When I read this article," said he, "I was completely sick. My friends were aghast . . . Since the article [appeared], doors have been closed in my face." Nova threw a counterpunch at Flaherty; he filed a $200,000 libel suit against him and the Hearst Publishing Co.

Oom the Omnipotent. The trial last week quickly turned into a bout between Nova and sportswriters in general. The day after the fight, Flaherty's lawyers pointed out, other sportswriters gave Nova an even worse beating than he had received from Louis. "Nova is a spectacular bum [whose] challenge consisted of retreating in hot haste the entire fight," wrote Boston Record Columnist Dave Egan. Added the New York Daily Mirror's Dan Parker: "All Nova showed against the champ was timidity. The fight was . . . an utter stinker ... As to the 'cosmic punch,' Lou doesn't know how to spell. The 's' doesn't belong in the word."

Nova explained that in the bewildering aftermath of the fight he had not read what the sportswriters had written about him. It was just as well, remarked Superior Court Judge Newcomb Condee, because "if Mr. Flaherty had written his column the day after the fight, Mr. Nova would have had to sue a thousand writers." Nova freely admitted that his "cosmic punch" and his well-publicized visits to Yoga Expert "Oom the Omnipotent" were the result of a pressagent's imagination, but he was certainly not a coward. To prove it, Nova's lawyers read into the record a story written after the fight by Hearst Columnist Bob Considine, who said that he saw Nova stand up and take 21 punches after his first knockdown. Syndicated Columnist Henry McLemore had also written about the 21 punches, but his testimony in the trial did not help Nova; he conceded he could not even remember being at the fight.

"Scared." When Defendant Flaherty took the stand, he pointed out that he had gone no farther than other sportswriters. But his vivid account of the scene in the dressing room was secondhand; he had not visited the dressing room. Flaherty's lawyers read a deposition from Ex-Champion Joe Louis, who said: "It seemed Nova was scared." How could Louis tell? "Well," he answered, "you look another fighter in the face and you know whether he's afraid from whether he looks you in the eye or not."

Nevertheless, after three hours of deliberation, the jury decided that the word "cowardly" was too strong to describe Nova's performance against Louis, awarded Nova $35,000 in damages. As Flaherty and the Hearst lawyers prepared an appeal, sportswriters shuddered at the dampening effect the decision might have on their own prose. For his own part, Lou Nova had seldom received such bad press notices as he did in this rare moment of real victory. Not a single U.S. daily or wire service reported a word about the trial or Nova's victory in court.

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