All Time Great
World Flyweight Champion, Undefeated British & Empire Flyweight Champion, British & Empire Bantamweight Champion
40 contests, won: 32, drew: 1, lost: 7
On Saturday, 14th March 1936 the “Edinburgh Evening Dispatch” announced on it’s sport pages “Connolly taken distance – magnificent display of pluck by Gans”. The report went on to outline how a Bathgate featherweight star Joe Connolly has reappeared for the first time as a top-of-the-bill Fighter of Hamilton over 12 three minute rounds, however, it was Connolly’s opponent “Joe Gans” alias Thomas McGowan who really stole the show by his fighting display of guts. The “Dispatch” newspapers boxing scribe continued, “… By the end of the seventh session Gans face was badly puffed, but that he was full of pluck in a contest which was going consistently against him… Gans taking terrific punishment went down in the tenth for an eighth count – another count of nine came Gans way in the final round, but Connolly could not put him out. Gans had served up an amazing display of stamina and courage.
Now fast forward the march of time by exactly thirty years to Wembley, London. The date June 14th 1966, when another McGowan well ahead by the seventh round of his W.B.C. World Flyweight title clash against the Sardinian Salvatore Burruni sustained a gashed eye of sufficient severity to warrant the close inspection of referee Harry Gibbs, but still he shrugged of this handicap to box “like a little master. Using his speed, jabbing in clusters and bringing the right home…” As one critic put it to become Scotland’s fourth World Flyweight titleholder. The McGowan who achieved this famous victory was Walter McGowan, son of the gallant 1934 vintage Thomas McGowan alias “Joe Gans”. Born on October 13th 1942 in the racecourse town of Hamilton, Walter’s original ambitions to be a jockey were soon forgotten as, guided by his dad Joe Gans, Walter embarked on a brilliant amateur career. A career in the unpaid ranks that saw the future Scottish flyweight suffer only two defeats in 124 bouts and win an A.B.A Flyweight title in 1961.
Shortly after Walter turned pro under his father Joe Gans management and saw Walter subjected to a training regime that included finishing off five miles of road work with a swim and having his back scrubbed by his dad in a tin bath. Proof positive that Joe Gans regime paid ring dividends can be seen in the clutch of honours and distinctions wee Walter’s educated punching, shrewd ring tactics and big heart brought him. Only British boxer to be a warded a coveted Lonsdale championship belt after a single defence; first winner for fifteen years of British Boxings trade paper’s “certificate of merit”, first boxer to defeat Tunisian Jewish rival Felix Brami – a performance that “boxing news” hailed as “nothing short of a revelation – McGowan’s speed and variety of punches restored our faith in British boxing…” That Brami was a bantamweight, was further proof of Walter’s dominance of the Flyweight scene – Just as his being awarded a single title defence Lonsdale Belt was.
Again, American Lightweight, Light-Welter, and Welterweight Champion of the 1930′s Barney Ross raved about Walter McGowan when he witnessed the Hamilton based ace stop tough Italian Nevio Carbi in the sixth round of an eight round ring joust that was staged in 1966 on the opening night of London’s “World Sporting Club” in the English Capital’s Park Lane.
Similarly, Walters British Bantamweight title clash with Liverpool’s Alan Rudkin in which the bonny wee battler form Burnbank emerged victorious was described by “Boxing News” as “The finest battle by little men for years…”.
Praise, praise and yet more praise, for Walter McGowan from every authoritative quarter but in common with all other gifted Scottish flyweights there was a downside in Walter McGowan’s career.
Unlike Johnny Hill who beat American Newsboy Brown before 28,000 spectators in London in 1928 or Lynch and Paterson who fought before tens of thousands in Glasgow, Walter McGowan only attracted a record low of 7,000 to see his world Flyweight title victory in Wembley in June 1966 and the September 1967 return bout with Thailand’s Chartai Chinoi.
However, as both Walter’s W.B.C. Flyweight title jousts in Britain and his title-losing bout in Thailand on December 30th 1966 prove to be the biggest bogey to the soaring ring talents of Walter McGowan was – cuts. Double eye and forehead cuts cost Walter his 1967 return bout with Thailander Chartai Chinoi. Despite McGowan leading on points from the fourth round onwards.
A severely cut nose put paid to Walter’s world championship reign in Thailand in December 1966. Cuts hampered Walters losing effort to keep his British Bantamweight Crown against old foe Alan Rudkin at Manchester’s Bellevue in May 1968. Yet on other occasions cuts were to help emphasise that Walter McGowan the son had inherited a large portion of the cuts and never say – die spirit that had dad Joe Gans had displayed against Joe Connelly in 1934. Witness Walter’s bloody battle with Japan’s tough Osamu Miyashita who ripped open Walter’s eye in the London world sporting club ring that evening of 15th March 1967 with a stiff right cross forcing McGowan to reveal his tactical genius in moving away from the arc of the Japanese boxers potent right hand. A tenth round cut eye in the first British Bantamweight title battle with Scouser Alan Rudkin only spurred Walter to box even more impressively to score a victory that meant Walter imitated fellow Hamilton townsman Jim Higgins feat of winning a Bantam Lonsdale belt.
In 1965 Walter was ahead by a proverbial mile in a Paisley non-title joust with Chicago based Bantamweight Ronnie Jones when horribly lacerated McGowan’s left eye made American Jones an undeserved winner. However, victory was the most common denominator in the McGowan career with the pocket dynamo from Hamilton proving the power of combination punching by stopping just under 50 per cent of the men he defeated in the ring. Of the six British boxers he met in non-title bouts only one, Jackie Brown, out-pointed Walter a defeat avenged when the pair met re-match. The statistic emphasis is once again how peerless Great Britain McGowan was throughout his eight year pro career between 1961 and 1969. Again, Walter’s penchant for collecting distinctions was shown when he became the first Scottish boxing world champion to be honoured in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 1966.
Today, Walter’s perky, cheerful personality makes him universally popular on the golf course, at boxing shows and even amongst Palestinians as Walter visited the holy land a few years ago as the guest of a young Palestinian boxer. Now he is a worthy recipient of nomination into the Scots Boxing Hall of Fame.
