sports history spotlight: Warnie Smith
By Mike Tupa
February 26, 2025
BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT
A pretty much forgotten aspect of Bartlesville’s glorious sports history is its boxing tradition in the golden age of the 1920s and 1930s.
No powerful pugilist exemplified Bartlesville’s fighting spirit more — or was a better ring ambassador for the city welded together in succeeding generations by the indomitable determination of Jacob Bartles and Frank Phillips — than Warren “Warnie” Smith.
A Tulsa World sports writer named Bridgewalter described Smith’s performance in a 1921 fight:
“Warnie met his big foe with a shocking left and sent him down. With the Bartlesville boy weighing about 150 jabbing his heavier opponent viciously throughout the eight rounds and Hargrove occasionally coming in with a dangerous attack, the semi-windup was entertaining. Warnie Smith came up to expectations. He looks like a real fighter. He will be a mighty tough proposition for any youngster of his own weight. He was awarded the decision and was entitled to win.”
No less an authority than “Gentleman” Jim Corbett — the legendary heavyweight champion that had knocked off the iconic unbeaten James L. Sullivan — labeled the Bartlesville bruiser as “a little Jack Dempsey.”
Being compared to Dempsey — the rugged Mormon heavyweight champion that won literal wars in the ring — was the ultimate compliment a fighter could receive in the 1920s. Or even in the 2020s.
Corbett went on to say Smith was the greatest welterweight contender in the world, according to an article in May 1924 in the Urbana (Ill.) Daily Courier newspaper.
According to the article: “James J. Corbett called Warnie aside and congratulated him on being the only natural fighter the welterweight division has produced in years and told him he doubtless has a brilliant future.”
Unfortunately, Smith — also a World War I veteran — never achieved the Brobdingnagian heights predicted by Corbett.
Smith finally made it to Madison Square Garden, on a wave of momentum as a contender on the rise to someday fight for the welterweight world championship. But he lost in what appeared to be his only Garden appearance — and joined the ranks of the might-have-beens. He would retire three years later, only to attempt a comeback in the early 1930s that resulted in three wins.
But then he called it quits for good. Smith lived another 30 years until fate put him down for the final count in 1964, at age 67. He is buried in Bartlesville’s White Rose Cemetery, his tombstone reflecting his military service.
Thus ended a colorful life that had begun in 1896 in the state of Kansas. At what age Smith moved to Bartlesville is a mystery. He made his fighting debut on Feb. 5, 1915 — almost exactly 110 years ago — in Bartlesville. He was 17 years old and battled to a draw against Tommy Hogan.
It appears Smith fought three more times — all against Joe Coleman, also in Bartlesville — prior to going off to war. It was apparently Nov. 21, 1921, when he began his career in earnest by beating Ted Hargrove, on points, in the Convention Hall in Tulsa.
The quest was on.
During his career Smith beat some of the top welterweights and middleweights of the era.
On the welterweight level Johnny Tillman twice, split with Morrie Schalaifer, defeated Young Ketchell and Shuffle Calahan each by TKO and knocked out Billy Britton.
He twice lost on points to Dave Shade — which one website (ainsworthsports.com) considers the second-best middleweight in the world in the 1920s.
It’s hard to calculate Smith’s record. Back then many fights were decided by sportswriters covering the event rather than judges, which sometimes aren’t counted, or there wasn’t a national system of collecting decisions. In a tribute article in 1966 in a Bartlesville newspaper, the writer claimed Smith had fought more than 325 times and never been knocked off his feet.
But, research proves that to be a fable.
In 1925, Smith made it to Madison Square Garden to fight Larry Estridge, a black fighter who previously had been the colored middleweight champion of the world, back when boxing was still partly segregated.
Estridge pounded Smith unmercifully. In the second round, Estridge threw a crushing blow that fractured Smith’s jaw in three places. Smith gamely continued for a couple of more rounds before throwing in the towel. One source states Smith quit during the fifth round. Another says he didn’t come out of his corner for the sixth round.
As soon as the mauling ended, Smith sought medical treatment in New York at the Bellevue Hospital.
With that one punch Estridge possibly derailed Smith’s career journey to glory at the end of the rainbow.
But most of Smith’s nights in the rings were more happy than that exception in Madison Square Garden.
Smith covered the country, focusing most of his career fighting in Oklahoma and the Midwest.
Here is a hopefully complete list of the states in which he fought: Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, Nebraska, Arkansas, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Louisiana and New York. In every place he was known for being the fighter from Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
— An article during the 1920s in a Sapulpa newspaper noted that: “Billy Britton “Kansas Cyclone” has been added to Warnie Smith’s mounting list of knockouts. The Bartlesville boy was awarded the bout in the sixth of ten rounds … when the “Cyclone” was whisked through the ropes, settled on the outer edge of the platform and took the count of referee Kid Forbe.”
— A Nebraska newspaper noted that: “Warnie Smith of Bartlesville, Okl. [sic] won the referee’s decision of Morris Lux of Kansas City after 12 rounds of hard fighting last night.”
— In a fight promotion article, an Iowa newspaper noted in 1923 that: “Warnie Smith, Oklahoma cowboy welterweight and Tillie Kid Herman of Los Angeles will battle where New Year’s afternoon in a ten round main event. … Having won his last 15 fights, many of them by knockouts, Smith is believed to be an excellent match for the tough, hard hitting Herman.” Smith won the fight.
— In early 1922, the Ogden Standard-Examiner (Utah) reported on Smith defeating Kansas City’s Morris Lux by decision in a 12-round bout.
— The Oklahoma City Times reported in May 1926 that Smith was one of four opponents being considered to battle middleweight world champion Tiger Flowers in a fight to be put on in Ponca City. For some reason the fight never came off, as there appears to be no proof Flowers fought in Ponca City or against any of those four fighter candidates that year.
— Smith did fight in 1927 in Ponca City, losing a close ten-round decision at age 31 to 28-year-old Al Webster (Billings, Mont.).
By then, the sun was already setting on Smith’s fighting days in the ring. After retiring the first time, Smith mounted a three-fight comeback, with Bartlesville’s Liberty Theater as his venue each time. He went 3-0 in those bouts before stepping away for good.
A century after Smith swapped punches at the Old Liberty Theater, it still exists as Theater Bartlesville, located at 312 Dewey Ave.
Smith also graced Bartlesville’s Moose Hall for a few fights as a fistic mystic motivated by an insatiable desire to keep punching out his destiny.
Little can be found about the final 30 years of his life. But long-timers remember the hammer-punching gladiator that took on all comers that would face him.
In a 1966 article remembering Smith, an Examiner-Enterprise reporter recalled that: “Smith ... was an aggressive puncher with terrific ability to hit quick and fast. He had tremendous strength in both fists."
Like many who dream great dreams, time ran out on him. But that doesn’t diminish the hugeness of his dream or the gritty grandeur of his pugilistic pilgrimage.
