Oscar Gardner

Oscar Gardner
Sketch from The Buffalo Times, 1898
Born	Oscar Desire Gardner (1872-05-19)May 19, 1872 Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Died	December 25, 1928(1928-12-25) (aged 56) Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Other names	The Omaha Kid
Statistics
Weight(s)	Bantamweight Featherweight
Height	5 ft 3 in (1.60 m)
Reach	63 in (1.60 m)
Boxing record[1]
Total fights	537-547
Wins	85
Wins by KO	59
Losses	18
Draws	32
No contests	1

Oscar Gardner (May 19, 1872 – December 25, 1928) was an American bantamweight and featherweight boxer known as the Omaha Kid.^[2][3] He was a top contender for the Featherweight Championship of the World^[4] and the Featherweight Champion of America,^[5] though he never won any awards or titles; many claim this was due to poor refereeing.^[6][2] Gardner was small but unusually strong, tough in the ring but "quiet, affable..., gifted with a winning personality, who made friends easily" when not boxing.^[2] During his career, he fought between 537 and 547 battles (sources vary).^[7][8][6]

Oscar Desire Gardner was born May 19, 1872, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the middle son of Joseph Gardner and his French-Canadian wife Alvina (c. 1852-1917).^{[9][10][2][11]} He grew up on the east side of the city with older brother Joe, younger brother Eddie (also a boxer), and sister Grace.^[2][8][12] As a teenager, he and Eddie worked at the Salisbury & Satterlee mattress factory, where many of the workers "engag[ed] in rough and tumble battles... during the lunch hour."^[2] Gardner struggled at first and was often used by more practiced boxers to pad their stats, but eventually became a top contender and earned himself the nickname "The Fighting Machine."^[13] At 17, he moved to Sioux City, where he worked as a mattress maker and foreman and was active in the local boxing scene.^[7] He relocated to Omaha after learning he could earn more money in their pugilistic community, then returned to Minneapolis in 1891.^[2]

Gardner stood almost 5'4" and weighed anywhere from 115 to 124 pounds during his career.^[6] His "one weakness" was his weak hands, which he broke at least 7 separate times.^[6][14] Gardner was skilled at the knockout and favored 20-25 round fights, which he sometimes fought only two days or three apart.^[2][15] He claimed not to train for matches and both drank and smoked cigars, oftentimes waiting to put out his smoke until right before entering the ring.^[16][17][18]

On April 7, 1898, Gardner was fighting George Stout in Columbus, Ohio when Stout tripped, fell, or was pushed down.^[19][20] Stout lost consciousness after hitting his head on the unpadded floor, cited by many as the fault of the event promoters, and he died the next morning.^[20] Gardner was brought to court, facing charges of manslaughter and prize-fighting, but was quickly acquitted.^[19]

In 1898, Gardner was a top contender for the World Featherweight title.^[21] In October, he knocked out Sam Kelley after fourteen rounds; earned a TKO against Solly Smith after six rounds the following February; and drew with Martin Flaherty two weeks later.^[22][23][24] Despite this success, he never won the championship.^[6][2] He lost his third and fourth attempts in 1900 and 1901 to Terry McGovern.^[25][26] Gardner retired in 1901 at age 29 and returned to Minneapolis.^[2][10]

Among those he fought were George Dixon, Harry Forbes, James J. Corbett, Eddie Santry, Dave Sullivan, Solly Smith, Torpedo Billy Murphy, Terry McGovern, Joe Bernstein, and Austin Rice.^[2]

Gardner spent the first decade of his retirement in Minneapolis, where he owned a saloon called "The Only Omaha Kid."^[27][28] In 1912, he moved to Washington with a plan to open a fight club in Vancouver, and by 1914 he owned a boxing school in Portland, Oregon.^{[29][30][31][32]} In 1918, Gardner was reportedly back in Minneapolis, this time as a bar owner with his brother Eddie and, according to writer Jack Grace, as a politician, but was in Pittsburgh by 1924.^{[33][14][34][2]} He worked as a promoter with Tex Rickard for several years and in 1928 was working as a boxing judge and a factory watchman in Brooklyn.^[2][35][36] He contracted yellow jaundice in June 1928 but did not respond to treatment and was seriously ill by September.^[35] Gardner died on December 25, 1928, in a Minneapolis hospital.^[7] He was survived by his wife and his children, Oscar Jr. and Grace, who lived in Portland, Oregon; his two brothers; and his sister.^[7] At the time of his death, he had four grandsons and one granddaughter.^[2] Oscar Jr. debuted as a boxer on June 3, 1913, against Dick Hewitt.^[37]

He was inducted into the Minnesota Boxing Hall of Fame in 2012.^[6]