Frankie Campbell (born ''Francesco Camilli''; 1904 – August 25, 1930) was an Italian-American boxer who fought professionally as a heavyweight. He won 33 of his 40 career fights, losing four, drawing twice, and fighting to a no-contest in another. Campbell was killed in the ring by future heavyweight champion

Max Baer Max Baer may refer to: * Max Baer (boxer) (1909–1959), American boxing world champion ** Max Baer Jr. Maximilian Adelbert Baer Jr. (born December 4, 1937) is an American actor, producer, comedian, and director widely known for his role as ...

on August 25, 1930, in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Campbell was the brother of former

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

player

Dolph Camilli Adolph Louis Camilli (April 23, 1907 – October 21, 1997) was an American first baseman in Major League Baseball who spent most of his career with the Philadelphia Phillies and Brooklyn Dodgers. He was named the National League's Most Valuable Pl ...

Last fight

Max Baer was knocked down in the 2nd round, which enraged him, and he rose from the canvas to put all his power behind a solid right-hand punch that hit Campbell flush in the chin. Campbell later received a beating in the 5th round and then eventually passed out from the punch. An alternate take on this second round exchange is offered in the ''

San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corporat ...

'' from August 26, 1930. The article reads:

Irwin
he referee He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
ruled that Baer had slipped and had not been dropped. He motioned Baer to his feet. In the meantime Campbell had walked the far side of the ring, turning his back... Baer rushed across the ring and socked Campbell with three stiff rights to the head... The blows dazed Campbell and he was pretty well spent as he made his way back to his corner. 'Something feels as though it broke in my head,' Campbell told Chief Second Tommy Maloney during the rest interval between the second and third round.

Onlookers claimed that Baer slugged Campbell "unmercifully" in the 5th round after he was already unconscious but had held onto his feet by the ropes. Had the referee not intervened, Campbell would have been killed outright. UP Doctors worked over Campbell in the open-air ring at the baseball park for half an hour and, failing to revive him, took him to a local hospital where other physicians and nurses worked over him for several hours. Campbell had a severe concussion of the brain. Doctors later discovered that his brain had been knocked loose from the connective tissue inside his head. Brain specialist Tilton E. Tillman "declared death had been caused by a succession of blows on the jaw and not by any struck on the rear of the head," and that Campbell's brain had been "knocked completely loose from his skull."Oakland Tribune – September 26, 1930. The California State Boxing Commission soon suspended Referee Irwin for his failure to stop the fight, J. Hamilton Lorimer (Baer's manager), Carol E. Working and Tom Maloney (Campbell's managers), and

seconds The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

Tillie "Kid" Herman, Ray Carlin, Frankie Burns, and Larry Morrison.

References

External links

Mini-biography on Frankie Campbell

The Boxing Wiki entry on Frankie Campbell
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, Frankie Boxers from California 1930 deaths Deaths due to injuries sustained in boxing Sports deaths in California 1904 births American male boxers Heavyweight boxers American people of Italian descent