"White Hopes" of Boxing Clever Billy Conn and Hard-Hitting Lou Nova Said Most Dangerous Threats to Joe Louis New York, Feb. 8.
UT of the darkness come flashing over the fistic horizon—two brand new comets, either of whom may make a quick change m the future of pugilism. They are Billy Conn and Lou Nova, the most talked-of newcomers to the big-money boxing game. Right now they loom as the onstanding future "White Hopes" who may wrest the world heavyweight championship from the "Brown Bomber", Joe Louis.
These rising stars of Fistiana are mentioned in the same breath; they are headed for the same ultimate goal. But their backgrounds are so dissimilar.
Nova, the Alameda Adonis of California, arises from a cultured background. Lou's father was a symphony orchestra musician. He was educated in grammar school, high school and college before he tried to wrest wealth from a tough world so that he could marry a society girl and make her happy. Yet today, Lou Nova's greatest ring asset is recognized as one of the most primitive—punch. Despite Nova's triumph over Tommy Farr, his critics' severest shafts are levelled at his brain-work in the ring—at his poise—his boxing ability.
Meanwhile another handsome lad has come whirling out of Pittsburgh; Billy Conn. Conn is just a tough Irish kid from the poorer district of the Smokey City, He claims that he went as far as the eighth grade in school. He had no ambitions for society girls or wealth. He was just a man who wanted to make money with his fists—so that ultimately he might have an income of $50 a week.
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