They may have lacked the star power of Jack Dempsey or Joe Louis, but a pair of lightweight boxers still managed to fill the Milwaukee Auditorium on a March evening in 1914. All but forgotten today, Adolph Wolgast and Willie Ritchie were fighting for the lightweight championship of the world, a title Wolgast had lost to Ritchie two years earlier.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
When the title fight began, the Auditorium was still in its first decade as Milwaukee’s main gathering place. It had risen from the charred ruins of the Industrial Exposition Building, a crystal palace that opened on the corner of Sixth and Kilbourn in 1881. That meeting spot burned down during a skat tournament (a card game of German origin) in 1905, prompting the city to replace it with something larger and, importantly, more fireproof.
The Auditorium opened for business in 1909, and business was brisk. The cavernous structure served as Milwaukee’s event center for generations, hosting conventions, circuses, charity balls, bull fights, tennis matches, religious revivals, bicycle races, ice shows, bingo tournaments, political rallies and business banquets, not to mention prize fights.
By the 1920s, after some notable improvements, the Auditorium’s managers were calling their home “the most serviceable structure of its kind in the United States,” a building that underpinned Milwaukee’s hopeful claim as “America’s Best-Equipped Convention City.” (The echoes 100 years later with newly expanded Baird Center are unmistakable.) The action continued until 2003, when the Auditorium was completely remodeled to become today’s Miller High Life Theatre.
And how did that long-ago boxing match end? In a draw. Willie Ritchie retained his title, but Adolph Wolgast went home with nearly $12,000 as his share of the gate – more than $375,000 in today’s dollars. “It was a thriller in every way,” reported the Milwaukee Sentinel, “and there was not a dissatisfied spectator in the whole crowd of 8,000.”
Take a Closer Look…
- The building’s cantilevered balcony was a daring design departure in 1909.
- The Auditorium was filled to capacity … and every seat was apparently occupied by a male wearing a coat and tie.
- Neither fighter stood over 5 feet 7 inches tall or weighed more than 135 pounds.
- As an occasional Milwaukee resident with an unmistakably German name, Adolph Wolgast was the hometown favorite.
IN COLLABORATION WITH MILWAUKEE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
