Battling One's Way From Yorkville To Knickerbocker

Legend had it that Seth Babits (already memorialized in a Who's Who of KV posting) was a golden gloves boxer. Now we have proof. It seems he fought under an assumed names, i.e. Salvator, Sal, Sol. I dug these up in a nytimes archive search A reaction from his son (a pacifist of repute and peace advisor):

You know my father told me on many occasions that he had fought in the Golden Gloves but he also told me so many other stories that I had serious doubts about what was true and what was not. Anyway it's relieving to hear that some of what he told me is the documentable truth. God bless the old battler. According to family legend, in his last fight he knocked his opponent unconscious and left the arena thinking he had killed him.

He felt terribly guilty and decided that night never to fight again. The other boxer pulled through but my father hung up his gloves and from that day forth wore only mittens.