Bobby Boles - The Legendary Cocker

 EPIC BATTLES 

By Jim Todd - The Gamecock Magazine, March 2000, p. 74-75 

 

The Bobby Boles entry was the most feared entry to ever compete.  When Mr. Boles drove up to the pit I watched entries load their cocks back into their vehicles and leave!  They wanted to save their money. 

 

The reason being, that Mr. Boles’ Oriental crosses dropped their opponents so quick it didn’t seem fair.  So Mr. Boles, at times, faced more than a feathered opponent, which in time, made him seem a bit cynical and suspicious of everyone. 

 

Mr. Boles insight into his particular Asil family and their crosses was masterful.  His dedication to these Asil crosses was unshakeable.  So, Mr. Boles accepted the some what outcast image and flourished against the best cocks his era could throw at him and make winning look easy. 

 

The worst characteristic I witnessed of Mr. Boles’ Asil crosses was to drop a cock in the first buckle and not be mad.  The sometimes were poor finishers. 

 

When I was nineteen in the late 1960’s, I was at a derby Mr. Boles was fighting in.  I knew he was a legend even then so why not try to whip a legend.  So I walked up to him before the derby and said, Mr. Boles, my name is Sue, how do you do,?  Naw, I didn’t do that but I did ask him if he had a cock to hack before the derby.  We had a match. 

 

When I entered the pit I glanced at Mr. Boles’ eyes and could have sworn a saw a tinge of fear – well everyone at pitside didn’t see it that way.  But that’s probably because they were having trouble keeping their balance as the wagers were pushing, shoving, shouting in a frantic and uncivilized manner for anyone foolish enough to wager on me.  What a dry run they had. 

 

On your line, pit.  My Hatch cock shot out of my hands and exploded into a shuffle that drove the big ugly, jug-headed, missing link SOB across the pit and into the pit wall.  Just then I caught my breath but I realized I swallowed my chewing gum when my Hatch cock drop like a rock.  All I could think was in all the commotion and unbearable noise and second hand smoke, he’d had a heart attach or something. 

 

Well I thought to myself, Mr. Boles lucked out again, but I shook his hand anyway. 

 

So now let’s move forward,  Alright, way forward.  To the late 1980’s and to the “mother of all battles.”  Or sumpin (???), probably or sumpin (???).  To a pre arrange epic match between Mr. 

Bohn of the California Game Farm and Mr. Boles.  This one pitted Mr. Bohn’s Shame (former NBA slam dunk champion) against Mr. Boles pure Asil eight-time winner.  The match was in 1 ½ gaff. 

 

Mr. Boles stepped into the pit, cradling his bull dog Asil in his arms.  Mr. Bohn over the pit wall with his Shamo.  A shorter man would have had a second handler carrying the Shamo’s legs so they didn’t catch on the pit wall.  What a sight to behold and I was part of it. 

 

On your line, pit.  The Shamo trotted across the pit like the great “Thunder Lizzard” or T-Rex in Jurrasic Park.  I’m glad the building was open in case T-Rex got disoriented and came my direction – I already had an escape route planned.  Thank God he focused on the Asil and didn’t have an attention deficit problem. 

 

In the first few buckles, the Shamo had the Asil at the end of his great reach.  Just then it sounded like someone stepped on a dry branch.  The Asil has stepped inside and when I looked back, the Shamo was down and there were legs everywhere.  I swear the referee had to jump once when the Shamo’s legs almost clothes line his feet. 

 

So the California Game Farm conceded and shook Mr. Boles’ hand. 

 

Later in the day, in the 3-cock 1 ½ derby, I was matched into Mr. Boles.  On the command, pit, my two-time winner uncharacteristically took two steps and just stood there.  In the two fights, my cock had won, he had shot out of my hands and caught his opponent on his own score line.  But now he just stood there gazing at that strange sight before him in the form of a Dom X Asil.  When they did start fighting, Mr. Boles’ cock managed to get a free role on me, maybe he was trying to sucker punch me.  Immediately my cock started fighting like the Asil cross which is a losing proposition for an American cock.  I was taking steel.  Then in the third pitting, when the referee called “handle” I got to the cock first and got a 1 ½ gaff through my hand.  A friend at pit side said my face turned pale and my eyes were bigger than normal.  He asked if I wanted him to handle for me?  But when my cock shot out of my hands in the fourth pitting and dropped the Boles’ cock on his own score line, it was “my time.”  I could have swore Mr. Boles jumped two feet in the air and yelled, one hundred to one, one hundred to one, you were behind!  You’d have sworn I bit him or something.  Gee, if I only had a camcorder rolling and maybe Wide World of Sports there – Larry Merchant and Roy Jones. 

 

Wow man, it was something else.  I made Bobby shake my hand after my cock was announced the winner. 

 

A year or two later I visited Mr. Boles and he was nice enough to show me his entire stock.  He had a family of Doms and a family of Brown Red Far downs he used to cross with his Asils at that time. 

 

It was said Mr. Boles fought into himself in his back yard to acquire his best battle fowl.  Through this process of elimination and his evaluation of each individual, he was able to knock out some of the best entries of his era.  And drop ace cocks like they were nothing. 

 

In the derby I beat Mr. Boles in, I went 3-0, 3-0, 0-3 with my entries.  No need to spread losses around in my own entries.

 MORE ON THE BOLES’ BREEDING 

By Just Jack - The Gamecock Magazine, March 2000, p. 52-57 

 

Neither Bob and Susan nor Clarence Boles had children to carry on the Boles’ family fowl. 

 

Even since my association with the Boles,  which began in the 50’s when I was 15, Bob and 

Clarence wanted me to carry on three families of their fowl.  Once in the late 60’s, when California was having legal problems.  Bob called and asked if I would come ang get all the fowl and move them to a legal state.  The Humane Society had confiscated, mistreated and destroyed twelve of his best cocks.  He was very discourage.  I drove to Madera and spent a week with Bob and Susan talking him out of quitting. 

 

This occurrence was devastating to me.  Bob was my genetics and sports francise hero all wrapped into one.  He was my mentor and was quitting!  Besides, I needed his input in the Thoroughbred business. 

 

During that week I helped Bob “purge” the brood stock in the thence old line families of Boles fowl.  This was the periodic procedure, that I helped him with, over the years, that selected his continuing brood stock in those families. 

 

The result of a purge was a yard of brood hens to carry on a family and to cross on for the battle grades.  Each of these “old line” Boles families traced to one of these hens, unbroken in tail female ancestry.  Actually, only two hen lines were most important in the grades; the Sumatra hen line was used more as an “Ecart” for the all important black male line.  The B.B. family that crossed so well to the Malay, or Oriental families, traces to one Bankiva type hen.  The Malay family traces to one old line Aseel hen.  Both of these families go unbroken to those two hens, since 1944, under Bob’s breeding directions. 

 

Bob and Clarence made many matings.of Oriental grades over the years.  They probably tried every good American family as well as Oriental family they though might work, especially if it would produce smaller cocks than their best, big mating.  Bob said later that it was a wate of time.  He never found another family that worked as well as the old B. B. family and the old line 1944 Aseel hen family. 

 

A great coal black cock from John Bowdoin in Texas, that Bob referred to as the “far down” cock was put into the B. B. family in 1945.  That cock had a lot to do with the best grades.  According to Bob, he was the greatest cutting cock he ever saw. 

 

He line bred two families to that cock starting from a “Black Death” hen and a B.B. hen.  Both hens were the same blood lines but reversed, i.e. Boles old family X Col. Brewer Black.  Both were the best producing hens of those families up to 1945 and were the only ones used to carry on the lines. 

 

Bob guarded those three hens line very closely.  Much more so that the cocks of those lines.  He said the cock could cross the lines or carry on the lines, but not start the lines.  His purges were to select the line cocks to carry the lines.  The B. B. line purge was the most exacting for the most qualities of gameness and bottom.  All of the Boles best grades, whether Jap or Aseel, were some combination of the B. B. blood.  The best grades they ever produced carried the Aseel hen, a B. B. hen and the Far down cock’s lines.  Hence the Malay, the Bankiva and the Sumatra. 

 

The Aseel hen was from the same family of Aseels that made some famous Roundheads years before.  She was more Malay in type than most Aseel families.  I call these research Aseels because this family was used in some university research experiments.  They were one of very few Aseel families that had proven very good in the steel pits of England.  Bob never found another family of Aseels that wouldn’t revert to head fighting or couldn’t take the steel like this family. 

 

I never heard Bob swear except when describing Oriental that had either of those qualities.  They were “shit” Orientals.  To Bob, billing and head fighting were “dunghill qualities” as much as lack of gameness.  Bob said most Orientals were very game to a “pounding” especially to the head and neck, but had never been selected for body cutting gameness.  Bob thought the true test of all the qualities of a gamecock was maximum length 2 ¼ inch fair heels (better at 2 1/8”) silver heels rules (at least Burkey gaff gauge specifications) that gave head fighters and body fighters a more equal chance.  Too short or two slow short heels were dunky heels to Bob.  They didn’t test the give or take of body cutting. 

 

Bob subscribed to the Dr. J. W. Cooper silver heel theory of testing cocks and matings.  Bob’s best grades were superb cutters to the heart and lung areas of the body.  The 51st main he lost, a stag main, was to a family of Toppy Grey stags heeled in 1 7/8” low point bayonet gaffs.  He said they were deadly so heeled.  He said the cocker fed them boiled rice every hour and they kicked his ass.  He never talked much about his 50 main wins in a row before that, or the ones after. 

 

I talked to one cocker that lost a 9-cock main of famous Whitehackles to Bob.  The cocker said he did quite well.  He won two of the fights and almost won another! 

 

Once a famous cocker called Duke, was asked to put up a mixed show of southeastern U.S. Ace cocks to fight those “lowly California Oriental grades” a main for a large sum of money.  It is said that the Duke said “forget it.”  No one can beat those cocks a main in those big heels.  Your cocks may not even be able to drive them. 

 

Bob used those big heels even in derbies on the big 1950’s and 60’s grades.  They looked to be double the diameter of regular gaffs.  They were the nearest duplicate to a cock’s natural spur I’ve seen.  I asked him why he used them in derbies against slimmer heels.  He said would you rather be shot with a .22 caliber bullet or a .45 caliber bullet?  The only argument Bob had against slim heels was their cutting and fish hooking effect as non fair heels, i.e. slashing points. 

 

Bob nor Clarence thought knives as any test of any quality of a game cock, even cutting ability.  Knives or slashers were dunky weapons.  To the Boles, skinny, fish hooking point gaffs and knives were ruining the sport and the breeds of game fowl themselves.  They thought pits and referees should cut off any points that would cut or go through the gaff gauge.  Also, all gaffs and the cocks should be swabbed with water soaked cotton and given two drops of all contents before the billing and possibly later during all money fights. 

 

It would be very easy for pits to do this, speaking as a referee.  For instance, a small jar of distilled water and ball of cotton and litmus paper could be assigned to each cock and kept in full view of everyone.  All cocks and gaffs could be checked before and after each fight.  This precaution would prevent unfounded rumors as well as most attempts at unfair practices.  If the litmus didn’t detect a foreign substance, a drink of the contaminated water before would.  In money fights, where an ill effect might be destined, a different cock could be used for the taste test.  Both representative pit, such as a referee, and a representative of the entries would oversee all testing. 

 

With all the legal problems the sport is facing, it is time to police the sport from within.  The peace of a lot of breeders, as well as the shutting up of some poor losers who blame everything but themselves for their losses, would be worth this reinforcement of the cock pit rules alone.  Allegations of drugs and crooked practices, as well as slasher knife exhibits in jury trial cases don’t bode well in defense of cock fighting as a sport. 

 

When the Humane Society “expert” accidentally spills the case of slasher knives on the floor in front of the judge and jury, and carefully examine them one at a time while trying to get them admitted as evidence against you, you’re cooked, whether the evidence is admitted or not.  Your peers do not like slashers.  They can understand and see that a silver heel is actually stencil duplicate of a cock’s natural spur.  Silver heel wounds heal much more quickly than natural spur wounds.  That’s why the sport of cockfighting was accepted, historically, by even the Humane Societies.  While other forms of animal fighting were not.  Cock fighting is the natural process of continuing the species.  It occurs in nature whether observed by spectators or participants or not.  Part of this acceptance has been that chickens are on the bottom of the food chain for all omnivores and carnivores.  In nature, the losing or damaged cocks quickly enters the food chain. 

 

Most wild jungle fowl hatch a preponderance of males.  The Malays approximately 7-1.  Cockfighting is a win win situation in nature.  The strongest male become the brood cock to perpetuate the species while the weaker ones enter the food chain.  A law against cock fighting is either a law against nature or a law against observing the occurrence of a natural event.  Anyone who observes two pheasant cocks fighting in a field is breaking the law, technically, if he doesn’t try to stop the fight, or enjoys watching it in any way.  That was the defense used to win an Idaho case.  Now, I get off my soap box.  I promised Bob I would pass his sentiments and solutions on to the cocking fraternity. 

 

Pheasant hunting was his best companion.  The Boles Oriental grades were not a blend, of two or three families.  The B. B. family was a blend set as a family.  It was pure American or non Oriental as he referred to it.  It was the same family Daddy Boles had in Columbine, Colorado that was later used in the Vizzard fowl in California. 

 

My family’s fowl as bred by my uncle in Folsom, California were closely related to the Boles fowl.  They were a family of Far downs, or black Irish fowl, and, a family of W. W. Holland greys. 

 

The Daddy Boles’ fowl were crosses of Ginn Grey on Brewer Black Warhorse as bred by R. L. 

Sanders of Georgia.  Daddy Boles crossed this family on Boston Roundheads or to a research Aseel cock line for his best battle crosses.  The Aseel hen line wasn’t established until Clarence got the 1944 Aseel hen of the research family in Utah, while stationed at Hill Air Force base during WWII.  Until that time, the best grades were less than one-half Oriental.  The Vizzard greys, the George Rice Greys, and the Pete McKinley greys were franchises of the Columbine Boles mating.  Clarence got the family Oriental line and Bob got the franchise on the family B. B. line.  He considered this family most important. 

 

Until 1950 in Bob’s breeding records, which I have, stands for many things, Boles Black, Big blacks, Brewer Blacks, and Brass backs.  All these terms apply to one hen line family made from a black, brass-backed Earl of Derby cock and a Spanish hen that was bred to a black Irish Far Down cock and a Toppy grey family that was heavy in Ginn and W. W. Holland bloodlines.  Bob got down to one hen of this mating from each side in 1944, “BB” and “BB2.” 

 

Bob said he had one one Black Death cock left, an eight time winner, smooth head, at the time.  All the B. B.’s trace to that cock and those two hens.  They lost the Toppy within one or two generations. 

 

Bob called R. L. Sanders to get some ore brood stock.  Sanders said he had to destroy the entire family.  He had got in a fight with Col. Brewer’s feeder who cold-cocked him.  He game that family the same toe mark every year, so you couldn’t tell which black hens were by the cold cock, so he killed them all.  Sanders also bred the Brown red Leopards. 

 

Bob referred to this B. B. family as Col. Brewer Black Warhorses.  They were different from the Bacon or Hopkinson Warhorses in hen line, but probably related in cock line as he thought the best John Stone’s and Far Downs were the same BlackIrish Sumatra family.  He thought they traced to the famous “Negro Moras” (Black Death cocks).  The pirate defeated the best of England’s cocks in a main for a ship load of gold.  Bob also thought the brass backed Earl of Derby cocks traced to the Negro Moras.  Col. Brewer’s mating had brought that blood back together – the best of the Sumatra.  The Spanish hen had contributed the best bottom possible from all game fowl, a Bankiva trait.  Bob said that Toppies, Muffs, and three spurs were all Sumatra traits as was the black color.  The Toppy Greys were also a Sumatra Bankiva blend. 

 

Bob considered the good Spanish blood to be unequaled in bottom, however all his experiments other than the B. B. family failed.  He said even at only 1/64 infusion, they would revert to head fighting like most of the Oriental families he tried.  Some would fight perfectly for even ten pittings, then when the other cocks was down, stand in front of him, and get hit through the lungs.  The B. B.’s wouldn’t do that. 

 

In the B. B. family purges, Bob usually had 6 “pure’ B. B. cocks that were three-years old or older.  He had a yard of pullets from each of those cocks separately marked out of old line B. B. hens.  The cocks had proven to be aces in 2 1/8” heels.  They were paired and fought morning, noon, and night, about five minutes in corked 1 ½ heels with about ½” tip exposed for three days.  They were kept in dark carry cases between battles.  Whenever a cock made a mistake that Bob didn’t like, he dispatched that cock and all of his daughters.  The last or ninth battle, the corks were removed.  I swear that some of those cocks hit the hardest after they were dead.  He didn’t keep those cocks; he was after the daughters of the best one. 

 

In 1970, he stopped the last fight and saved both cocks.  He said, I want to keep this one, you can have that one.  “I got a B.B. line hen, a B.B.2 line hen and a nine time winner B.B. X three spur blinker cock on that trip from Bob.  He said that was the only American cock that had made his Oriental grade battle line up in twenty years.  He told me how to make a family out of them.  He then took me on the yard and showed me a white 17 year old brood cock.  He said he was a black brass back until his sixth year molt when he turn white.  He was the sire of my B.B. line hen and he had been the best sire in the B.B. line since 1944. 

 

In 1990, I produced a black brass back derby colored ace cock from that line that turned white at four years old.  He also was an exceptional brood cock as a producer as was his full sister who stayed pure black.  I have a family by him out of the B.B.2 line that now come 100 percent black-brass backed derby, as well as a black line out of his sister. 

 

The first 22 eggs out of my 1970 Boles mating had quite an influence on the sport of cockfighting in Idaho and surrounding states for the next 10 years.  That is quite a story in itself, best highlighted by the Black Death entry of cocks that won the prestigious Utah 8-cock.  When these cocks were later fought at the big Medford, Oregon derby, Bobby jumped across the pit yelling at me.  He said “Where did those guys get my cocks?  They say that are Mugs, but I know my cocks, Mugs don’t look like that and surely can’t fight like that!”  I settled him down with the 22 egg story and the fact that those guys were friends and associates of mine. 

 

Thanks to Dennis Drown of Idaho, the best of that line was held together from a cock named “Black Jack” and a B.B. line hen.  These are the B.B. families I took to Colorado in 1988 that made the best Oriental grades Sam ever produced.  One set of brothers won derbies in Kansas, New Mexico and a large derby in Kentucky as fought by the Smith Bro’s. 

 

Bob put the black Far Down cock in the B.B. family in 1945.  Since that time he has tried that cock line family on several outside hen lines.  As with his other families, bob was very smart.  He would use a hen of the outside blood.  If he owed fowl from the mating to the other breeder, it was only Bob’s cock line.  If it worked, he had the hen line – an old Oriental breeder’s trick.  I procured several hens for Bob over the years; some Rubles, the frost greys from Geo. Davis in Seffner, FL., and a Dom hen from Don Kimbrell in Idaho, among others.  Of all these, oddly enough the Dom hen was kept in one of the Far Down cock lines.  Perhaps that worked well because that Dom line had an infusion of Gordon in it.  Bob also used a Sullivan Dom cock line on another family line, but more for camouflage purposes.  He bred a family down to one onemillionth Dom that still came Dom colored.  However, one of the Far Down lines that was best in the 50’s and 60’s, carried the Kimbrell Dom. 

 

Some Idaho breeders, Pat Smith, Harry Evers and Grant Quinn had hit a nick mating with a Boles Far Down cock over Kimbrell Dom hens which they were selling to the California knife cock market.  Evidently they had some qualities Bob liked also.  One of the Far Down families I 

got from Bob in 1980 didn’t have Dom in it, the other did. 

 

I helped Susan disperse the cocks after Bob’s death, five Dom colored cocks were in the lot, not grade cocks.  She said he told everyone they were sparring cocks but I would know what they were.  The are squeaky crowers like one of the Far Down families. 

 

Bob’s favorite color was a Coal Black cock with lemon or brass on his wing butts like a Sid cock.  It is said that the Sid Taylors were almost pure Far Down, as he, Sid Taylor discarded everything but an eight-time winner blue cock after he tried a pure yard of black Irish fowl.  Bob thought the same family of Far Down fowl were responsible for the best Warhorses and Sids in America. 

 

Bob’s great black cock was a heavy Sumatra throwback.  His heavy plumage dragged the ground and he had a Mulberry face.  He put the brilliance in the Oriental grade mating like Phalanx influenced the Thoroughbred breed of horses. 

 

Both Bob and Clarence considered the Indian Aseel to be the best gamecock in all qualities that had ever been developed.  The best Aseel was one third Malay, one third Bankiva and one third Sumatra, the total gene pool and the highest gametic potential of the species.  All they needed to do was to revitalize those best qualities.  They thought the Bankiva and the Sumatra came from the Original Malay.  It worked.  They won more figthts with more Malay than anyone in the history of cocking.

BOB BOLES, THE LEGEND COCKER, WAS KIN TO BLACK BART, THE FAMOUS OUTLAW BY JUST JACK (April 2003, The Feathered Warrior) 

During a period of time after Bob and Clarence Boles and their attorney, Jim Vizzard, placed a legal injunction on their names being printed in any game fowl journals or fight reports, they used the pseudonym “Black Bart” entry. 

 

When I asked Bob why they chose that name, he showed me an old family Bible that indicated that their grandfather “Bowles” and his brother came to the Denver area after the Civil War. The brother became known as “Black Bart,” the outlaw. 

 

One of Black Bart’s most legendary feats was when he put on his boots backwards and walk 10 miles through the snow… The posse chasing him went the wrong way. 

 

Years later, during the 1990’s, when I visited Bob and Susan, Bob had a shake cock in his battle line-up he called “Black Bart.” He was darker than other cocks in the line-up that he called his “Black Stabbers’ mating.” 

 

Bob said that “Black Bart” and “Black Stabber” and the great Aseel: Spanish Miner Blue 26 time winner, 50 years ago, were three of the greatest battle cocks he ever bred. He thought the Black Bart mating was the most consistent – the old, “big-nick mating,” but, they came too big – mostly shakes. 

 

At the time, he had fought Bart six times; then, he broke his right leg. It had healed with a big lump on it; and, he’d fought him three more times, since. Bart is the big shake cock shown in the Bob Boles video. Bob liked to take a big shake cock with his derby entries in case anyone wanted to match a cock of any weight – sometimes seven or eight pounders – for a sum of money. Black Bart was his shake ace on more than nine of those occasions; and, was in the keep again when Bob went into hospice. 

 

Ruben and I took “Black Bart” and “Back Stabber” along with the other cocks at Susan’s dispersal. We retired them to the brood pen until they too passed on last year – five years later. Hopefully, the blood stock from these individuals will keep the Boles Legend alive for a long time.

 MY BLACK BART BOLES PROGRAM FOR 2003 

“Black Bart” was bred by Bob Boles in 1989 from his old, big nick mating, that won 30 (35 entryaverage derbies) from 1990-1992. 

 

Bart won shake fights between 1991 and 1994 when shown in a video of the Boles fowl. 

Bart had a big lump on his right leg which had been broken in his 6th fight. He had won three more fights at the time of the video-1994; and had won six more fights by 1997; and, was in the keep again when Bob died. He was eight years old. Bob said Bart won more fights to an older age than any of his former “big nick” cocks that he had fought to age six or eight; so, he didn’t think his “big nick” mating was slipping like some people thought. (That was due to other, smaller, matings he’d been trying like the 3/8 Oriental grade, “Back Stabbers.”) 

 

The best big-nick grades were ½ Aseel; or, 5/8 Oriental, like Black Bart; and, 3/8 the Polecat B.B. family. (Bart’s spurs turned down just like my old Polecat B.B. brood cock, from Bob.) I still have this nine year old cock and hen; and, a select young pair out of them that are Polecat colored. I have another trio – actually two trios that came both black and Polecat out of the Dom colored B.B.’s I got from Bob. I still have the zig-zag barred dom hen shown in the Boles video, as well as the little black Ghan Aseel hen shown with chicks in the video. I bred her to Black Bart until he died last year. I have and exceptional trio of them. I also bred Bart to a Boles hen of every other strain that made up his pedigree and set back a select pair or trio. A Fardown hen, a B.B. hen, a Boles old family Jasil-Aseel hen; and, two Jap hens that Boles told me to try that came from the same “Japanese Gardener” family of Japs that his great 1964 Jap cock that made his Jaseels and the great Boxwood cocks. Sonny Hancock had that family that was still proving itself in major competition; and, that he thought Sam Gowdy had the same Jap family. 

 

Sam helped me procure two of his Jap hens; and, by a stroke of luck. I got Sonny’s foundation 

Jap hen, from his estate., that he had loaned to a friend of mine for a $500 hen fight match vs. a Hatch hen. The hard-hitting Jap hen won quite easily, and, later produced some great grade sons fought as the “zoomers” by my friend. He gave her to me to raise some fowl for him three years ago. 

 

While all the Black Bart matings are exceptional-especially those back to Oriental hens – the Bart-Hancocks are in a class by themselves as Boles said they would be. They are the fastest; and, can fight as well going backwards as forwards. I’m setting back two full yards of them to set as families. 

BOBBY BOLES THE CALIFORNIA KING 

By (the Ancient one) 11-20-01

Bob Boles and the Oriental Grade Game Fowl That Made Him World Famous as a cock fighter 

Were From Colorado by Just Jack, The Gamecock Magazine, January 2000, pages 141-147

Not sure just where to start as Bob boles was so vast, so intense, so unbelievable to most who never saw Bob boles in action. To the many that saw Bobby at Derbies every two weeks and for a spell every weekend, it looked like a dream come true as all watched in total amazement. 

 

Were going to lay some ground rules here, We’ll speak lightly of those still living except maybe one or two!!! As Tom Spurrier said this is Going to be a long one , best toss another log on the fire. It may take me a while to really explain to you all about Boles, his ways, his ideas, his many hidden abilities, when I’m done it will blow your mind . Boles was truly the greatest legend in cocking of all time, plus the most successful and never sold a feather. Even after being offered 30,000 and up just for a trio. (How would this grab many of you peddlers out there??? 

 

Envied by most, feared by ALL!!! If I can keep kick’in till this article is done, it will give you a real eye open-er. to get the ball roll’en Boles went to hot springs AR. three times as I recall (on one of those trips he had a wreck with Doc. Watkins) Jack Dempsey the boxer was the first ever to pull a million dollar gate. Dempsey often came to cock fights. Sand springs, OK. and hot springs AR. Now Tom Spurrier and Jack Dempsey looked enough alike to be full brothers when their hair was wet and slicked down with that old rose Hair Oil. Tom was taller. 

 

The first time I saw the boles boys, they were pump’in gas and lube’in cars on the grease rack. 

Ed teelman and I had been over on the coast look’in at some two year olds to buy (race horses) Ed’s car was low on gas. It was a Star or Essex’s car, at this minute I’m not sure? As I’m a horse and chicken man. We had the car filled up as it was a shell gas station and I think we were in Madera CA. after hearing the cocks crow I asked If we could take a look at the fowl. (they did not care back then) This was way before the ‘NICK’!! Bobby and Clarence were just two more wanna be cocker’s. This had to have been in the 30’s and their fowl were nothing special, some 

of this and some of that. I saw Brownreds, and black greys, being Hogg Toppies O.K Roundheads, Clarets. They had most of their cocks out on string walks, and to this day I still believe Boles string-walks and tie cords. 

 

Bobby was a practical and wise cocker from the start, all Bob needed was a good nick to go with all his many tricks, abilities, and ideas. I will never forget what I saw that day. Cocks tied by the leg and the other end, was eye screwed to a pair of lettuce crates. He had one crate stacked on top the other with side braces to hold them in place, and a flat board on top set on a tilt to let the droppings fall off. On top at the back, out in the hot sun he had emptied out car and truck batteries as water Jugs. I ran my finger inside one of the cells and the water seemed hot. As we drove away I was thinking those cocks needed colder water If he was ever going to win a derby. But over the years Boles has proven it helps tough’in a cock up if you stress them a tad, just like making good wine. 

 

While Bob and Clarence were brothers , Bob was the thinker and the (Master mind). Back then both were just two very average cockers trying to win a Derby!! The boles brothers lived and kept their fowl behind the shell gas station. Time went by and not too long after this the war came into view. Clarence joined the Army, him being single, and later becoming a Barber and living out his life in Santa Cruz, CA. Never marrying. 

 

Bear in mind that Boles always liked dark fowl and owned different ones, early on that were not his famous nick blacks. Bob ran the gas station and tended the fowl (very average fowl) Bobby ordered three black hens from R.L Saunders of Commerce GA. two had top knots one clean headed. Bob even told Mac White they were Black Claiborne?? Who ever heard of black Claiborne’s ? word has it they were 3/4 Brewer Warhorse 1/4 River Tassel from G.T. Brewers blood of Mississippi.. Rube Thompson of Fresno/Hanford California. Rube had fowl at both places at the time , also bought a trio from ole R.L Saunders in just weeks from Bobby’s order. 

Rube called his black death and his and Boles Blacks won some good fights. But two years later Rubes started pulling up and wanting to go back to Georgia. While Boles got Gamer and Gamer and even became Deep GAME. While Bobby only got the three hens from ole R.L he borrowed a Black 8 time winner from Russell Bowdin of TX. (spoken Bow-Dean) And bred over these three hens, and he did breed away from the top knot side. How? You pull their heads off and put them down in a post hole. And say nothing. On the quiet side Bobby then bought two cocks and four hens from the old cocker in KY. who has bred super game and cutting Sid’s for years and years. Mingus wrote about this old boy in his later years, Mingus also bought some of these black spangle Sids and put into his Brownred Sid’s. These are the blacks that Boles hit the Nick with, and also why Bobby’s hens started coming with white spangle feathers mixed in with the black and if they lived to 7-10 years would come solid white. Also 40% of Bobs cocks would come Brass backed. while Clarence was away in the Army he was stationed in TX. could of been Fort Bliss, Texas, you know El PASO? One weekend while driving around with a buddy in the country side Clarence heard some cocks crowing and slowed to take a look. Sure enough some fowl were running loose. 

 

Clarence stopped and saw some kind of Asil’s, Strange looking but real Orientals, biggish, with very low and streaming tail feathers dragging the ground. Clarence asked about them and the lady had kids and not much money, as her husband had been shot or was in jail I forget which? He said how much, she said 3 dollars each, Clarence bought a few and sent them to brother Bob. after just three weeks, brother Bob called for Clarence to go and buy what she had left. All in all they got seven head and culled down to five head. Bobby has been asked asked all his life (after the NICK) What were his Blacks and what were his Rare Asil’s? Now Robert J. Boles and Susan O. Boles are great folks and have been preyed upon since the big NICK. When Bobs dad came into the country their name used to be Bowles, but like many the W got dropped. Bobby always said he thought his Asil’s were knife Asil’s and I’m sure he meant this as they being no doubt from old Mexico, perhaps, Mexican Asil bred with Red don Rossie Indian Asil from Argentina. Whatever they are Ghans and Sonatols. Clarence got back home around 1943 he learned to cut hair in the Army work’in on his buddies, If you Believe that Susan’s nephew just flew over to India and picked these up, I have swamp land for you in Florida, Also if you believe that Bob had the same blacks and the good Asil’s in 1933 and he never hit the big NICK until 1946? are you to believe it took him 13 years to cross the same fowl to get a nick? If you think their were 5 or 6 stories about the Chet fowl,Well’ there must 12 or 13 about Bob Boles and his fowl!! I’m to old to brag but I probably knew more about Boles and his fowl than he knew himself. You ask how can this be? Because he only knew his side, and I know both sides. His and all the others that were after his blood, and on and on. Bobby and Clarence got out from under the shell station and Bobby bought his place out on road 29 in Madera. Clarence took his share and bought a place in Santa Cruz. thus going to work in a barber shop and both brothers raising fowl. Bobby did a lot of back yard fighting and testing and I do mean A LOT. At a six cock derby somewhere south of Madera the Boles brothers won six straight and two hack fights in early 

1946, And from this day on for 22 long years boles ate up all the competition. (except Alvin 

Roca the Chet/Asil breeder from Fresno CA.) 

 

At first, many thought it was just luck, or after the nick brood-stock died things would be back to normal, No chance Boles won and won and won. During the 40’s 50’s 60’s Derbies were all over California, soon cockers would come to a derby and if Boles was there,they would box up and leave to go look for another derby and easier pickings. Soon everyone but Boles had meetings and all wanted Boles to break one of his cocks legs before pitting just so they would have a chance. California was 1 1/2 inch for many years. So they put it to a vote and voted in long heel’s thinking this would stop the Boles winning streak? Guess what?? Boles normally won in 3 or 4 pittings, but now in long heels he was winning in the fly or in 1 or 2 pittings. The plan had backfired!! Bobby always had a shake problem 5.12 to 6.6 Lbs, Many cockers just started bringing in smaller cocks so they wouldn’t half to meet him. While I knew Bobby I never tried to get too close, sometimes you cannot see the forest for the tree’s!! During the 50’s Boles got on an even bigger roll, you never knew when or where Boles would show up, as he knew every pit and every rut in California fought from south to north and on up into Oregon. Boles used to fight up at Rosenburg Oregon at the old up stairs pit in the barn, till one of owners started sneaking with the other guys wife. So the loser burnt down the pit. And the Rosenburg pit had run for years. In the mean time Boles started going to Oklahoma to sand springs, at shell creek, Frank Cutsinger was running shell creek, and Boles needed a new crowd, and he found it here for a spell, as every one thinks he can out draw Jessie James, till he tries it a few times!!! Cutsinger treated Bobby real good, Gave Bobby some Heel’s and went out of his way for Bobby. Clarence would sometimes come to California derbies and even some out of state ones, but soon it became a one man show. At one Derby in OK. Cutsinger asked Bob for a favor and /boles was in deep and could not say NO!!! Frank asked bob for one of his Battle cocks. Bob gave him one, and in 24 hours the cock was in Kansas City’s brood pens. No money changed hands, Cutsinger simply owed him them a favor, Well this was lesson number one for Bobby and he never let anyone else close to him. Kincaid and crew put this Boles battle cock over 8 Toppy hens and many of these stags kicked ass. The next year they bred the cock back to his daughters and many ran off. (note you cannot breed Orientals from sides as they are a hybrid to start with, You know? like a mule. Bobby dale for a time handled for Kansas city, maybe 4 or 5 years. While Bobby Dale had one bad eye he liked to fight chickens, he was the younger brother to Tom Dale who just passed away 3 or 4 years ago, Mr. Horta (grandad Horta we all called him) Was a grandad to Jessie Horta and there was a uncle Lupe who died way to soon in life. From time to time we are going to be side tracked to give you a visual of what really went on. Once boles was at shell creek and fighting a pyle cock 1/2 Spanish 1/2 asil and later became a 16 time winner and was Bobs biggest winner ever. Myself and many others thought Boles had a bunch of 26 time winners, anyways, I did not know grandad Horta very well yet, but 

I know he travelled everywhere Boles was fighting and bet lots on him, ( I just didn’t Know) Bobby pits the Pyle cock and he’s into a south Texas cock, and he flies across the pit and cuts bobby to hell and back, at the handle Bobby is rattled bad, bobby holds his head and neck out, and the rich Texans and Oil Okies are betting a thousand a call, and grandad Horta is calling them to a stand still on a seemingly dying cock? I’m thinking this poor Mexican gentlemen has had too much Tequila, otherwise he would not be calling all that money on a dying cock? Bobby set his cock down easily on the word pit, The Texas cock seeing the other cock down really got into gear this time and blasted across the pit, all speed and no control, Bobby’s Pyle cock buckled into the Texas cock and killed him dead on the score line, Stone dead, so dead he didn’t even kick. I couldn’t believe my eyes, I thought my god, my god, this Pyle/Spanish/Asil cock later on became Boles biggest winner of all time, a 16 time winner I will send a picture of this cock. 

 

Later on I became good friends with the Hortas and grandad Horta, as without his love for chickens Jessie would of come into trouble in grandads eyes, and he was probably right. Jessie had many talents and super car painting was just one of them (Jessie is reading this and wondering who the hell am I?) He custom painted cars for the Barris brothers custom customs in Los Angeles Ca. Sometimes I would fall by and watch Jessie paint friends cars at his home (moonlighting if you will) Jessie had a small house with a lean-to carport and painted a lot of them early T-Birds with the round port holes in them. Candy apple and Golden persimmon. Later went down to Acapulco Mexico and painted custom boats in super metal flake colors. I’m sure grandad Horta is long gone but not forgotten and I hope Jessie is well. Early on the Horta’s got the California Hatch. The Horta’s were wonderful folks, we need more of them. 

 

In the 50’s Boles was in his Hay-day winning at (WILL) wherever he went, Soon the big boys wanted to hire Bobby as a breeder for them. He turned them all down, he didn’t need anybody and he did not sell any fowl, so soon he had crooks and thieves checking him out day and night. 

 

In the early years Boles drove an old Chrysler station wagon to the many derbies and 95% of the time it rolled out with all the money. While bobby always remained frugal, Many times he would have liked to bet a side bet of 5 or ten $$ without giving odds!! Many cockers on the side lines always laid $100 to 60 or even 50 from the get go before being pitted.. 

 

Bobby only got the center bet of $50 or $100 unless he went out of California but even in a new area the odds never left him long.. It got Bobby’s goat because he could not get any outside bets for even money.. But had all the main and purse anyway.. Few people indeed ever fought Boles a main he did get a few mains the first year after the Nick.. 

 

But this was short lived as word gets around fast.. Soon Bobby got spoiled after winning 95% of all his matches. His normal pattern was to bring 22 or 23 cocks to each , Enter 2 shows and hack whatever he could after the , Many times bobby would win straight fights in both shows, other times he might drop one fight in one entry but still get all the money.. It got to the point where Boles would holler like a pig caught under a new gate, when he lost a fight.. Year after year boles would bring 22 or 23 cocks and loose none or only 1 or 2 birds.. Note” Bobby deserved to win as no other cocker in history ever put in as much time and thought as he did.. Every morning except Sunday, Bob took a wheel barrow and shovel and cleaned up all the overnight manure from every pen and tie cord.. This alone was 2 hours each day..Boles put small mesh wire under each brood pen roost, coming up from the ground and going to the top of the wall .. Then he hinged a 1-1/2 foot board at the back bottom of the pen, thus just reaching in and cleaning it all up.. Other pens he would put a slant board under the roost pole.. The same for each tie cord no fowl on Bob’s yard ever spent a day in his own manure.. All tie cords were always on Bermuda grass (Bermuda is not only green it also has lots of seeds on it) Boles was most clever in many, many ways. He never took a mixed entry (other than the one Pyle cock) By not taking any mixed entry one looking on from the side lines could not compare one show from the last show or the next show of cocks .. Bob had a thing for Dom’s as his blacks had Dom in them.. We will get to that later.. Boles in one showed all white grade cocks and while they did quite well, I never ever saw one of the m again.. there was something he did not like about them.. What happened to them?? Did he sell them on the side! Nope he post holed them, kept the grass growing.. 

 

At first, Bob only showed his Nicks, being half of his fardown/Sids and half of his lite blackred yellow leg Asil’s.. Most would come Dark body with red in neck and saddle to regular light black reds with yellow to smutty legs.. some of the darker grade cocks showing ash color legs..( No you are wrong no Hatch) Bobby hated a ducking cock, as a ducking cock is just a target for any good Grade.. From about 1954 to 1959 that were even more outstanding than the first Nick. These cock would kill, couple, Death rattle a cock in the break.. These leggy Grades would time and time reach up under the other cocks wings and cut,cut ,cut.. few cocks even lived through the second piting.. What were these spotted leg killers? Only about 3 people knew.. His friend up the street who was not a cocker, kept Bob’s brood pen from prying eyes.. A 3/4 Asil 1/4 Jap cock bred over Black hens.. Somewhere Bob got a medium size Jap cock and bred over one of his Asil hens then took a 1/2 and 1/2 stag and bred to another Asil hen of some distance .. When this one special Jap cock died he could not find another that suited him.. and he spent the rest of his life searching for the same, you would think he would have gotten a hen after he new they were that good but you know this chicken business.. I have on hand photos of at least 8 of 9 cocks and stags that Bobby discarded, all medium size Japs, at times bobby;s place was like grand central station for Orientals.. This is no doubt were the so called Daddy Boles japs tale came from.. Bobby’s arms got tired of post holen all of these so Bob did give some of these away to a chosen few.. 

 

Bear in mind I’m old and this story is going to jump back and forth a few years and not all in a straight line.. I recall it just as if it had happened yesterday .. From his run of 22 years going from 1946 to 1968.. In the last years from 1966 Bob’s percentage started to fall off.. I asked Clarence one day at the if he thought the competition was getting better or if the boles cocks were getting worse? (you could talk to Clarence he was very forth right) you got very little out of bobby.. Clarence said to me, I think it’s both.. first how far can you go with only 5 head of Asil to start with plus one of the many times Bob got hit by thieves they stole one very special pure Asil cock that was very valuable In Bobby’s breeding program this one cock set the brothers back years in fact they never recovered from it, Secondly Clarence said we used to run into a lot of them old Hatch type cocks Dumb slow, and low headed power cocks, that were just setting ducks for good cutting Grade cocks.. Now days many are breeding much sharper battle cocks Murphy/Law and Butcher/Lacy cocks were giving our Grades a much harder fight.. Clarence died of cancer about 5 weeks after I talked to him… Time goes by and everyone is after Bobby boles.. The crooks the thieves and the rich boys.. Walter Kelso was a very well known cocker and oil man from Galveston TX. Walter reasoned that anything could be bought if enough money was offered, the first time Walter offered Bobby 30.000 for a trio of his Asil’s and to tell Kelso how to breed them??True to his form Bobby said No!! Why would he sell a feather when he was making money hand over fist? The second time was after Kelso saw bob fight at hot springs Arkansas with ED Piper running the show.. This time Kelso got real serious and offered Bobby a blank check signed by Walter and told bobby to fill in the amount, Any amount that boles wanted for one Trio of Asils.. Walter signed the check and was holding it out trying to stick it in Bobby’s shirt pocket, again Walter told Bobby to just put in any amount, Even 100,000 if that’s what it took!!! I mean Walter wanted some of those world beater’s in a bad way!! Yet Bobby simply said NO THANKS and walked away.. Now don’t that just make the hair curl up from your head all the way to your spine on all you non fighting-chicken peddlers from Utah to Alabama and in between.. 

 

Word is that Walter Kelso was so upset after this second and final turn down that he took an extended vacation to the virgin Islands in St. Thomas and St. Croix were he watched the girls and the local type cock fighting, I think they use a long double sided in the Virgin Islands… Next, we have a combine out of Texas who simply wanted bobby on their team, it was not a matter of money but pride, they already had money to burn.. They tried over and over to get Bobby to join them as a feeder, as a handler, But mostly as a breeder was really why they wanted his skills.. Boles answer was the standard NO THANKS!! Why should He? As Bobby did not need them? Nor did they need their pockets lined any more.. All they really wanted were his skills and knowledge, I am not going to speak the name of this Combine as some of the younger ones are still perhaps alive.. On one of my many trips of hauling horses from Oklahoma to California, I stopped by to take a look at their layout in Texas, Man’ what a set up with custom everything.. Sand stone and Redwood chrome hinges.. It must of cost them half a million even back then.. This rich Texas combine just wanted to win, no matter what it took as cost was no object, thus they voted among themselves and decided to fight fire with fire.. They imported Orientals from India and Japan, went on an all out buying binge for all kinds of Orientals.. soon they had Japs of medium sizes in Shamo, Tuzo, Chibee and many more.. From India they shipped Javas, Ghans, Sonotol’s and more.. These guys put in an extra 20 acres just to try and beat bobby at his own game.. Jap Grades on one 10 acre side and Asil Grades on the other 10 acre side, they crossed Shuffler, Brownreds, Bee Martins, Warhorse, Mug Whoomp and more..2 years later they were ready to close in for the kill.. The Texas combine was not out to win over your average cocker, the had semi success winning over regular pit cocks ‘American fowl’ They wanted to beat Boles at his own game.. Now they felt they had the right ammo.. If Boles came to s creek at sand-springs OK. they were there.. Except for one thing? Every time they met Boles with one of their grades he would cut them down with ease time and time again.. This went on for almost 2 years, then they bit the dust, Well Almost anyway? 

 

They had one final plan to whip Boles with Helicopter fowl.. It sounded good at the time.. come to find out these Texans had gotten some unusual cocks from some cockers in KY. or TN. My Okie friend and I had gotten wind of this to be fought at Bakersfield, CA. out in the middle of nowhere under some cottonwood tree’s.. The fights were on and I must say these Southern cocks were as close as you could get to fighting like a Helicopter.. 

 

These cocks would break up about 3 feet and Boles cocks would just wait on the ground, the air cocks would cut some and then buzz back up in the air, turn and come back down lower and be kicking and cutting again without touching the ground, the air cocks cut and hurt Bobby a little, but sooner or later they had to land (just couldn’t stay airborne forever) when these strange cocks hit the ground boles cocks were on them like a duck on a June bug.. Any cock that takes a close roll with a Boles Grade was Hamburger meat.. I forget the score now, but the Helicopter cocks lost by a large % one win, one draw, and they did cut up some of Bobby’s cocks, However a Grade can take a ton of cutting due to their build and a very short digestive tract, plus their flesh is like rawhide leather, I had never seen anything like this, before or after to this day , I have no idea how these cocks were bred or out of.. to boles it was just another day at the office… I’m going to get the whole Boles story out to you however it will not be from start to finish, as there are many off ramps on this cocking freeway.. Before we go any further let clear the air on other writings by Just Jack H. now of Colorado . He used to live in the Northwest and several years ago, I knew him.. Also he was one of many who wanted me to write the facts on Bobby Boles..  

 

FACT- A jungle fowl is a Banty sized straight combed chicken that is full Dunghill who runs loose in the jungle and you can see these in all zoo’s.. No one in their right mind would mess with one..  

 

FACT- A Malay fowl is like a shamo cock, looks semi close, but has a buttercup comb and is a Dunghill even in naked heel events.. Yes Jack H. has been to Bobby’s place many times, but cannot believe everything Bobby tells you, he loves to lead in the wrong way from the real direction he is breeding, What Jack saw at Bobby’s place was pure Spanish fowl, straight comb and dark partridge in color very close only in appearance to wild jungle fowl.. Later on we will cover Bobby and his love and dreams for Spanish fowl.. Mostly to cut down on the size of his too large battle cocks.. 

 

FACT Boles did one time try Breeding PUN’s meaning Punjab.. Because Bobby saw these cocks and they could kick, there was a so called Oriental expert who lived in California he was asked to come see the Pun’s as well as see them spar, He was asked as to what he thought they were? for his money he said he thought the were 3/4 shamo 1/4 Asil.. bobby did try them, not game enough, you guessed it, down the old post hole, It worked for bobby and it can work for you.. If you just knew which ones to kill? CLUE’ The duckers, the puller ups, man-fighters, non-cutters, and don’t try to save an old breed that was no good to start with… 

 

One more example and we will let Just jack slide into Oblivion.. Jack and others were instrumental in the buying of battle cocks that Bobby let live after he was dead.. His wife Susan sold these few battle cocks, being about five head of dom colored cocks and twice as many Blackreds… Well the group buying the cocks only wanted the reds and none of the Dom’s, but when they discovered the price went up with picking what they wanted, they quickly bought all the cocks along with the Dom’s.. Had they only known that the Dom colored ones were full nest brothers to the red ones…Here is the kicker.. after buying said cocks the group had a non Oriental feeder train these cocks and they only won 4 fights, where as if an experienced Oriental feeder had fed these cocks I’M sure they would of had 8 wins… what were they thinking? Shame on you Just Jack… 

 

The track is fast and the horses are in their peak.. Stay tuned we have not yet out of the gate.. Next month we will talk about Clarence some, and Bobby’s Many,Many secrets to winning.. He string walked his battle cocks, Yet he country walked his brood cocks… 

Ferdi on Sabong 

The following notes were extracted from Just Jack's emails to me and there will be a test after the class: 

Bole’s Blacks, Brewer Blacks, or Brass Backs. Ruben and I have the breeding notes and original letters from ther breeders like Bowdouin in Texas who shipped Bob the Fardown cock. He was a coal black and his saddles and sickles were so long they dragged the ground-a very Sumatra like trait. He was the greatest cutting cock Bob ever saw-had won 5 fights for Bowdouin and Bob fought him 6 more times.. because he didn’t trust his gameness. Bob bred him to every hen on the place and line bred back to him from his old BB hen line. ( I got 2 cocks from Bob at 2 different times from this line-great cutters both). This cock’s blood went into the “big nick”. Les also told me that Bob just told him the BB’s were Warhorses. That’s not what he told me when I helped him purge them for 3 days on 2 different occasions. I new the old man, Mr. Hoover, from Ill. or Ind., a warhorse breeder. They didn’t come from him. Bob said they were bred by RL Sanders in Ala. the Brown-Red Leopard breeder. They were known as the Derry/Wall fowl and Sanders bred them for Col. Brewer i.e. the Brewer Blacks. They were a black Irish/Claiborne or Baltimore topknot cross-hence (Irish Fardown/Irish whitehackle or Derby/and Spanish. The Claibornes were arguably the greatest cocks of the 1800’s in every clime and weapon in America and only later surpassed by their cross on the Back Irish fowl which cross made the Warhorses-Bobby said. Bobby ordered and fought and bred these fowl from Sanders. They were mostly black-toppy fowl. They called them the black death cocks-like the Negro Mora’s the Pirate whipped Britan’s best with–Bobby got cocker of the year in Calif. with them before he ever put oriental in them- they were good but not great like their grades-the big nicks. Bobby sometimes refered to these BB hens as black claiborne hens. ( At about this same time Dabby Boles had partnered up with Bill Vizzard in Cal.-they were fighting a toppy/grey/oriental cross very succesfully-later known as the Vizzard greys and Pete Mckinley greys in Ne.:and, a cross of one of these cocks back to Claiborne hens in Utah known as the George Rice greys that went into the fowl known as the Kansas City Toppies-the best cutting fowl on the major circuit , according to Bobby. One year Bobby got down to one old brewer black hen and an 8 time winning black death cock-a smooth headed one. Ever since he bred to that pair he lost the toppy in them. When he called Sanders to get more, Sanders said he didn’t have them anymore. Col. Brewer’s feeder didn’t like him and cold-cocked him with a replacement broodcock one year. When he found out about it it was too late as he always gave the BB’s the same mark so didn’t know the good ones from the bad ones -so killed them all. That’s why Bob was looking for new blood when he used the Fardown cock and a Sid cock-both of which were bred down to less than 1/64 th in the BB’s. ( Denis Drown and I crossed the BB’s on Albany and Mug in Idaho in the 70’s and won everything including the Big 8 cock in Utah). 

The Japanese gardener (source of the Jap cock from Utah) and Dr. Barrick-from whom the old family aseel hen’s bloodlines came didn’t fight cocks. The aseels were used in University research for breeding immunity to western Fowl Paralysis in domestic fowl breeds like Brahma was being used in cattle.Thisfamily of aseels ( McCoy) throws occasional crooked breasts and has several distinguishing features other aseel families don’t have. Doug Hughes says Bobby told him that the Aseels used were the pair that Capt. Abercrombie flew in to Hill Air force base from India. They did use them like several other orientals over the years; but , they didn’t go into the big nick or into the fowl they called the ” old family aseels” that were line bred for years to the 0ld aseel hen from that original Jap stag that was the daddy of the Boxwood cocks-the best mating the Boles ever made. Bobby said they never found another oriental family that graded so well. He rated the Bombays from Bill Cataneo second best ( that went into the Cobras). They came dirty footed and came several colors from white to red to black. Bobby gave me one of these old cocks from Cataneo that was a dark red spangle that threw 2 white daughters and son’s. (Some of his old families threw whites now and then but not blacks. The aseels Abshire got were a black trio that Bobby let him pick. Bob said he never let anyone but me have the PURE old family ASEELS or BLACKS; and, that he did me a favor by killing them all before he went into the hospital and had to let Stan take care of the birds. Stan told me he crossed a black cock he took from Bobbies on Mingus Doms and Manziel sids. Ruben bought some when he went to see Bobby in hospice untill he died. He brought them back for me with the 30 some grade cocks and 5 dom colored BB’s that Susan called me to get. Those blacks from Stan were awfully mean manfighters-not like the Boles BB’s that are dog gentle-I disposed of them all. I did keep “Backstabber” and “Black Bart” Two of the best aces Bobby ever bred. I’ve bred them since 1997. Black Bart is an exceptional breeder. That is not, however, the best way to produce battle cocks-which are 1/2 oriental- 1/2 BB. Black Bart is the 7 time winner shown in Bobbies video. He was a 15 time winner and in the keep again when Bobby died. 

 

Bobby at one time liked Les Melville; but, never talked to him again , even on the phone after the 70’s after Les sold and let out some ofBoles’ 1/2 bloods-A Boles oriental cock Bobby bred to a Les Melville Atkinson aseel hen; and, a black aseel hen that Steve Peart brought back from India.( I had this hen for a while in Boise because Steve thought her eggs wouldn,t hatch-they were round like golf balls). Bob split the offspring with Les. Les bred them together but sold offspring to everyone (including me) and to breeders that fought at Bobbies pits-even-against Bob’s and Les’s aggreement to not let them out.( I let Martin Ytuarte- breed these plus an original old family hen in Idaho for me in the 70’s. Marty is a good breeder. He doesn’t have that old line, but has a family of black aseels that he says are really good for crossing on his family of black Irish fowl. I used to tell him a lot of 

things Bobby told me about breeding the grades.). I’ll reply to your other email concerning who got fowl directly or indirectly from Bobby or Clarence and explain why only Doug Hughes and I could have fowl with over 1/8 Boles old family oriental or BB in them. 

 

Bobby did not send Sam any fowl. I took the pair of Aseels from Bob to Sam’s to make the cross on Sam’s Japs-but Sam had already crossed Flynt Cobra on them so I took the aseels home and bred them here. The BB hen I left Sam was one of mine out of my 1972 Bolespurge stock. Doug did not get any hens from Boles. He got 17 stags from the Backstabber mating-3/8 aseel-5/8 BB. Doug did not get any of Sam’s Forsythe japs (the same Jap family acquired from the Japanese gardener) when Sam sold out because he didn’t want any Jap blood. Robbie White got only one grade cock from Bobby at the pit because he’d fought a sick cock and Bob didn’t want to take him home. Robbie got a dom hen from Augie Trujillo in Goleta that he thought was a camouflaged Boles BB hen. Les traded Robbie out of this hen with some Aseels. Robbie was crossing those aseels on his Kelsos when he died. Those are the aseels Claypoole and Mac White got-I know- I was there. They are not Boles aseels and couldn’t have more than 1/16 of Boles 1960 aseel brood cock in them. Like Bobbysaid, “Thank God I didn’t give Les any of my hen line. You can’t reproduce fowl without the hen line,he said. 

 

I don’t know why Sam would have told you this (referring to jalisquillo’s post). It is not true and he knows it. Doug told me himself that he got no hens from Bobby-which Bobby also told me. Sam has no fowl-he sold out in 1991 and even brought me his Cobra Aseel broodcock to take care of. Jesse Jorta had the stolen trio of aseels from Bobby in 1969-He bought them from the thief and told me at 

Copperstate to tell Bobby he could have them back for the $1000 he paid for them. My father built a FEED SERVICE CO plant in Madera in 1953 and hired Bob and Susan’s good friend John Simonette to manage it. I worked there and stayed with Bob and Susan during school vacations from Idaho and Utah because I liked the chickens so much and they had no children. Bob always said I’d get his fowl after he retired. –justjack 

=============================================================== 

 

Ferdi 

More Stories from Just Jack 

In 1994 when I visited Bob & Susan and picked up another pair of aseels and a Fardown line cock and hen, Robbie white visited us in Bob's living room. I had arranged for a Dr. in Denver to try a new treatment on Robbie's Parkinson's disease. Robbie and Bobbie discussed some Filipino to whom Bob gave some cocks and no hens. I think his name was Mitra. After I got home with the fowl, I got a call from a brother or relative to Pres. Aquino. They offered to fly to DIA in a private jet and buy a dozen eggs from me for $1000 if I wouldn't sell them any fowl. I declined, thank goodness, because Robbie and Bobbie heard about it. Robbie thought Bobbie was testing me, also. That's what happenned to Bob's and Les's relationship. Les sold some Filipino some asils that had the Boles aseel broodcock blood in it for some amount like $23K they told me. Bob never talked to Les again and was mad at me for having any dealings with him. I always got along with Les Quite well. We belong to the same church and religion. I still owe Les a trio of the Red Richardson Butchers I had in the 70's but they turned cold and I didn't send them. They were 20 minute wonders..they fought like hell for exactly 20 minutes-then squalled and ran . I probably bred them too close for too long and they couldn't take it. 

My original pair threw really good cocks...maybe they cut so good I didn't think they could be cold. 

Bobbie warned me about those "English " Derbys. He said they wouldn't purge out like his Irish lines. 20 minutes was a long way from 3 days! Bob had a similar prior experience with them graded on oriental, he said..Maybe ok for knife if you use the asil hen..but not our kind of fowl. Say hello to Mr. 

Saia for me. Justjack 

Ferdi 

Boles' Fighting Background 

The reason some people never read about the Bole's Bros. is that their attorney, Jim Vizzard, filed an injunction against any of the gamefowl publications to print their names or locations; or, fight reports as long as either of them was alive. They filed that in the 1950's when California went under felony gamefowl legislation. Since that time-thanks largely to the efforts of Boles and Melville- that felony restriction against gamefowl in Calif. has been somewhat reduced: but, the Boles never retracted their use of name restriction. They never sold fowl or wanted to let their good bloodlines out as long as they professionally competed with them. And, Clarence made Bob promise to never let hiw fowl ( the old family orientals) ever to be fought in the knife, just before he died. I sat in Bob's living room or at the kitchen table many times with Bob and Clarence discussing chicken things-mostly bloodlines which they considered the most important aspect in cocking. You are right, they fought mostly in the West except for their foray to Boxwood in Ark. where the derby was rematched into all the tough ones to try to beat them and" Louey C." crushed one of their cocks to take them out of first place; then 22 of their cocks were stolen when they went to the hospital with Dr. and Mrs. Watkins after the car wreck there.( those were the Boxwood cocks I mentioned that were sons and grandsons of the Jap. gardener stag). After that horrible experience, they pretty much stayed away from the big derbies and tournaments. Only Jesse "Lopez" Juarte's grandfather made out well at Boxwood, Bobby said. He went there from Calif.; sat in the top row of seats with a suitcase full of money on his lap and called all the odds in the house the first day on "those ugly Bole's orientals"- the next day he laid the odds. Both days the people lined up to bet against Boles. Mr. Juarte broke the house Bobby said-but all he did for us was take us to dinner-he said laughingly. This was before the Bole's non-print legal injunction and was probably only one of two fight reports regarding Boles or "the Black Bart" entry. "Old Fudd" reported that those California orientals weren't cocks but "animals." He said they handled those Duke, and Harold Southern power cocks by cutting. He said," they stood on one leg and cut them until it was tired-then switched to the other leg". The argument against the "Boles greatness" was that they did not compete against the big-name cockers in the big tournaments and derbies.However-the Boles kept an open invitation to any of them for a main for a substantial amount $-over the years; and fought approximatly 55 of them. They never lost a cock main! They lost one stag main against some toppy grey stags that were related to their birds, Bobby said. It was fought more for a test than money, Bob said. Even in the 50's, their fight proceeds were over $50k, their accountant reported. They did like to fight derbies at pits that inforced Burkey gaff gage and poison test rules. They liked 3 or 4 pits that had an average of 36 entries with reasonable entry fees that made Approx.10K pots by today's standards. At their peak, they travelled North to fight one on Saturdays, returned home, and travelled South to fight one on Sundays. They usually won both of them. After the season in 1990, Bobby called me on the phone to say "they" say I'm slipping. I've entered 20 derbies this year with an average of 36 entries. What is my fair share? I said ," you should win one derby about every 2 years. He said, "That's right, but I won 11 of them outright and was in the money split for 1st or 2nd in 5 others". "Do you call that slipping"? I said," frankley, yes-you used to win all of them." Bobby was 80 years old and still doing all of the work of breeding, feeding;and, fighting at that time.-justjack

According to Joseph...he was not after Bobby's Orientals....because he thought that the real secret to the "nick" were the Boles Blacks....Joseph said that when they sparred the Blacks ... they stayed on the line where they were 

dropped and JUST STAYED THERE with only their head moving to coax the other cock to come in.... He said they stayed there without a buckle for more than 10 minutes. 

 

There are many stories told about the Boles Fowl..and there are many who claim that they have his fowl.....but I will only believe those who were actually given access to his property...AS HE WAS A MAN WHO TOOK VERY FEW 

PEOPLE INTO HIS BREEDING YARDS... IN THE VIDEO TAPE, YOU COULD SEE THAT IN ORDER FOR ANYONE TO GAIN ACCESS TO HIS CHICKENS..YOU HAD TO GO THRU MANY PADLOCKED GATES OR CLIMB OVER VERY HIGH FENCES AND JUMP INTO YARDS OF GUARD DOGS.. 

Ferdi, This is a very accurate article, in general. I could expound on some specifics, however. I was very close friends with Bobby and Susan and visited them at least monthly, on the phone; and, visited their home almost annually from 1955 until Bob's passing in 1997. I was always enthusiasticaly taken around the fowl yards by Bobby, and helped him spar and purge cocks as well as set up matings. 

 

Finally, Irishcutt mentioned in this article what I've said all along as to the importance of the Irish Black BBs in Bob's matings. The all important style of Bobby's blacks (the BBs).-that would set up and suck an opponent into their "killy area" with wings open and heart and lungs exposed. I tried to tell you where to get a Fardown cock from a family that is set in those qualities to breed into your Albergotties-which also carry a little of that trait if selected. The writer didn't mention another quality that Bobby showed me: If you thrust another cock, in hand, head first through the door into a 32" jump pen at a BB cock-The BB would fly backwards into the back wall to get away-but if he thrust the cock tail first at the BB-the BB came shuffling across his back so fast he hit Bobby in the chest. It was shocking! This was the quality later evidenced in Bole's ace grade," Back -Stabber" a 12 time winner and his brothers. The real key to Boles success was the BB family-more than the orientals. That cross made him much tougher than Norman Mathews(Jungle Shawls) and the other Asil graders like Dr. Barrick; and Jap graders like Anthony Greene whose best Jap grades were only 1/8th Jap. Bob and I discussed them frequently and I even saw some of their stock fight as a kid. Bob's comment was that he had more success fighting more "oriental" in his grades(1/2+) than any of his oriental grade predecessors like McCoy, Graves, Will Allen, the Duryeas or the Boston RH families. I always kidded Bob, and told Marty, that Bole's success might really have been that he had more "Sumatra" in his grades than his peers-not just "oriental". The "BBs" proved to work with either Asil or Jap. As to the Asil in them: his best Hot Springs cocks had no Asil in them. They were 1/2 Jap:1/4 Fardown.1/4 BBthe mating that he proclaimed until his death to be the best winning mating he ever made. Those cocks won 44 major fights in a row-and lost the 45th fight on a bad call from a referee...and Yes -Bob said Jesse Horta's (Lopez's) grandfather made a suitcase full of money betting on them at Hot Springs; and, only bought him dinner for gratitude.. 

 

As to Bobby's guard dogs, I can tell you some good stories-as he got killer dogs from pounds and trained them not to touch chickens with a high powered electric collar. He always chained or penned all these dogs before he took me into the chicken yard-or if I worked there alone -he confided in me to just pick up a cock off a tie cord and face the dog with it if one got loose-then climb up onto the tiecord barrel until he came to tie up the dog. Those dogs were terrified of a chicken! One of those dogs , an Afghan, turned on him one day when he slapped it for carrying up a chicken feather in its mouth. The dog attacked him for several minutes. Bobby saved himself by lying on his stomach and covering his throat. When he finally stood up, the Afghan just sat there wagging his tail and wanted to lick his hand! Afghans are crazy-never get one for a guard dog he said and asked me to shoot it. The dog had chewed up his back, badly. I had to drive him to some derbies that year. -justjack- 

 

Oh, another sidenote on which family of fowl Bobby thought most important in his matings-by far: It was the BBs. They were Bobbies fowl while the Orientals were Clarence's fowl. Of course, they both knew the importance of the nick produced by the orientals in the matings. Once I was getting a hair cut from Clarence at his barber shop and he told me that he once had a trio of Bobby's BBs at his place; but he got so tired of Bobby calling every day to check on their welfare that he took them back to Bobby's place. Some Orientals had been stolen at Clarence's-The McSweet/Bombay Cobra asil mating and Bob was taking no chances with his BB Blacks. Somehow, Jesse Horta did get some of that blood through a cock, I think he, Jesse told me. I watched him win the 5 cock LK prelim at

 Copperstate one year and discussed the mating: BB crossed on grey with him. He said he didn't think they were game as they would not meet an opponent head-on even in the air...so he didn't think they were game enough for him. I didn't tell them that I'd helped Bob purge that BB family and thought they were as game of cocks as I'd ever seen -even the Horta Hatch -so I said I'd take that mating off his hands anytime. He didn't say anything.-justjack- 

LESLIE D. MELVILL ‘S LETTER ON SABONG 

Posted by Jim Clem (Colt39) 

 

October 29, 2005 

 

Dear Jim, 

 

At long last I have taken the time to read and reread the faxes you sent me. The individual who signs his name just Jack is Jack Holland of Idaho. now living in Colorado The best I can say for him is that he has a very fertile imagination and is able to write remarkable fairy stories. The only facts given in all his writings are the names of the individuals and the origin of Bobby’s blacks. They were from a group of hens that he secured from a Colonel Brewer of Indianapolis and he ended up with a Black Brass Back cock from Russell Bowdoin in Texas. It was these crossed with the orientals that made Bob so very famous. With regard to his orientals, he got them from an old man in Las Vegas. Actually he got them from his brother Clarence who got a cock, a stag, a pullet, and a hen in 1943 from an old man in Las Vegas. These were what the old man had brought with him as a boy from Wisconsin. They were offspring from a couple of pairs of Reds that Eugene McCoy had imported with the blacks and the spangles that went to make the Vizzard Asil, but they were not related to tham. Regarding my break up with Bob it had nothing to do with what Jack claims. Bobby had had a mental breakdown and Susan called me at 8 o’clock one morning to tell me about it. I threw some things in the car and simply flew down the freeway until I got to their place. We visited. He took me out as usual to the chicken yard, then we came back and I sat and talked with him. Not having experience in these matters I called a physician and was it recommended that I take Bobby to a hospital that had just opened in Fresno. I was putting him in the car when a mutual friend arrived, he decided to ride with us. They wanted to keep Bobby in the hospital for observation but he was afraid to stay, so I brought him home together with the medications they had recommended. He had a fairly calm evening. I stayed for 15 days taking care of Bob, getting Susie to the Doctor and doing several other things. When I had to leave, I was surprised to find all kinds of chicken boxes stashed in my station wagon. I asked Bob what they were and he told me they were a gift of appreciation for what I had done. I told him I absolutely was not going to take anything at all. I took out all the boxes and replaced them in his patio. We stood there arguing about it for awhile and then we both embraced and laughed it off. I left and at the end of the week I was back to help them again. When I was leaving I told him keep out of trouble or we would have to call the guys in the white uniforms. We both laughed about it and I left. In his mental condition Bobby began to brood about what I had said. I think it was the second or third time I was at his place, I noticed a distinct “atmosphere” and when he went out to feed I didn’t accompany him. I stayed in the house and I asked Susan what had happened and she told me. He said that I was going to call the people in the white uniforms to put him away. I said, “That is absolutely ridiculous.” Which it was. I realized in his mental state, there was no point in discussing it. I went to my room packed my things, bid him a fond farewell, did the same to Susan and I left. What Jack Holland writes is an absolute fabrication as is 99% of his mush. In California an attempt was made to make a felony out of the sport. Junior Strange contacted me and asked me for help. I was able to defeat the Humane Society at their own game. It was at this time that Bobby called and thanked me. Since that time every once in awhile I would get a phone call from him but I never did meet him again. Whenever he would meet Junior Strange he would ask about me and to tell Junior to give me his best regards. Bob died, I called Susan and talked to her for quite awhile. About a year later I got a call from her asking me to come down as she wanted to talk to me. I went down and spent a few days with her. I got things straightened out. Just a few weeks before she died, I got another call, so I went down again and thought I had everything straightened out. I had told the young fellow who was taking care of the yard and keeping an eye on her to let me know if she was ever in need and I would help in any way I could but that she was not to be moved from the house. I tried to call her nephew who was taking care of the estate but he was not available. I left for home. A few days later I got a call, saying that Susan had been moved to an old people’s home on Thursday and on Sunday she was dead. I had only been notified after she had died. I was the closest friend they had. At least that was what they told me. From 1961 until I walked out of the house in the 80's and for Jack Holland to say different, merely proves that he is a damn liar. His story about me trading Robbie out of the Dom Hen was a damn lie. Except for a trio pf the Blacks to help Mr. Mitra, in the Phillippines, who already had them. I never did sell any of the fowl that Bob gave me, the blacks or the Asils. And as you know, I still have them. Bob gave the Dom Hen to Robbie White and much to my surprise, he sent her to me with a trio of his best Kelso’s because he knew I already had the Blacks and the Asils. Let me put it bluntly — Jack Holland is a damn liar, and what he says has little value or truth — and you can print this letter. 

 Sincerely, Leslie D. Melvill 

ASILS 

By James “Mac” White (The Gamecock, February 2005) 

 

I have been asked by many of you, why I have not responded to recent articles about the Bob Howard 

Asil stories. Well, to be very honest about it, I didn’t want to get into a paper war. I didn’t know it (stories) would be a continuing ongoing ordeal. This will be a little lengthy but I can assure you it will be a one-time response. I will write under my name and not under a pen name so you will know exactly who is writing the article. 

 

“The Story” 

 

Back about 1980 or somewhere close. I became interested in Asil fowl. Having none in this area to look at I called my old friend, Bobby “Robbie” White in California. I knew he was close friends with Bob Boles and Bob being the acknowledged champion on Oriental fowl I sat out to acquire some fowl and some knowledge. 

 

When I approached Robbie on the subject he said, Why in he—do you want those things for? “Because,” I answered, “they are different in style to everything any one else is using,” I told Robbie that down through the years people like Anthony Green, Will Allen, Bobby and Clarence Boles, Kansas City Combine, and some others had done very well with the grades. Well, I don’t know anything about those people but for forty years I’ve watched Bob Boles clean clocks, he said. “Can you get me any,” I asked? “Nope,” he said, “and no one else is going to get them either unless they steal them. I know another man who has some good ones, his name is Leslie Melvill and I can get you some of those. 

 

Bobby introduced me to Les and we become good friends. He sent a trio of Asils to me at no charge and I was off and running. I consumed any and everything concerning Oriental (Asil) fowl. I raised a nice batch of Asils, five stags and seven pullets, out of the first trio. I had studied the entire do’s and don’ts and could hardly wait to spar my new love. They were no good. I called Les and he asked me to send some to him so he could personally check them. He called and said, “I’m sending you the best two hens and stag that I have in my back yard.” They arrived at the Huntsville, Alabama airport and I opened the box in the United Airlines Air Freight office. They were absolutely perfect. 

 

After the first breeding season the stag dried up and died. I raised a fine son that I named Mighty Mouse. This was great producing little cock and we raised some fine outstanding cocks from him bred over a Sid Taylor hen from Dr. Randall Herring. I whipped a Johnny Moore Grey cock with him with out getting hurt. I later furnished a full show of cocks to J.S. “Hoss” Devaney. His son Keith and I finished 7-2 and finished ½ fight behind Bob Howard for the overall. The little Asil/Sid was our money fight against Harmony Downs. They too were going for day money. Again, the little grade won unhurt. The late Col Sparkman hollered out “Shades of Bobby Boles.” This was at Mid America. Hoss told me that nothing would whip that little monkey rooster as he had knocked out a big Hatch cock two times sparring. 

 

A couple days after I came home I received a phone call from Bob Howard. I had met Bob, two times previously: Once at Dwight Orr’s Shop and later at his home in Georgia. He asked to buy the Asil and offered $500 for him. I said, Bob I turned down $1,000 for him at the derby. He said, “Well buddy, if ever a rooster was worth one thousand dollars that one sure was, but I have a limit how much I’ll pay and it is $500. If you’ll let me have him I promised that he will not get out my hands. “I agreed to the deal and my wife Mary and I drove half way to Cleveland, TN and met Bob on the road to deliver the little black cock I had named Mike Tyson. 

 

Bob fought the little cock at the next Mid America derby and again won his money fight with only a cut

on his toe.

 

A few days later Bob contacted me and ask, “How many of those Asils have you got?” I told him I had some sags coming cocks. He said I’d like to come and visit you if it’s ok. I assured him it was fine. He came and spent the night with us and I made a video of Bob talking about his fowl, the Murphy’s from T. L. Orr and the Kelso’s from Ed McKeldry. During the interview I congratulated him on all the derbies he had been winning. In the video I ask him what were the best cocks he had seen. He answered, “Well buddy, I guess the Murphy/Kelso’s until I saw these Asils. Now I believe they might be the best cocks in the world.” 

 

He offered me a fantastic deal if I would let him have the Asil cross stags coming cocks. With Les 

Melvill’s consent I sold the fowl to Bob with the understanding that not one feather left his hands. 

(Memo: I told Les when I got the fowl I would not put them up for sale.) 

 

The first time Bob fought the Asil crosses was at Sunset. He told me the Philippine Gov’t was coming over to watch him and he needed to show good. He called me from Sunset after the fight and said, “Well buddy, I didn’t win it but I went 7-1. Carol NeSmith went eight straight. He went six straight with the Asils and 1-1 with his fowl. Everybody down here is talking about the Asils,” he said. The president’s brother and brother-in-law and other high government officials are all coming home with me, he said. 

 

Bob, called after he got home and ask me if he could let the gentlemen from the Philippines take the fowl back with them. “I’m going over there to train their boys how to train cocks,” he said, I told him that as long as the Asils left the USA that they could go. 

 

I still have a video of those cocks in my pens here on the farm and also a video of them at Tarlac, Philippines. 

 

I visited Bobby and Susan Boles three times with Robbie. Once Johnny Jumper went with me, and the last time Bob Howard as to go with me. 

 

I made the video Soggy Bottom spoke of in one of his articles. I notice you mentioned everyone but me, I loaned the video to Bob but did not know he made a copy. 

 

Bob Howard won many derbies before he met me. He won them using his fowl. Let me say this for the record, every Asil cross Bob Howard fought was bred and raised by me, James “Mac” White. If the above article doesn’t prove what I’m saying, Soggy Bottom may contact any of the following men, as they know who raised them.

 In the USA: Johnny Jumper, Ray Alexander, Dan Gray, Oscar Akins, Gene Brown, Gene Batia, Lester 

Belt, Cigar Lail, Larry Romero, Carroll Ibele, Randall Herring, Steve Simbeck, Richard Wilborn, Tony 

Wilson, Joe Zannino, Eddie Frith, Lonnie Harper and others. In the Philippines: Peping Cojuangco, Esting Teopaco, Jorge Araneta, ?? Boy Araneta, Bob Deiz (Boy Diaz I guess), Larry Amante, and Beboy Anrequez (Biboy Enriquez). 

 

Bob doesn’t need Asil articles to promote him, he was a great cocker before he received the Asils. I know this will start a paper war but as I said, this will be my only response. There are a lot of other people who might want to add to what I have written. 

 

I have no keeps for sale and I have no Asil fowl on my farm. I gave my Asil fowl to Nathan Jumper, my godson. 

 

Mighty Mouse died on the Tarlac plantation in the Philippines. His son Hammer died in Canada. I presented both as gifts to friends free of charge. 

 

I apologize for this article and only responded after friends ask me to. May God bless each and every one of you and your loved ones. 

 

------------------------------------- 

 

James "Mac" White was a regular contributor to Grit & Steel (a U.S. magazine dedicated to gamefowl) until G&S shut down in August 2009. Mac has been around gamefowl for a very long time and has been friends with many well known breeders of the past. He breeds Bruner Roundheads, Bmw Kelso, Greys and Clarets. 

 

Diamond Edge 

 

"Dear Friend. 

 

I enjoyed talking with you yesterday.I thank you for sending me the copies of these people are saying about me and about my chickens,and I am alive and well and I never sold any of my brood fowl to anybody and the reason is I did not want to meet my breed of chickens in the pit and I did not want chicken peddlers selling chickens and saying they was my brood fowl and give me and my and chickens a bad name. 

 

I believe in giving Credit where Credit is due.I got my Murphy and Kelsos from my good friend Mr. T.L. 

Orr in 1965 and they were the best fighting chickens I had ever seen.I have won many Cockers of the Year.I won cocker of the year 3 times in a row at Copper State and I fought at Mid America in O.K. in 1991 and 1992 I won or tied for the derby 8 times out 9 in 1991 also 1992 winning the Chevy Pick Up truck and won some derbies at Sunset,LA.,before I went to the Philippines and won the International World Slasher Cup in the Big Dome in the Philippines. 

 

My Friend,I asked you to put rebuttal on all these people were saying about me and my fowl.I don't want them saying anything about me or my fowl good or bad.I did not went to Shorty Bullock cocking school and I never let Shorty have any of my Murphy brood fowl.I believe in telling it like it is.and you people in the Internet,anybody thas has bought Bob Howard brood fowl from anyone you need to get your money back,because they lied to you.This guy that said he got my Murphys from my feeder is a lie.I feed and trained my birds,and I never seen Mr. Carl Smith at a cockfight I have never seen one of his cocks fought and if his Murphys are as good as these people say they are then why are they saying they have my Murphys,the reason is they don't have any proof their Murphys has won anything.Mr. Smith has never had any of my Murphy or Kelso brood fowl,and I have never had a Murphy cock that come from Carl Smith and he never furnished me cocks to fight.I raised,cared for and trained and fought my own game fowl.I believe in telling it like it is and I have the proof what I am saying is true. My Friend,anytime you find out anybody saying they have Bob Howard brood fowl,you tell them they are making false statement and make rebuttal and tell them I said they had better stop lying about having my brood fowl.I was a cock fighter not a chicken peddler.I love my game fowl and they are not for sale. 

 

My Friend,I will write you again,so take care and Godbless. 

 

Your Good Friend Bob" 

 

"P.S. Always be honest with your fellow man." 

==================================== 

 

Ferdi 

Boles' Trivia 

 

Some notes I've jotted down that could be some interest to someone. They might not be accurate but it's information nonetheless. 

 

The Asil cock died after the first year leaving only the Jap cock for breeding. Bobby bred the Jap cock to the Asil hen to produce his oriental family. The Great Nick was the 3/4 Asil 1/4 Jap. Ed Flynt's Cobra were stolen stuff from Bobby. 

 

The greatest nick that Bobby ever bred was the cross between the Jap cock on his BB hens. These were called the "Boxwood" cocks. 44 wins and 0 losses. Bobby never bred the crosses. 

 

These cocks were stolen and ended up in Blondi’s place. Blondi sold these cocks. Bobby, Clarence and Stan took a Jap cock and put him in the pit. They sparred him in the muffs and ran off in front of a crowd. So the word got around that the stolen birds were cold blooded. Somebody's customer must have had fits after this scandal was over. 

 

Cockers were trying NOT to meet with Bobby’s birds in the same weight class. And most are smaller than Bobby’s birds. Bobby tried all sorts of experiment to bring down their size. He bred them with Spanish, Small Japs (Chibi), and even a Red Quill Banty. He realized that he wasted a lot of time and should have just stuck to the original nick. 

==================================== 

 

Ferdi 

Some Clarification 

 

Anyway-95% of the asil families Bob tested produced head and neck hunters -that Bob called "**** Aseels" which terminology always shocked me as Bob hardly ever swore. He said he rated his old family aseels #1 in all he ever tested and rated the Cataneo Bombays #2-but a remote 2nd. 

 

That was a funny storey because Cataneo brought those asils to Bobby from India-and Bob didn't want them until he saw Cataneo fight some grades out of them...then he got them back. I think a lot of people got some of that blood from Cataneo-like Bobby Manziel, and LeRoy Westbrook ; and ,call it Boles asil because Bob did breed it. Bob gave Stan Abshire a trio of those black ones he told me. He told me they came every color from red to white to black and were always dirty -footed and he didn't like them after awhile because they were so inconsistant in both phenotype and grading.  

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shellcracker 

 

i think that is bull****tt. i just hang up the phone from an 80 year old man who used to fight again boby bole for 30 some years and he said no body he mean no body got any thing from boby. he even said don't forget that boby bole asil was nothing if he doesn't cross them to his black. bole black the one make his asil win but forget never talk about the black. all they talked about his asil. he said boby don't like to talk to anyone at the pits cuz he think people want to make friend with him and get to get his chicken. he said" boby was a biggest *******eeeeeeee cocker at his time. 

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Larry Lingerfel 

 

Bobby, no doubt was the man behind the birds! As far as winning today, you are probably right to a point.......no doubt his energy and maintenance of his beloved fowl suffered due to his declining health and age toward the end. Bobby was never defeated, he just ran out of time. When he was in the hospital toward the end, I was talking with him and when I asked how he was feeling, he said laughing "Larry, I still haven't seen the White Feather yet". 

 

Even while in his 70's I would say instead of winning most of the DERBYS he entered, he would still win more than half of the ones he competed in today. He was just that good at what he did.  

 

Bobby was a brilliant person that studied everything down to the milli-second. He would have adjusted with both technique and fowl if necessary. As far as his feeding.....he showed me four 50 gallon metal drums full of California Golden Wheat in his cockhouse, don't think they were there to look at. Also, he liked RICE in the KEEP. This should start some good conversation from all those that never knew or even laid eyes on the MAN. I think history will record Bobby was truly one of the very few greatest Cockers of our time. Hope this helps. 

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Scott 

 

i have talked to several of the old timers that seen bobby and fought against him [there are still a few around] not many but a few! seems that they all agree on one thing ,he just plain new how to breed oriental grades and condition and feed them to win! every body talks about the asils 

 

bobby was not fighting pure asils  the asil was only part of the recipe to make a fighting cock! 

the jap blood and the american blood and the spanish blood was also part of the recipe to build a fighting cock ! and then his ability to get them conditioned and sharp was part of it too! i agree with the other members on here that have said this! i have pictures of bobby's cocks in the 70's and when you look at the ones later in the 80's or 90's you can see his fowl were changing all thru the years . 

 

the stuff i have looks more jappy ,because of the the graded cock that was used over the asil hen to make my family.

 and believe me i have no problem putting the jap blood in my asils, if it was good enough for bobby ,it's good enough for me  

hell i ain't breeding cocks to stand in pens and look at or tell people i got the real boles or atkinson or any other family ! i don't have pure boles asils , i do have a set family that is boles blood but not pure asil ,but then bobby was not fightin pure asils either!  it's very hard to fight pure asils in the steel at top levels . 

i don't say it cannot be done because i have and have had over the years a few straight breed asils that could compete anywhere in top competition in the steel. they are rare and i have only had very few like this. i cherished those few highly and put them in brood pens! i like a medium high tall cock and most pure asils are medium to low station or to short for me ,so i must grade them with something to get enough leg under them ! 

some people say they don't like tall cocks ,well in a oriental cock i can use a taller cock because they seem to be more balance on their feet than american cocks. or at least mine are and they are not clumsy like those big tall american cocks! more leg in the oriental cocks work better for me ,but not in american cocks. 

i don't like real tall cocks in american blood. 

now this is just my opinion 

 

i also have had problems over the last few yrs matching weights ,in my area we use to match a lot of 6 lb cocks but now it has changed . 

everybody is using smaller cocks so i have to grade to get the smaller cocks. [u know them big cocks just don't fit in them small cages at the poultry shows anymore] lol yfis 

3rdGen

 

"Black Bart" was one of the best grades Bobby ever raised and was named after his grandfather's brother Black Bart Bowles who came to Colorado and became a famous outlaw after the Civil War. 

Black Bart had won 15 fights and at nine years old was in the keep again for another fight in 1997. He, among others, went to justjack when Bobby died.  

 

Bobby and brother Clarence got their penchant for Orientals and naming their ace cocks from their old man "Daddy Boles." 

 

Daddy Boles had a line of "Japs" in 1897 from which came a great producer he named "Old Cap." His descendants were multi-winners, with one ace cock named "Silver Bell" winning five times one season "without getting a feather broken."  

 

There was "Spike Bill" who won twice in the same meet during a main with a millionaire "copper king" named Sullivan. Clarence's story was Daddy Boles was invited to a meet on the West Coast soon after the family moved from Denver. When they arrived at the site there was only one other cocker - the copper king Sullivan - with his fancy liveried chauffer and well kept cocks. The Boleses and their Jap grades came in a rented wagon drawn by a white mule.  

 

When Sullivan asked Daddy Boles how much he wanted to fight for, Daddy replied, "Ten Dollars a 

battle."  

 

"Hell," Sullivan replied, "I wouldn't get the feathers mussed on my birds for ten dollars."  

 

"Well, just take your damned spoiled cocks and head for home with them," Boles said. 

 

At this point Sullivan turned to his handler and said, "Go ahead and match him; from the looks of those dubs we won't get a feather broken anyway."

 The result was a massacre with Daddy Boles winning six straight fights. He brought only six cocks and when Sullivan still wanted to go for a seventh match, Daddy Boles had Spike Bill, still heeled from the sixth fight, pitted again for the 2nd time in the seventh fight, and won again. At that point Sullivan had seen enough and shook Daddy's hands, vindicating the common man. The Boleses went home in their rented wagon $70 richer. 

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irishcutt 

 

Only thing wrong with the post by ferdi is that Boxwood is in Virginia!! Bobby Boles campaigned at the Hot Springs Pit run by Piper in Little Rock, Ark.. Ive read these post on here about Bobby Boles and he was a great breeder of Oriental grades of that there is no doubt. But many years before him there were two guys named Anthony Greene and Norman Mathews who cut a wide path thru cocking with the grades. The reason many hear of Bobby and Clarence Boles is that they fought mainly grades in a time when many considered oriental fowl Dunghills. Many thought that Asils werent game enuff for gaff fighting. For years you couldnt get a cocker to breed any asils into their fowl. But when thier father fought some and came away with many scratching thier heads alot of folks started to take notice. Then Bobby made his foray into big time cocking at the Hot Springs meets and the cockers started to take notice! Several folks have good solid, game Asils and do good with them for years only thing they dont do is advertise it. Ill give you a prime example of a great cocker who had asil grades in his fowl. Joe Goode used asils in his fowl. Jimmy East put some Asil blood into some of his lieper blood, when he won cocker of the year at sunset several years ago. A couple of other folks have had great success with asil blood but you wont hear them telling it in public... the problem with asils is just like a lot of fowl is to find the good ones. Mr. Boles dint have the only line of game asils, what he did was to perfect them in crossing long before many took notice and started doing the same thing. Id venture to say that today with so many getting good asil blood and using them to make their two and three way crosses for battle it would be hard to dominate the pits like they did years ago..