Eddie Chaney

EDDIE CHANEY was born Edward Zajac on August 30, 1907 in New Jersey to Frank and Mary Zajac, both of whom were from the Polish province of Posen. By 1920 the family was living at 1165 Morton Street in the Whitman Park section of Camden, in those years the home of many Polish immigrants. In that year Frank Zajac was working as a chipper in one of Camden’s many shipyards. The Zajacs were related to the Novak family, who lived at 442 Jackson Street in Camden’s old Eighth Ward.

Eddie Chaney was one of the many fine lightweight fighters to come out of South Camden in the 1920s, a group that included Lew Skymer and his brother Tommy, Jackie Hindle, Frankie Rapp, Mickey Blair, Roxie Allen, and others. He was boxing professionally as early as 1927, and stayed in the ring into the 1930s. His known boxing record, below, is woefully incomplete as of this writing.

After leaving the ring Eddie Chaney worked as a mechanic. When the 1947 Camden City Directory was compiled, he lived with wife Florence and daughter Mary at 1287 Decatur Street, in the same neighborhood in which he had grown up. At that time his parents were still living at the Morton Street address. He retained an interest in boxing, and was an active member of Veteran’s Boxing Association Ring No. 6, which was based in Camden.

Around 1954 Eddie Chaney acquired the bar at 1050 Mechanic Street, the southwest corner of Mt. Ephraim Avenue and Mechanic Street. This bar, known as Club Cadix, had been previously owned by Camden organized crime figure Fred Klosterman. The establishment was renamed Chaney’s Bar, and operated under that name into the 1970s.

Eddie Chaney was last a resident of Oaklyn NJ. He passed away in January of 1983.

Johnny Oakey Outslugs Johnny Haystack in One of Wildest Scraps Ever Staged at Convention Hall

‘Cobble’ Thrower Wins Wild and Wooly Battle. Haystack Proves Tough ‘Egg’ and Gives Trenton Lad a Great Big for Decision. Michaels Stops Dundee.

By Tom Ryan

If Johnny Haystack, of Binghamton NY, and Johnny Oakey, the Trenton “cobble thrower,” aren’t suffering from headaches today then neither one of them ever will.

For that pair of bone-crushing middleweights staged one of the wildest scrapes seen here in many moons at Convention Hall last night. Oakey gaining the verdict by a fair margin in an eight-round fuss which included more heavy ‘rocking and socking’ than is piled into a dozen ordinary combats.

Oakey threw more ‘cobbles’ than Haystack threw ‘bricks’ with the result that he was credited with five rounds, while Haystack was given the edge in the remaining three periods.

Besides the feature fracas, four other skirmishes were presented to a fair-sized crowd.

In the eight-round semi-final, Al Rowe, of Philadelphia, who was finally secured to box Mickey Griffin, of Newark, after Eddie Chaney of Whitman Park, and Joey Blake, of Conshohocken both were forced to withdraw from this match, gave Griffin a nifty boxing lesson to win the tilt hands down. Jackie Hindle, of Camden, outpointed Jackie Cassell, of Norristown, in the main preliminary of six rounds; Joey Michaels, of Riverside, scored his sixth straight knockout here when he flattened Jack Dundee, of Philadelphia, in the second round of the second bout, while Bert Brown, of East Camden, disposed of Fred Risco, of Philadelphia in the third chapter of the opener.

Rowe Displays Brilliant Form

There was nothing to the semi-final but Rowe. After Griffen had held the clever Philadelphian even in the first session, Rowe stepped on it and won every one of the remaining seven rounds. He owns one of the best left hands trotted out for inspection here in some time. Al jabbed, hooked, and upper-cutted with that wing to such an extent that Griffen must have thought he was mixed up in a gang fight and that everybody was tanking “picks” at him.

Hindle looked like himself again in his fuss with Cassell. Jackie forced the issue, hit harder and cleaner and won four rounds by clean-cut margins. He carried the first, second, fifth and sixth while Cassell won the fourth with the third being even-up. Hindle’s judgment of distance was far better than when he last appeared here, few of his punches missing the target. He weighed 136, while Cassell was one pound heavier.

Brown didn’t have much trouble with Risco in the opener. The latter was game and willing but far too inexperienced to cope with his foeman. Brown won the first two sessions and stopped his opponent with a flurry of body punches in the third. Brown came in at 131, while Risco weighed 134½.

Ring 6 Committee Meets Tonight

The committee on arrangements for the third annual picnic and field day to be held by Ring No. 6, VBA, will hold a meeting tonight, at 220 Cooper Street, starting at 8 o’clock.

Lew Skymer and Jo Spearing co-chairmen, request the presence of all members of the committee, which includes Vic Righter, Ed Adams, Frankie Youker, Larry Hildebrand, Frank DiSalvio, A. Gartland, Bob Kavanaugh, Tom Reitzes, Patsy Carlo, Peewee Ross, Al Ambrosino.

Also W. DiPaolo, K.O. Riley, John Knowles, Tommie Saul, Eddie Chaney, Bobby Zimmer, Tony Tilman, Tommy Carr, George Ealer, and William Jeffries.