Mushy Callahan, who became famous first as...

Mushy Callahan, who became famous first as a world champion boxer, then as a referee of world championship fights, died after a long illness last week and was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery. He was 81.

Callahan defeated Pinky Mitchell for the junior welterweight championship in 1926, then held the title until 1930. As a referee, he worked such big fights as Ray Robinson-Bobo Olson, Ezzard Charles-Jersey Joe Walcott, Floyd Patterson-Roy Harris, and Art Aragon-Chuck Davey.

Callahan was born Vincent Morris Scheer in New York, but his family brought him to Los Angeles as a youngster. He began boxing when he was only 14 and chose his alias to keep his family from learning about it. Callahan also worked for Warner Bros. studio as a trainer, teacher and adviser on boxing movies, occasionally playing bit parts.