A Real Deal Called Mexican Joe Rivers

In 1955, the late Times sportswriter Frank Finch noticed a small item buried inside the paper, about a pedestrian, Joe Rivers, 63, struck by a car in downtown Los Angeles.

Could it be, Finch wondered, the Joe Rivers?

Mexican Joe Rivers? The Lethal Latin--the great early century lightweight fighter?

It was. Finch visited Rivers in the hospital, arranging for a later interview.

Finch found Rivers, living alone, in a windowless room on West Second Street, half a block from Times Mirror Square, a naked light bulb hanging from the ceiling. The only possession of value he had, he told Finch, was his father’s 200-year-old violin, which he played daily.

He told Finch he was not, contrary to what his fans once thought, a Mexican. Instead, he was the purest kind of Californian.

His real name, he said, was Jose Ybarra, and he was of Spanish-Indian descent, a fourth generation Californian.

Rivers gained fame for being a participant in boxing’s “double knockout” fight of July 4, 1912, at Vernon. He and Ad Wolgast landed simultaneous blows in the 13th round, both going down for the count. Wolgast was called the winner.

Rivers told Finch his lifetime earnings were $230,000. In 1915, he bought a new, $7,500 Simplex touring car with “J.R.” etched in the doors. He bought a $3,000 ring. He owned 46 suits. He built a house for his mother at 709 Solano Ave., which still stands today, near Dodger Stadium.

“I guess I had a million friends,” Rivers told Finch.

“Gone now, most of them. The others--they don’t come around much anymore.”

Joe Rivers died 42 years ago today.

He lies in an open, breezy area of Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles.

The gravestone reads:

Joseph Y. Rivers

1892-1957

One of Boxing’s Greats