Sports reporter, writer, and cartoonist Hype Igoe is among those on the ballot for the 2020 International Boxing Hall of Fame in the Observers category.
The International Boxing Hall of Fame, which in July reduced the wait for eligibility to three years, released the ballot for the 2020 election cycle and it is loaded with superstar fighters whose last fights were not only in 2014 but also 2015 and 2016.
Leading the way for the 12 newcomers to the ballot are legends Bernard Hopkins and Juan Manuel Marquez.
Moving on to the ballot we care about:
New additions to the observers ballot are: Seth Abraham (longtime HBO Sports president); Eric Armit (journalist/record-keeper); Ron Borges (journalist); Bob Canobbio (CompuBox founder); Tom Casino (photographer); Percy Dana (photographer); David Dinkins Jr. (longtime Showtime Sports executive producer); Bernard Fernandez (journalist); Thomas Hauser (journalist); Hype Igoe (cartoonist/journalist); Carlos Irusta (journalist); George Kimball (journalist); Jay Larkin (the late longtime Showtime Sports chief); Glyn Leach (editor); Ferdie Pacheco (broadcaster); Shirley Povich (columnist); Tim Ryan (broadcaster); John Sheppard (record-keeper) and Alex Wallau (broadcaster). With holdovers there are 25 candidates in all on the observer ballot. Electors can vote for up to five and two will be elected.
Herbert Anthony Aloysius (‘Hype‘) Igoe, “probably the best informed writer on boxing that ever lived,” according to Damon Runyon, and a swell cartoonist, was born 13 June 1877 in Santa Cruz, California. He and his best friend’s Rube Goldberg and Thomas Aloysius “TAD” Dorgan, (1877 -1929), attended Polytechnic High School where they were taught art.
The above is the opening paragraph of one of two Yesterday’s Papers columns by John Adcock.
Igoe concentrated primarily on his writing, but seldom let his drawing nibs migrate to the back reaches of his desk drawer. He contributed both serious and funny sports cartoons to the Hearst papers, and did quite a few spot illustrations, too. What he rarely did was draw a series of comic strips — in fact he only did so once in his career
Two more Hype entries at Stripper’s Guide; Allan Holtz on Hype’s comic strip and an Alex Jay profile.
As noted Hype became more noted for his writing than his cartooning.
Here’s a sample of his writing, via GoogleBooks, from Fight Stories (September 1930).
If voted into The International Boxing Hall of Fame Hype will be joining cartoonists Tad Dorgan and Bill Gallo, and illustrator Leroy Neiman in the Observer class.
For those interested in a deep dive into sports cartoonists during the Hype Igoe era check out Eddie Campbell’s The Goat Getters. Hype doesn’t get as much ink as Tad Dorgan or Robert Edgren or George Herriman, but he gets his due.
“The man who invented ‘near beer’ was a mighty poor judge of distance.”
– – – Hype Igoe in The New York World