GREB, HARRY FUNERAL ORIGINAL LARGE FORMAT PHOTO (1926)

Harry Greb retired following the second Tiger Flowers loss and related to a friend that he planned on opening a gym in downtown Pittsburgh. In September 1926, he had his right eye removed and replaced with a glass prosthesis. Having declined a job as Jack Dempsey's sparring partner in preparation for Dempsey-Tunney I (Greb declaring: "I'd feel like a burglar taking Jack's money. Nobody can get him in good enough condition to whip Gene"), Greb checked into an Atlantic City clinic for surgery to repair damage to his nose and respiratory tract caused by his ring career and several car crashes. However, complications occurred and he died of heart failure on October 22, 1926, at 2:30 pm. Greb was buried at Calvary Cemetery in his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Edward Henry "Harry" Greb (June 6, 1894 – October 22, 1926) was an American professional boxer. Nicknamed "The Pittsburgh Windmill", he was the American light heavyweight champion from 1922 to 1923 and world middleweight champion from 1923 to 1926. He fought a recorded 298 times in his 13 year-career, which began at around 140 pounds. He fought against the best opposition the talent-rich 1910s and 20s could provide him, despite starting as a welterweight he was frequently squaring off against light heavyweights and even heavyweights. Greb had a highly aggressive, very fast, swarming style of fighting and buried his opponents under a blizzard of punches. He was elusive with very good footwork to jump in and out on opponents. He was also a master at dirty fighting and had no qualms about employing all manner of dubious tactics, such as spinning his opponent and using the heel and laces of his gloves. Greb often got as much as he gave and unbeknownst to the press continued to fight a number of matches even as he became blind in one eye, due to an injury suffered in an earlier match. The 'Pittsburgh Windmill' was also very durable, suffering only 2 TKO losses in his whole career. The first was in his seventh bout when he was knocked out by an opponent who heavily outweighed him, the second happened 3 years later when Greb broke the radius of his left arm. Greb finished the round but was unable to continue the fight. Greb's ultimate weakness may have been his lack of knockout power; although he was able to hurt and bust up many opponents due to the constant onslaught of clean punches he landed on them, he struggled to stop them but this mostly due to the fact that his opponents were much larger than him. He launched a vicious beating on the much larger Tunney on two separate occasions, cutting him and hurting him badly, but was unable to knock him out both times. It was the same process with many opponents. Widely considered one of the best fighters of all time, Greb was named the 7th greatest fighter of the past 80 years by the Ring Magazine, and ranked as the #1 middleweight and the #2 pound-for-pound fighter of all-time by the International Boxing Research Organization. Offered here is an original, first generation, large format photograph taken at Greb's funeral and depicting the pallbearers including then world heavyweight champion and old Greb for, Gene Tunney.
This is an original, first generation, large format photograph. Bold, clear image. Pin holes in corners. Minor corner wear. Not creased or torn. 11" x 14." Rare, the only example we have seen.