Wyoming History: ‘The Cheyenne Kid’ Muggsy Schoel Was Boxing Champ In Early 1900s

He needed a “nose job” two years into his professional boxing career, but that didn’t stop the Cheyenne man from stepping back into boxing rings across the West.

“Muggsy” Schoel — born Gilbert on Aug. 11, 1886, made a name for himself in boxing circles across the nation while stalking opponents in the lighter weight divisions.

Schoel’s last fight at age 50 in 1936 was a win, according to one account.

Gilbert “Muggsy” Schoel was also a great uncle to Kathy McKinzie and her brother, Al Schoel, who remember him later in life as a kind man with cauliflower ears, hearing aids and wire-rimmed glasses.

He died in 1966, but McKinzie keeps the family’s scrapbook of his life and fights leading up to the Golden Age of American sports in the 1920s.

“He fought some great fighters,” McKinzie said. “They called my uncle a fighter, he wasn’t a boxer, but a fighter. In 1907, he fought Kid Bell for the featherweight championship of the entire West and knocked him out in 10 rounds.”

In 1909, he went on to fight Young Corbett, the former lightweight champion of the world in Cheyenne. He lost in the 16th round of a scheduled 20-round bout.

McKinzie said it was reported that her great uncle got a “little cute” and a “little overconfident,” and Corbett knocked him out.

“That was his biggest fight,” she said.

Making A Name

Referred to sometimes as the “Cheyenne Kid” or “Wyoming Kid,” Schoel was born in Laramie to John Henry Schoel and Agnes Elizabeth Schoel.

McKinzie said Gilbert’s father was a pioneer barber in Laramie. But the Schoel name would go on to be associated with Cheyenne and produce a police chief, Secret Service agent and the boxer.

Several members of the family were featured in a portrait in the May 1, 1913, edition of the Wyoming Tribune under the headline: “The Schoel Family — A Group That Speaks Volumes for Wyoming.”

As for “Muggsy,” so nicknamed by his trainer for “mugging” his opponents with his fighting style, he let his devastating short 6-inch punch coming out of a clinch speak for him in the ring.

“Most of his knockout punches didn’t travel further than 6 inches,” Bob Braun, sports columnist for the Casper Star-Tribune, wrote in a tribute to Schoel following his death.

Schoel’s pro boxing career, according to the website boxrec.com, included 56 fights that featured 25 wins, 20 of them by knockout and 15 losses in which he was knocked out three times. He had 16 fights considered draws in his career which went from 1905-1918.

The website did not have a record of his fight at 50 years old in 1936, and an undated Wyoming Tribune story when Schoel was much older states that he had 100 professional fights and knocked out 40 opponents.

A Questionable ‘Draw’

Throughout his fighting career, “Muggsy” made headlines across the West in a time when several fighters he fought all carried the first name “Kid.” Fights would be bet on and the outcome sometimes questionable.

A fight in Denver on Jan. 29, 1906, between Schoel and Joe “Kid” Sieger went 10 rounds and was called a draw despite Schoel’s domination in the fight.

A newspaper clipping in McKinzie’s scrapbook has the sportswriter stating, “Muggsy was buncoed out of the decision, as he outclassed Sieger in every respect.”

And the Laramie Boomerang on Nov. 4, 1907, had fun when it learned of his nose surgery.

“The Cheyenne pugilist has undergone an operation for the removal of a part of his nose,” the paper reported. “Better (to) have it cut off carefully than to have it knocked off by a left swing or right jab.”

In addition to the featherweight title of the West against Kid Bell on Nov. 28, 1906, Schoel won the Wyoming state bantamweight title against Johnny Martin on April 11, 1905, and defended it against Kid Texas on Oct. 6, 1905.

He lost a bid for the lightweight title of the Middle-West in a decision loss to Kid Sieger April 18, 1906.

As a 41-year-old on Dec. 2, 1927, Schoel was interviewed by the Wyoming Eagle about how boxing had changed.

“There’s a lot of money in the fight game these days. The boys don’t battle as often, they don’t have to,” he told the paper. “Now it’s 10 and 15-round battles, not the old 20 and 45-round battles we used to have.”

Damon Runyon Covered His Fight

The article also noted that famous sportswriter and short-story author Damon Runyon, who later in his career wrote for Hearst newspapers and gave Jack Dempsey his famous nickname the “Manassa Mauler,” as a young journalist wrote for the Pueblo Herald in Colorado and covered one of Schoel’s bouts producing “one of the most enthusiastic write-ups of Schoel during his ring career.”

Schoel said his most memorable bouts were with Pete Jensen, the “Battling Dane,” who he fought to three 20-round draws during his career in Cheyenne, Rawlins and Leadville, Colorado.

“He was a tough’un, that boy,” Schoel was quoted.

The July 7, 1908, edition of the Cheyenne Daily Leader reported that Schoel married a Miss Laura Brennan at the home of his brother, Edward.

“The bride of the popular little fighter is a young woman of unusual beauty, accomplishments and sweetness of character, and her many friends will hasten to extend congratulations for Mr. Schoel,” the newspaper reported.

McKinzie said she thought her great uncle had been single all his life and was unaware of the marriage. Al Schoel said he knew his uncle had been married, but knew nothing about the wife.

When they knew him, he was single.

A photo of the Schoel family in the Cheyenne paper showed both Gilbert and his wife with other siblings, along with their parents.

 He Kept Fit

Shortly after Schoel’s death in 1966, the Casper Star-Tribune on Oct. 20, 1966, included a tribute to the pugilist by a columnist who noted that “Muggsy” and his foes typically fought 20 rounds or more.

“In 1936 at the half century mark he fought Kid Silvers and KO’d him in the third round,” Bob Braun wrote. “Muggsy kept himself in perfect shape throughout his lifetime. At 75 he could still jog six miles.”

Muggsy’s brother George shared an experience his brother had in Casper while working at the Henning Billiard Parlor which had a box for Salvation Army donations. A man came in and took the box and walked out. Schoel pursued him.

“He ran around the corner of the hotel and up the alley and was catching up with the guy when he stopped and said, ‘Come and take it.’ The guy was out cold when the police got there,” Schoel’s brother told Braun. “Incidentally, there was 15 cents in the box.”

Police Officer And Soldier

In addition to his boxing career, Schoel spent a few years on the Cheyenne police force where his brother was the chief for a time.

He also worked for many years as a clerk in Boyd’s Cigar Store in Cheyenne. There was an article in the March 9, 1928, Wyoming Eagle that reported Schoel was starting a taxi business.

The fighter served in the U.S. Army during World War I at age 32. Schoel’s record shows he enlisted on June 14, 1918, while living in Casper and three of his brothers also joined the Army during World War I.

One brother, Grover Cleveland Schoel, was taken captive by the Germans in the Argonne Forest and another brother, Jake Schoel, was wounded as a member of the American forces. A brother George as well as Gilbert were not sent overseas, according to the newspaper.

Schoel’s record shows he was assigned to Battery D of the 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, a unit that was overseas and saw action in the Argonne-Meuse offensive.

“He was funny, he was kind. My dad (also named Gilbert Schoel) was very close to him out of all his 16 aunts and uncles out of the 16 children,” McKinzie said. “Uncle Muggsy was his favorite. He was just a very giving and easy-going guy, not like you would expect out of a boxer.”

A Cherry Coke

Al Schoel, 83, who is 15 years older than McKinzie, said he remembers his dad taking him to the cigar store and pool hall on 17th Street in Cheyenne where his great uncle worked as a clerk. There were photos of his uncle on the wall in his boxing prime.

“They had a little soda fountain there and he would always make me a cherry Coke,” he said. “He was a fashionable dresser; I never saw him without a tie … he was always dressed to the hilt.”

“Muggsy” Schoel died Oct. 2, 1966, and Al Schoel remembers attending his funeral and burial in Beth El Cemetery’s veterans' section.

McKinzie said the family still enjoys talking about their famous relative and believes he is someone worthy to be remembered.

“He was loyal to Wyoming,” she said. “He actually had a name in Wyoming and that brought attention to him and to the state.

“Here in Cheyenne, there were posters up in bars and stuff when a fight would go on. When he fought Corbett, they had posters made up, and my sister has one.”

Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.