Brandy for Heroes

John Morrissey (1831-1878), also known as Old Smoke, was an Irish-born American who became a prominent figure of the 1850’s. Raised in New York State, Morrissey moved to San Francisco at the time of the California Gold Rush in the early 1850’s. There, he took up bare-knuckle boxing and, on his return to New York, challenged and defeated “Yankee Sullivan”, then recognized as the American boxing champion. Following his boxing career, Morrissey later became a professional gambler, owning gambling houses in New York City in the 1850s and 1860s. He then became a U.S. Congressman between 1867-1871, backed by Tammany Hall, but later fell out with the political machine and became an Anti-Tammany Democratic State Senator for New York between 1876-1878.

Brandy For Heroes, first published in 1938, is sportswriter Jack Kofoed’s biography of John Morrissey. Kofoed draws on his fast-paced journalistic skills and takes the reader on an exciting journey of Old Smoke’s life: from his early years in the slums of Troy, New York, to his prize fights in California, defeating the likes of Hyer, Sullivan and Heenan, and concluding with Morrissey’s political career back in his home state of New York as Senator during the 1850’s-1860’s.