Chrysti The Wordsmith: The Real McCoy

Greetings and welcome to Christie the wordsmith. For over a century now Americans have been employing the expression the real McCoy as a cliche synonym for the genuine article not a copy nor an inferior substitute. The real McCoy though several theories have been offered to explain this cliche. The most convincing is the story of pugilist Norman Selby better known as kid McCoy the nearly invincible turn of the 20th century American boxer. Born in rural Indiana in 1873 Norman Selby was 17 years old when he abandoned farm life for a career in the boxing ring adopting the pseudonym Kidd McCoy to spare his family the young pugilist pitted himself against other Midwestern boxers earning five to ten dollars per match. McCoy gained attention when he won the world welterweight title in 1896 two years later. McCoy defeated Australian Boxer Dan Creedon taking from him the world middleweight crown.

Many young American boxers assume the McCoy alias hoping to borrow fame and wealth from the great fighters reputation. But a San Francisco journalist was determined to prove that there was only one genuine original McCoy in 1899 when the kid defeated the famous heavyweight Joe Choi in San Francisco. The morning after the fight the San Francisco Examiner proclaimed Choying ski is beaten by the real McCoy. I'm Christie the wordsmith. Good day were numbers Christie the wordsmith a sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry. Zoot web dot com.