Fight to get boxer into history books

The following evening, he was expected to trade blows with Italian-American Frankie Genaro inside a London ring for the flyweight championship of the world - a title that the Edinburgh boxer had won the previous year.

Hill looked a clear favourite to keep the crown, only 23 months after turning professional.

But after finishing his early morning training session, he decided to go for a brief jog in the snow to cool down and clear his head for the fight before heading back to his home in Strathmigloe, Fife, where he had moved from Edinburgh a few years earlier.

The following morning, the 24-year-old - who had been Scotland's first world champion boxer - was found dead in his bed. A severe bout of pneumonia had taken hold of him during the night, leaving his American rival without an opponent.

It was a tragic end for one of the Capital's greatest boxers, who would have been celebrating his centenary this year. But it is perhaps more tragic that nowadays few people outside the boxing world have any idea who he was.

Only a few photographs and pieces of memorabilia from his ring career survive at the Leith Victoria club that trained him - unlike other boxing greats from the Capital's history, such as Tancy Lee, Ken Buchanan and Alex Arthur, whose achievements have been well documented.

Few of those who are aware of the Leith-born flyweight even realise he was a "genuine" world champion - instead crediting Glaswegian Benny Lynch as Scotland's first boxing champ.

BUT Brian Donald, who is one of the country's leading boxing historians, argues that this is not the case. Having researched Hill's career for the past 17 years, he says that the flyweight was not only Scotland's first world champ, but one of the Capital's finest and most respected boxers.

"Johnny Hill was one of the best fighters of his day," he says. "In just 23 months of being a professional boxer, he had won the British Empire, European and World titles, which is a phenomenal achievement.

"When he beat the American flyweight 'Newsboy' Brown on points in 1928, he became the first ever world champion to have come from Scotland. Even the New York State Athletic Commission - who basically decreed all the boxing rules and regulations in the United States at the time - recognised him as the true world champ.

"Unfortunately, that record doesn't currently stand because many people believe, wrongly, that the first Scottish world champion was Benny Lynch. Because of that, Hill has now been almost forgotten, even though he was one of the biggest boxing stars of the 1920s."

Johnny Hill followed in the footsteps of his father David, who had boxed for Edinburgh's Netherbow club in the 1890s, and he exploded on the local amateur scene in sensational fashion in 1924, winning the Eastern District flyweight title at Lauriston Halls.

Coached by legendary boxer "Tancy" Lee, the first Scottish outright winner of a Lonsdale championship belt, he soon moved through the ranks and began to attract attention. In February 1925, after he had outpointed Glasgow's Western District champion Willie Barr, one newspaper reported that "young Hill was quite simply the most polished boxer on view". His classic left jab and crashing right cross saw him win the Scottish and British flyweight and bantamweight titles in 1926, and by the end of the year he turned professional with his father as a chief adviser.

"He had a meteoric rise to the top," explains Brian. "Turing pro was tailor-made for him. Unlike some of the later boxers, who were heavy drinkers, Johnny was as clean as a whistle. He was a hard-working teetotaller who practically lived like a monk, and that had a real impact on how he performed.

"On his debut in London, he hammered Billy Huntley to defeat him inside five rounds and he kept the same standard up right through his short pro career."

Gathering more admirers with every bout, by 1928 Hill had even become the favourite fighter of the Prince of Wales - the future Edward VIII - who watched many of his bouts from the ringside. When he won the world title at Clapham Greyhound Stadium, he boxed in front of 32,000 fans, including the Prince, which was a record attendance during the depression era.

Before his death in 1929, Hill was pictured and profiled in dozens of magazines and even had his face printed on cigarette cards - the highest form of celebrity a sportsman could have at the time.

"He was one of those fighters who didn't really look like they would be that good," says Brian.

HE explains: "He wasn't particularly muscle-bound or beefy, so a lot of his opponents underestimated him. George Hill, who was a Leith Victoria boxer and later refereed the famous Mohammed Ali versus Henry Cooper fight, once said that you would never have imagined Johnny would be a devastating puncher.

"But he really was a class above the rest. The problem is that he isn't anywhere near as well known as he should be.

"Although he died in tragic circumstances, the fact that there isn't anything in Edinburgh that commemorates his achievements is far more tragic."

Brian is in negotiations with the Royal Museum to set up an exhibition of Hill's career and has also written to the council to try to set up a commemorative plaque on Brunswick Street, the road where the fighter was born in 1905.

And it is a move that the Leith Victoria club, where Hill trained during the 1920s, has welcomed.

Douglas Fraser, head committee member, says: "We are one of the strongest clubs in Scotland and we have a great tradition of producing champion boxers.

"However, we don't have a lot of material about Johnny Hill - even though he was Scotland's first world champion and one of the club's true greats.

"All our members would be over the moon if there was something set up to show one of our early boxer's meteoric rise to the top."

The club's most recent famous graduate, Alex Arthur, also adds that he would love to see the legendary flyweight acknowledged.

"The guy was a boxing legend," he says.

"There's a picture of him up on the wall at Leith Victoria and, when I was younger, I used to see it all the time when I was training.

"Some of the older guys at the club used to say that I had a similar kind of style to him, which was a huge compliment.

"He was our first world champion, so to even be mentioned in the same breath was a real honour."

Coming from Arthur, who is in training for a European title fight at Meadowbank next month, that is praise indeed for one of the Capital's unsung heroes.

CAPITAL GREATS WHO HAVE GRACED THE RING

KEN BUCHANAN

The world lightweight champion, pictured right, joined the Sparta Club when he was eight. After winning the East of Scotland, Scottish and British featherweight titles in 1964, he turned professional. By 1971, he was undisputed champion of the world. He lost his title in June 1972 to Robert Duran.

TANCY LEE

In 1920, Leith-born featherweight James "Tancy" Lee became Scotland's first outright winner of a Lonsdale Belt. Lee was also the first Scot to win two British titles - at flyweight and featherweight - and in 1915, he became the first man to beat the Welsh flyweight Jimmy Wilde.

ALEX ARTHUR

Another product of the Leith Victoria club, featherweight Arthur, left, has become a boxing sensation. He holds the British and Commonwealth super-featherweight title and has an impressive professional record - having only lost once. He is training for a bout with Russian Boris Sinitsin, where he hopes to become Scotland's first European boxing champion in over a decade.