CH Bang Away of Sirrah Crest was a milestone in the history of the Boxer breed. Whelped 2-17-49, he still holds the record as the Boxer with most All Breed Best In Shows, 121. This was a record in all breeds for quite some time.

Moreover, he attained this record when there were fewer shows than there are today.

His breeders were Dr & Mrs(Phoebe) R.C. Harris. Mrs. Harris said that he "failed to win BOB at under four judges at All Breed shows, 2 of those later gave him BIS". He was never spot shown, always showed entire circuits if he was entered. He was always shown in group if he won BOB. He won the group 87% of the times he won BOB, and went BIS 65% of the times he won the group.

Nate Levin showed him at his first show, the American Boxer Club specialty, held in conjunction with Westminster. He went BOW from the 9-12 puppy class.

Nate then showed him for the most part, in the eastern shows. Harry Sangster showed him on the west side of the country. Phoebe Harris also took him in the ring twice, and won a BIS.

Phoebe Harris did his show training herself. She wrote a very interesting discussion of how she trained him, and acclimated him to crowds, which is printed in "The World of the Boxer", Rick Tomita ed.

Frau Stockmann, who could be considered the most influential breeder in the early history of the breed, came from Germany to judge, and spotted him as a 4 month old puppy at a match. She announced that he would be "the greatest dog in America". She gathered a crowd around to stack him for all to see from various angles.

At one show where he was defeated, the crowd rioted and threw chairs. Phoebe has said privately, that when he was entered, show chairman started calling them and asking what sort of BIS trophy they wanted. He was featured not only in dog publications but in such general magazines as Life, Sports Illustrated, Colliers, Esquire, and Time.

When he retired, at the peak of his career, he had a seat at the table at the American Boxer Club Banquet at the Savoy-Plaza hotel. He was given a gold paper crown, and fed steak from a bowl by the captain of waiters, while the humans ate turkey, and listened as a "This is Your Life Bang Away" scrapbook was presented.

When he died, he was taken to a human hospital for x-rays and treatment.

Bang Away still holds the record also as the top US Boxer sire of all time, with 81 Champions. He also produced many Canadian Champions, and would have to be close to the top still if not at the top in Canada as well.

Since the 60's, with the rise of Salgray Kennels, who were line bred on him, virtually every top Boxer has traced to him in a direct tail male line, and most of them many other times throughout their pedigrees.

Not only was Bang Away himself an influential sire, but a full brother from a repeat breeding(Mazelaine's Texas Ranger- interestingly a monorchid) was imported to the UK, where he became an important sire.

He completely changed the look of the American Boxer- from then on, they were taller, higher stationed, and had flashy white markings.

Here is a link to a picture of him, along with an article by a judge who
knew him: http://clubs.akc.org/abc/greatest.htm The picture is of the BIS that Phoebe Harris won with him.

Bang Away was a tremendous ambassador for our breed. Before him, John and Mazie Wagner's Mazelaine Boxers made the Boxer popular in this country, possibly even more popular than in their own country of origin. Frau Stockmann discusses in her book, that during the second world war, she was able to keep her line going in part because American service men were eager to buy puppies and take them home.

Of the four foundation sires in the US, three were bred by Frau Stockmann, the fourth is sired by a dog of her breeding, and one of the other four is
his grand sire.

Anyway, to follow this line of influence, the Mazelaine Boxers were the early winners. When the Harris's got serious about breeding and showing, they sought out the Wagners as mentors. Sirrah Crest Boxers were developed with the purchase of just 2 dogs and 2 bitches over the course of 3 years, and 3 outside breedings in which they sent bitches back to Mazelaine. Within 10 years, they had a large kennel full of 60 dogs, one of which was Bang Away.

Bang Away was a mixed blessing. On the one hand, he must have had tremendous charisma, and must have been a joy to watch. He attracted a large number of people to the breed, who later contributed in important ways. It became extremely popular to breed to him, and also to inbreed on him. This was very successful in creating show winners, many important lines developed in this way. Most notable of these were the Salgray dogs, who completely dominated the US show world throughout the 60's and 70's. Salgray dogs were widely imported, and are behind many winners in the UK, Australia, etc. Many kennels here were founded with
Salgray stock. I do have done a LOT of pedigree research, I really do not think it would be possible to find a North American dog that does not trace to Bang Away REPEATEDLY, most of those through Salgray dogs. He still holds the record for AKC Ch's- 81. Importation of US dogs to countries such as UK, Australia, and Japan has spread his influence there as well.

He was our first major "bottle neck". Since then, there have been 2 more major bottlenecks(Ch Millan's Fashion Hint and Ch Marquam Hill's Traper of Turo), both of them intensely line bred on Bang Away, Traper is also line bred on Fashion Hint. Fashion Hint was really a Salgray dog, sired by one of the fabulous "F" litter, out of a bitch by another member of that same litter.

All of this inbreeding set type very well. But, it did not come without a price. At times there were temperament problems that arose. Then there are our health problems. It became clear in the 70's and 80's that by all this intense linebreeding and inbreeding we had also unwittingly "set" some of our problems, as well as the virtues. And, really by the time we realized this, there isn't much of a place to go, because all current lines flow from the same fountain. In North America, we all have pretty much the same bloodline once you go back a few generations. Once we started looking for an end to the thread, suspicions rose around dogs that were concentrated in Bang Away's pedigree, and probably behind all the four North American foundation sires.

So, on the one hand, Bang Away did our breed tremendous good. I didn't realize that other breeds hadn't had such a tremendous influence on them until I looked at reports from other breeds. But, I am beginning to wonder what our breed would be like today, if we hadn't had such an overshadowing presence in our past.

In the end, I'll take the good with the bad, but I do think there are lessons to learn from our past.

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