The contestants are…
-
Elijah McCoy, a
Canadian inventor
-
Kid McCoy, a
welterweight boxing champion in 1896
-
Other
-
None -- or all -- of
the above
Or was the "real McCoy" part of the "Hatfields and McCoys" feud
in Appalachia that ended more than 100 years ago?
Inventor Elijah McCoy was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1844 to
former slaves who had fled from Kentucky before the Civil War. He
was educated in Scotland as a mechanical engineer and then moved to
Michigan. Unable to find a job as an engineer, he went to work for a
local railroad company as an oilman.
McCoy's job involved walking the length of the train to oil its
moving parts, such as the axles and bearings. Believing that there
must be a better way to accomplish this, he invented a lubricating
cup that automatically dropped oil onto moving parts. His automatic
oil cup was requested by engineers and inspectors until it
eventually became standard equipment. It also became known as "the
real McCoy" along the way. Elijah McCoy earned a total of 57 patents
in his lifetime and established the McCoy Manufacturing Company in
Detroit.
Contestant 2 was boxer Kid McCoy, whose real name was Norman
Selby. Born in 1873, he began billing himself as Kid "The Real"
McCoy in the 1890s after a number of imposters claimed to be Kid
McCoy in order to capitalize on his fame and fortune. Kid McCoy was
a colorful character who always carried a roll of money with him. He
was married 10 times; four of those marriages were to the same
woman.
Then there's the story about a boxing match in which McCoy fought
a deaf fighter. It was during the match that he found out his
opponent was deaf, and he offered his "help" by signaling that the
bell had rung during the third round, when in fact it didn't. As his
opponent thanked him and turned toward his corner, McCoy knocked him
out.
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In a match against a barefoot fighter in South Africa, McCoy
threw tacks into the boxing ring. He won that bout, too, but he lost
in court after shooting his girlfriend. He served time in San
Quentin State Prison and was later paroled. After his boxing career
ended, he went to Hollywood and acted in a few movies. He died in
1940.
There are additional versions of who the real McCoy was. The
Oxford English Dictionary quoted Robert Louis Stevenson in 1883 as
referring to someone as "the real Mackay," although it's not clear
to whom Stevenson was referring. There was also an 1880s brand of
whiskey that was advertised as "the real McKay."
Both references occurred a decade after Elijah invented
his self-oiling device for locomotives, but before Kid became
famous.
Then there was Prohibition-era smuggler Billy McCoy, who imported
genuine whiskey into the United States from Canada. Since his
whiskey was real rather than the stuff made by moonshiners, it was
known as the real McCoy. There was also a cattle baron who Alistair
Cooke believed was the real McCoy. He may have been referring to
Charles Goodnight of Texas and the design of his 1866 chuck wagon,
which was named after him (using the common nickname of "Chuck" for
"Charles").
For the real "real McCoy," whoever he is, his name became a noun,
just like Rube Goldberg's name became an adjective. Yet to this day,
nobody knows for sure which person -- or product -- the term refers
to.
It's possible that "the real McCoy" could have described more
than one person -- and that each one was given the nickname
independently of each other. Some mysteries are more interesting
when left unsolved, keeping the legend alive and growing.
[Paul Niemann]
Paul Niemann may be reached at
niemann7@aol.com.
Copyright Paul Niemann 2006
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