Q&A with ‘Dropkick Murphy’ author Emily Sweeney

Cory Santos

Q&A with ‘Dropkick Murphy’ author Emily Sweeney

Boston has its fair share of colorful characters. It’s a working-class city and one that remembers its own. So when Emily Sweeney, a Boston-based journalist, and expert in the city’s underworld, decided to resurrect the legacy of Dr. John Murphy, better known by the ring name “Dropkick” Murphy, I knew it would be an intriguing, colorful story.

The result of her research efforts is Dropkick Murphy: A Legendary Life (Hamilcar, 2023, $18.99). Dr. John Murphy was not only a successful collegiate athlete turned professional wrestler, but he was also an early practitioner of Osteopathy and a forerunner in establishing a greater understanding of addiction and mental health disorders in society.

I recently had the opportunity to talk with the book’s author, Emily Sweeney. Sweeney, a Boston Globe reporter by day, is Boston through and through. A Massachusetts native, she not only attended college in Boston (at Northeastern University) but won an NCAA Hockey National Championship during her time on the ice at defence at the Boston Arena (now Mathews Arena). Like Sid Eudy in the summertime, this was an opportunity to lob softballs I couldn’t resist.

Q: What drew you to Dr. John Murphy as a research subject?

I’m a Boston native, and I’ve always loved the Dropkick Murphys and their music, and over the years, I’d heard vague stories that Dropkick Murphy had been a real guy who was a professional wrestler. I didn’t give it much thought until one day I was sitting at Crossroads Restaurant in Acton, Massachusetts, and I heard people talking about Dropkick Murphy’s farm. I started asking questions, and the Crossroads folks explained that Dropkick Murphy was indeed a wrestler, and he used to run a detox facility a couple of miles down the road called Bellows Farm. From that point on, I was totally intrigued, and then I became determined to find out as much as I could about the place and this larger-than-life wrestler who ran it.

Q: As a journalist, did you find it challenging to balance “the who, what, where, when, why, and how” of newsprint media with the greater creative freedoms things like books provide?

The biggest difficulty with writing this book, by far, was finding out accurate information about Dropkick Murphy, his career, the events that led him to open up the detox facility, and the various things that transpired there.

I mean, think about it: Dropkick Murphy operated Bellows Farm from the 1940s until he closed it in 1971, more than half a century ago! Soon after I embarked on this project, I realized that records and sources would be scarce, as many people who spent time there were long gone. It took a long time to research everything and pull together enough reliable material to tell Dropkick’s life story. It took me the better part of a decade, in fact.

Q: Were you a wrestling fan coming into this project?

I was a big fan of wrestling when I was younger. I used to watch WWF matches on TV with my friends, and then we’d play-wrestle each other, trying to mimic the wrestling moves used by our favorite guys (this was back in the days of Macho Man Randy Savage, Jake the Snake Roberts, Sgt. Slaughter, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, British Bulldogs, et al.) I even got to attend a WWF match at the old Boston Garden once.

Q: How do the current public’s perceptions of professional wrestling differ from Boston of the 1930s? Are there any similarities, or is it a completely alien world versus today?

The question of whether professional wrestling was fake or not seemed to be a popular topic of debate in the 1930s.

Q: Do you think that the general public, particularly in Boston, currently has a decent understanding of the life of John “Dropkick” Murphy beyond the band associations?

No, I don’t think so. That’s one of the main reasons why I wrote the book.

Q: Do you currently have any collaborations with local wrestling promotions to help promote your book?

I would love to! If anyone has any suggestions for potential collaborations, I’m all ears — you can drop me a line here. I’d also like to see Dropkick Murphy’s legacy recognized more, especially since he probably helped more people battle addiction than any other pro athlete of his time. I’ve nominated Dropkick as a candidate for the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Hall of Fame.

I’ll also be getting in touch with Linda McMahon (I interviewed her, and she’s featured at the beginning of the book) because I want to ask her how I can nominate Dropkick Murphy as a potential WWE Hall of Fame Legacy inductee.

Q: Are you planning on giving any talks about “Dropkick” Murphy or book signings?

Yes! Here are three confirmed dates:

  • June 22: Boston Public Library, South Boston branch, FREE 6:30 PM
  • July 16: Medford (MA) Public Library, FREE 7 PM
  • September 17: Bull Run Restaurant Speaker Series, $25 [Buy tickets here]

Q: What was the thing that shocked you the most in your research?

While doing the research for this book, I was surprised to learn that Dropkick put himself through medical school while moonlighting as a pro wrestler. He would attend classes during the day and then wrestle at night and on weekends. He successfully completed his studies and graduated from medical school, earning his Doctor of Osteopathy degree.

Q: What little tidbit of information or curious circumstance of your research gave you that “Woah, this is big!” feeling?

Another thing that stood out to me was that Dropkick Murphy’s farm wasn’t just a detox facility for alcoholics. It was also a fitness center with a state-of-the-art gymnasium and full-sized ring used for boxing and wrestling.

Elite athletes would train there, but what really struck me is how Dropkick also offered supervised weightlifting and fitness sessions to average folks who were looking to lose a little weight or get in better shape. The fact that Dropkick was running a public gym and offering personal training services to the general public in the 1940s surprised me.

Q: A final nerdy one. I remember playing Mini One-on-One on TV 38 in Matthews Arena, but that’s nothing compared to playing there in a season where you won the NCAA Championship; what’s it like researching an arena you used to call home, some 70-80 years later?

After playing four years of Division I hockey at Northeastern University and being a huge history buff, Matthews Arena holds a very special place in my heart. After all, it’s the world’s oldest multi-purpose athletic building that’s still in use. It was the original home of the Boston Bruins and hosted so many famous people over the years, including Babe Ruth, Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy.

Learning about the wrestling matches that took place there was really interesting because I got to dig into another layer of the venue’s sporting history that I had previously not been aware of.

TOP PHOTO: Author photo of Emily Sweeney by Matthew Modoono.

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