Real McCoy (1901), Boy's Own Paper

[Dave Wilton]

> Wow!  That is one of the more significant finds about the
> phrase.  It shows not only that it was used by 1901 with
> the McCoy spelling(and in a British publication!), but it
> was obviously not about liquor.
>
> Could there not have been two phrases, with the Scotch being
> the first?  And then, along comes a boxer in the 1890's, who
> boxed not only in the US but in England.  And the Real McCoy
> could have been coined about the boxer, in imitation of the
> Real MacKay?

Did Norman Selby, aka Charles "Kid" McCoy, box in England as well? Or at
least was he well known there as he was in the States? Is it plausible that
a British writer would be influenced by his boxing career?

As far as I know (which isn't all that much), Selby's career in the ring was
limited to the US. And 1901 would have been fairly early in his career--but
he was quite famous in the US by that point. As I see it, this 1901 citation
strongly militates against Selby being the origin of the term.