He had come to the Presidential nominating convention as the leading candidate. The consenus was that when Tammany Hall threw New York’s 90 votes into his column, he’d be nominated. He finally go Tammany Hall after ten ballots and that gave him a majority. But he needed two-thirds. He started to compose his telegram of acceptance. No candidate had failed since 1844 to win the two-thirds after gaining the simple majority. But Champ Clark was in trouble.
His real name was James Beauchamp Clark. He was known as “Champ” not because he was a champion of anything in particular, but because his family had trouble agreeing on the pronunciation of his middle name. The old English ancestors pronounced it “Beecham” – but the Americans called it “Bow-champ.” So he shortened it to Champ.

AUDIO: AOWM March 7, 2005 (mp3)