History of Blueface Hatch

By : J.D. Perry

          Lum Gilmore got a cock from Ted McLean it was a small stationed cock ran around Gilmore place for sometime and there were no hens with him. He was said to be a hard hitter, and when cockers stooped by they sparred him to show how hard he could hit. When sparred or exerted in anyway he turned blue in the face, hence the name bluface. Sweater McGinnis was around Gilmore's place at bay City, TX at the time, he finally brought over one of his Madigin regular grey hens as company for the cock. Some stags and pullets were raised from that mating. Sometime before that two hens were stolen from Hatch on Long Island and given to Sweater. And not long after that Sweater was inducted into the service. He put the two hatch hens with E.W. Law to keep for him until he retured, when he got out, he immediately got in touch with Law to get the hens.

          Law told him one had died, but he sent Sweater the other one. One of the 1/2 grey 1/2 blueface cock was bred to the stolen Hatch hen and the progeny of that mating were known as the blueface fowl. The following is told by harry Parr whom Ted McLean gave all of his fowl. In the spring of 1949, Ted McLean had two beautifully bred "straight" (being McLean Hatch) stags, one of which he wanted to breed. They were full brothers, well made, green legged weighted about 4:10, and you could not have told them apart except one was a roundhead. His wing clip was 40-90; the square comb, 48-96. Ted decided to heel them up and fight them which they did in his pit in the barn. The square comb proved to be the better fighter and cutter and when he blinded the roundhead, Ted said he had seen enough to cut the head off the roundhead.

          Well Harry had handled the roundhead and when he was on his hands he could tell all the roundhead wanted to do was get at the other stag. After being pitted, he would search and as soon as contact was made, explode. So harry said he would take him home and see what he could do. After a couple of weeks he regained the sight of one eye and was soon back in good health. He bred this stag two years and one day Ted asked Harry if he would mind sending him to Lun Gilmore. Lun wanted a cock and at the time, Ted did not have a really good one to spare. Harry shipped the cock and later learned that Len and Pete Frost bred him to a hen that Ted had previously given to Pete. The hen was 47-65, by Green Leg cock number 2, the "straight" stuff out of hen number 81 which was a Morgan Whitehackle from Heinie Mathesius (none of the "straight" stuff on the hen side ever got out) Prior to this Ted had given Pete Frost, Green Leg cock number 53 which became the sire of the "Frost Cherries"

          They had also bred his cock to hen 47-65 and sent Harry and Ted a stag from that mating, which was called after Lun, the "Alligator Cock" Sweater McGinnis was involved in their fighting activities at this time and it was from these three birds that the Blueface emerged. (Hen 47-65, Cock 53, Cock 48-90) The next time Harry saw Sweater was january 1958 in Orlando. He told Harry, these "Blueface" were the gamest chickens he had even seen and that he kept the seed stock pure just make battle crosses. He asked Harry if he would let him have another cock and Harry sent him cock 57-340 (Harry was fortunate to get this cock back after Sweaters death thanks to Willis Holking) He also told Harry not to worry, that he didn't let the "straight" one go but they all fought under the name of "Blueface" at the time.

          His favorite were one quarter Blueface, one quarter Regular Grey and one hald Leiper, bred in various combinations. Like all of them, Willis experimented with many crosses and blend in an effort to produce superior battle cocks but recognized the value of keeping he seed stock pure. Here's an article by Art Hefner written on the April issue of the Gamecock 1985. "I have red several articles about Bluface containing Chet blood. About 1956 or 1957 I was visiting at Pineville Farms with Big Red Sweater McGinnis and naturally, we were only talking chickens. On this particular day Bid Red Sweater was in a wonderful mood. On asking why he was so jolly, he told me he got one of his pure Blueface cocks off a walk, of which they had walks by the hundreds. This particular Blueface weighed slightly over 4-08 pound.

          Sweater was elated. This was the biggest, pure Blueface he had raised in years. So you see, they were intensely inbreed. I asked him if the cocks weren't any larger, how small were the pure hens? He got  bucket of feed an called the chickens up. He showed me two hens and told me they were the purest and only two of the pure. And if they had showed up on my yard unknowingly, I would have killed them, never expecting to see anything like they as Blueface. They may have weighed 2 or 2 1/2 pounds. And behold! They were black with brown spots on their breast. Like a Sebright Bantam, with legs a couple of inches long. He never told me what kind of black blood was in them, but by their color they were heavy in some kind. Ever what kind, they were the hardest hitting cocks I've ever seen. Nearly ever successful cockfighter and breeder today has some of this blood. But most have only small amount. As to the pure, there was precious few let out, (Including me). When breeders have "pure" Blueface cocks that go 6 pounds, or even 5 pounds they can do more with them than the old master breeder himself could do.

Later I'll tell more about this. This article was not written to create any controversy. Just telling you the facts as it was told to me by one of the GREATEST BREEDERS and cockfighters of our times. I was proud and honored to know this man personally. So be it.

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          The Blueface hatch, a special strain of hatches came to be known as such because of its pale-faced appearance, which is similar to the appearance of a fowl with Avian Leucosis. Blueface Hatches are so good that their originator, Sweater McGinnis, decided to breed them more with some ending up with Harold Brown, Billy Ruble, Red Richardson, Percy Flowers, William Greene and other American cocking greats. Blueface comes Straight-combed, Green-legged and medium to low stationed. Blueface have carved a reputation for gameness. They are fast, terrific bucklers, hard hitters,deadly cutters and aggressive finishers. Their legs reached out a mile with every stroke, they deliver their blows with a snap and every punch lands where it counts most. Used mainly for foundation blood purposes, old time breeders agree that the best battlecross carries only a quater or less of Blueface blood.