He started as a salesman and rose the company, serving as its European buyer, general manager, and president before retiring in December 1939.
[1] On July 11, 1916, as the 69th Regiment was leaving to fight in the Mexican Border War, Phelan, then a Lieutenant Colonel, was found physically unfit and relieved of his command by Major General Leonard Wood.
[2] Phelan's removal was appealed to United States Secretary of War Newton D. Baker, who upheld Wood's decision.
[6] In 1923, Governor Al Smith appointed Phelan, William J. McCormack, and D. Walker Wear to the newly formed state boxing licensing committee.
Phelan's inquiry found that no violations of the state's boxing rules and regulations had occurred in the Carnera–Schaaf fight and that "it would have been highly improbable to detect" the illness (meningitis) that killed Schaaf during the pre-fight medical examination.
[12] In 1934, Phelan reversed the decision of the Tony Canzoneri–Cleto Locatelli bout after he discovered the ring announcer had misread one of the judge's ballots.
[13] In 1935, Phelan and fellow commissioner Bill Brown ordered a reversal of the decision in the Vince Dundee–Eddie Risko fight.
[15] That same year, Phelan was able to convince Mike Jacobs to hold the Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling fight in New York City.
[18] At the 1938 convention of the International Boxing Federation, Phelan was instrumental in defeating a proposal that would require all championships to have the approval of a special committee on which Americans would have minority representation.
The suit ended when Johnston made a statement denying that he had used the word "financial" and added that he never meant to accuse Phelan and Brown of "malfeasance or misfeasance of any kind".
[19] Following Joe Louis's knockout victory over Billy Conn, Phelan undertook a search for the judge's ballots, which had gone missing after the fight.
[28] Phelan was allowed to remain on the board, as Dewey appointed him to fill the unoccupied seat previously held by D. Walker Wear.