CHUCKING in a towel – the white flag of surrender – might seem an appropriate signal for capitulation. But the original phrase, from the 18th century, was to “throw in the sponge”, a sponge the most common item a corner would use to wipe down a pugilist between rounds.
One of the first recorded reports of a thrown towel came in a January 1913 edition of US newspaper The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette: “Murphy went after him, landing right and left undefended face. The crowd importuned referee Griffin to stop the fight and a towel was thrown from Burns’ corner as a token of defeat.”