Please Donate Boxing coach, roadhouse operator, saloon keeper, and Ingleside character for over fifty years. Barney Farley, a Character Study by Woody LaBounty Barney Farley, athlete, boxing trainer, and saloon keeper, spinning stories from his Ocean Avenue roadhouse resort, as depicted by a newspaper artist, February 19, 1897. - San Francisco Call In 1896, the San Francisco Call described Bernard Farley, a pioneer of the Ingleside District’s old Ocean Road (today’s Ocean Avenue), as a “character of renown.” I will admit to having a personal weakness for characters. My family history has its share of black sheep, whose actions may have been questionable, even reprehensible. The smoothing hand of time, however, has made petty thieves, town drunks, and bankrupt miners welcome eccentrics in my otherwise staid family tree. Tragedies of alcoholism, gambling addiction, and mental illness, far removed from one’s immediate exposure, do make for interesting reading.