Just as many stories were written about Putnam's fighting background: A term in the Marines, four Purple Hearts and a Navy Cross, and a 17-month stint in a Chinese POW camp after he was captured during the Korean War. When he died in November 2005 at age 75, the Boxing Writers of America recognized that part of his life by establishing the Pat Putnam Award, for perseverance in overcoming adversity.

Two national groups that work independently to verify military service both have learned in the past couple of days that Putnam's claims were false. A spokesman from the U.S. Marine Corps, Maj. Jay Delarosa, wrote in an e-mail yesterday that "we could not verify the service of this individual."

This discovery came on the same day boxing writers gathered here for their 83rd annual dinner. During that event, two young fighters from Washington became the final recipients of the Putnam Award. Lamont and Anthony Peterson, homeless children who grew up to become world-class fighters, were being added to the list of winners who include Uganda native Kassim Ouma in 2006 and Muhammad Ali last year.

That award, an engraved crystal vase, was given out with all references to Putnam omitted from the introduction.

Putnam's story of his service and capture was told for nearly a half-century, repeated so often that it was routinely accepted as fact instead of fiction.

"I really didn't know anything about this," his daughter, Colleen Putnam, said yesterday. "From what I understand, this started out as a lark. Then it started to grow and grow until it got out of hand.

"He never talked about any of this, not to me, not to my kids. My father was Irish. He liked to tell stories. He was a funny man. This was a story he just should never have told."

Retired Associated Press boxing writer Ed Schuyler Jr. was Pat Putnam's best friend and for decades his ringside companion at boxing matches around the world. He said yesterday he was shocked by the news. "There is no question in my mind now that Pat was not a Marine. There is also no doubt in my mind that he was living this [fantasy]. I think he really believed all of this happened. I know I believed it."

Two members of a group called the POW Network, Chuck and Mary Schantag, of Skidmore, Mo., read a story in Tuesday's Daily News about the Peterson brothers and the award's namesake. They began to check into Putnam's claims. The Schantags estimated that they uncover "about 20 frauds a month" and spend 80 percent of their time investigating bogus veterans. They found no record of his service, they said.

They contacted Doug Sterner, an Army vet of the Vietnam War and another member of the "network," who was instrumental in prodding Congress to create House Bill 3769, the so-called "Stolen Valor" bill, that makes it a federal offense to falsely wear unearned combat medals or even to claim to have earned them.

"I can give you hundreds of examples of people who did what Pat Putnam did," Sterner said yesterday. "It's a more common problem than you could ever imagine."

Putnam's well-documented injuries were legitimate. He did lose a lung, and there was a steel rod inserted in his back. But those were the result of a horrific automobile accident he survived.

There's no questioning Putnam's literary accomplishments. Among the recognition he received was the 1982 Nat Fleischer Award for excellence in boxing journalism. *