Jack Dempsey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the 20th-century boxing champion. For the 19th-century boxing champion, see Jack "Nonpareil" Dempsey. For other uses, see Jack Dempsey (disambiguation).
| Jack Dempsey | |
|---|---|
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| Statistics | |
| Real name | William Harrison Dempsey |
| Nickname(s) | Kid Blackie Manassa Mauler |
| Height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) |
| Reach | 77 in (196 cm) |
| Nationality | American |
| Born | June 24, 1895 Manassa, Colorado |
| Died | May 31, 1983 (aged 87) New York City, New York |
| Stance | Orthodox |
| Boxing record | |
| Total fights | 83 |
| Wins | 65 |
| Wins by KO | 51 |
| Losses | 6 |
| Draws | 11 |
| No contests | 1 |
Contents
Early life and career
Born in Manassa, Colorado, as William Harrison Dempsey, he grew up in Colorado, West Virginia, and Utah, in a poor family.[A] He was the son of Mary Celia (née Smoot) and Hiram Dempsey, and his ancestry included Irish, Cherokee, and a Jewish paternal great-great-grandmother.[5][6][7] Both parents became Mormon converts,[8] and Jack was baptized on August 2, 1903, after he reached the required age of accountability. Jack would later write, "I'm proud to be a Mormon. And ashamed to be the Jack Mormon that I am."[9] Because his father had difficulty finding work, the family traveled often. He dropped out of grade school to work. Dempsey left home at the age of 16, eager to start a better life for himself. Because of lack of money, he frequently had to travel underneath trains and sleep in hobo camps. However, Dempsey was a strong, powerful youth who soon discovered a talent for fighting. With the help of his older brother Bernie, he commenced training as a professional boxer.Desperate for the money, Dempsey would occasionally visit saloons and challenge for fights, saying "I can't sing and I can't dance, but I can lick any SOB in the house." If anyone accepted the challenge, bets would be made. According to Dempsey's autobiography, he rarely lost these barroom brawls.[10] A little known fact about Dempsey is that for a short time he was a part-time bodyguard for Thomas F. Kearns, president of The Salt Lake Tribune and son of Utah's U.S. Senator Thomas Kearns (no relation to Jack Kearns). The two men remained friends for years afterward.
Dempsey's exact boxing record is not known, because he occasionally boxed under the pseudonym, "Kid Blackie". (His use of the pseudonym continued until 1916.) Meanwhile, he first appeared as "Jack Dempsey" in 1914, after an earlier middleweight boxer Jack "Nonpareil" Dempsey, drawing with Young Herman in six rounds. After that fight, he won six bouts in a row by knockout (as Jack Dempsey), before losing for the first time, on a disqualification in four rounds to Jack Downey. During this early part of his career, Dempsey campaigned in Utah, frequently entering fights in towns up and down the Wasatch Mountain Range and keeping in shape with such sparring partners as Frank VanSickle.
He followed his loss against Downey with a knockout win and two draws versus Johnny Sudenberg in Nevada. Three more wins and a draw followed when he met Downey again, this time resulting in a four-round draw.
Ten wins in a row followed—a streak during which he beat Sudenberg and was finally able to avenge his defeat at the hands of Downey, knocking him out in two rounds. Three more no decisions ensued. (At this point in the history of boxing, many states and counties forbade the use of judges to score a fight, so if a fight lasted the full distance, it was called a draw or no decision, depending on the state or county where the fight was held).
While the United States fought World War I in 1917, Dempsey worked in a shipyard while continuing to box. Afterward, he was accused by some boxing fans of being a slacker. He was not able to clear his name on that account until 1920, when evidence was produced showing he had attempted to enlist in the U.S. Army, but had been turned down. After the war, Dempsey spent two years in Salt Lake City, "bumming around", as he called it, in a very tough America, before returning to the ring.[11]
Taking the title
Dempsey's first manager was John J. Reisler.[B] Dempsey later hooked up with Jack Kearns, an experienced, clever fight manager who carefully and skillfully guided Dempsey to the top.[C]
In 1918, Dempsey boxed 17 times, going 15–1 with one no decision. He avenged his defeat against Flynn by returning the favor, knocking him out in the first round. Among others he beat were Light Heavyweight Champion Battling Levinsky (who had never been knocked out before Dempsey did so), Bill Brennan, Fred Fulton, Carl E. Morris, Billy Miske ("newspaper decision"), heavyweight Lefty Jim McGettigan, and Homer Smith. In 1919, he won five regular bouts (plus one one-round special bout) in a row by knockout in the first round.[13]
As PBS summarized: "Jack Dempsey's boxing style consisted of constantly bobbing and weaving. His attacks were furious and sustained. Behind it all was rage. His aggressive behavior prompted a rule that boxers had to retreat to a neutral corner and give opponents who had been knocked down a chance to get up."[3] Constant attack was his strategic defense.[2]
Title fight and controversy
A disgruntled Kearns, who had been sacked by Dempsey, gave an account that became known as the "loaded gloves theory" in Sports Illustrated (January 20, 1964). Kearns claimed to have informed Dempsey that he had wagered Dempsey's share of the purse on Dempsey winning with a first-round knockout and had applied plaster of Paris to the customary wrappings under Dempsey's gloves. Historian J. J. Johnston said, "the films show Willard upon entering the ring walking over to Dempsey and examining his hands." That and an experiment conducted by a boxing magazine seem to disprove Kearns' story.[14] However, Willard's actions in checking the wraps of his opponent, not a normal procedure, implied he was concerned about foul play, and Willard later claimed to have been defeated by gangsterism.[11] Nat Fleischer, later founder of The Ring magazine, was there when Dempsey's hands were wrapped: "Jack Dempsey had no loaded gloves, and no plaster of Paris over his bandages. I watched the proceedings and the only person who had anything to do with the taping of Jack's hands was Deforest. Kearns had nothing to do with it, so his plaster of Paris story is simply not true. Deforest himself said that he regarded the stories of Dempsey's gloves being loaded as libel, calling them "trash", and said he did not apply any foreign substance to them, which I can verify since I watched the taping."[16] Sports writer Red Smith in The New York Times obituary of Dempsey was openly dismissive of the claim.[17]
Another suggestion is that Dempsey had an object resembling a rail spike in his gloved hand which he used as a knuckleduster during the first round, the only one in which Willard was knocked down.[11] In the Los Angeles Times (July 3, 1979), Joe Stone, an ex-referee and boxing writer, asserted that in film of the fight an object could be seen lying on the canvas after the final knockdown and that this object appears to be removed by someone who seems to be from Dempsey's corner. The countervailing view is that Dempsey can be seen pushing and holding with the palm of the glove which would have made it all but impossible to keep a spike hidden or in place.[14]
Dempsey, thinking the fight was over, had left the ring at the end of the first round, a clear violation of the rules which Willard's corner might have used to insist the referee disqualify Dempsey. However, Willard had economized by employing nonprofessional corner-men and they failed to make the necessary timely objection.[11]
Title defenses
Dempsey's second title defense was much tougher, against Bill Brennan in December 1920 at Madison Square Garden, New York City. Brennan had given Dempsey a tough match two years earlier. After 10 rounds, Brennan was actually ahead on points, and Dempsey's left ear was bleeding profusely. Dempsey rebounded to stop Brennan in the 12th round.
The next fight for "the Manassa Mauler" was against Frenchman Georges Carpentier, who had been a war hero during World War I and was extremely popular on both sides of the Atlantic.[D] The bout was shrewdly promoted by Tex Rickard, emphasizing the differences between the two men, and George Bernard Shaw, who claimed that Carpentier was "the greatest boxer in the world" and the odds were 50 to 1 against Dempsey.[18] The anticipation for this bout was tremendous.
The Dempsey–Carpentier contest took place on July 2, 1921, at Boyle's Thirty Acres, Jersey City, New Jersey, generating the first million-dollar gate in boxing history. A crowd of 91,000 watched the fight. Though it was deemed "the Fight of the Century" and many people who did not know much about boxing thought Carpentier had a chance to win, most experts anticipated a one-sided win for Dempsey, and they were right. RCA arranged for live coverage of the match, making the event the first national radio broadcast reaching mostly homemade radio sets after first being telegraphed to KDKA for broadcast.[3][19]
Carpentier got off to a fast start and reportedly even wobbled Dempsey with a hard right in the second round. A reporter at ringside, however, counted 25 punches from Dempsey in a single 31-second exchange soon after he was supposedly injured by the right.[18] Carpentier also broke his thumb in that round, which crippled his chances. In the third, the bigger, stronger Dempsey began to take charge and administered a brutal beating to Carpentier. The Frenchman was eventually stopped in the fourth round.
Dempsey did not defend his title again until July 1923 against Tommy Gibbons in Shelby, Montana. Gibbons was a skilled, clever boxer, but was not powerful enough against the bigger, stronger Dempsey, who won a 15-round decision.
The last successful title defense for Dempsey was in September 1923 at New York's Polo Grounds. His opponent in the fight was the huge, powerful, yet limited contender Luis Ángel Firpo, from Argentina. Attendance was 85,000, with another 20,000 trying to get inside the arena. Dempsey won by a second-round KO, but it was an exciting battle. Firpo was knocked down repeatedly, yet continued to battle back, even knocking Dempsey down twice. The second time Dempsey was floored, he went sailing head-first through the ring ropes, landing on a reporter's typewriter. Dempsey was out of the ring about 14 seconds, more than the 10 seconds for knockdowns inside the ring, but less than the 20 seconds stipulated by the rules when knocked out of the ring. This scene is one of the most memorable in sports history. This fight was so important, it was transmitted live to Buenos Aires by radio and people gathered in the streets to listen to it through primitive receivers and amplifiers.[20] These fights, plus his many exhibitions, movies, and endorsements, had made Dempsey one of the richest athletes in the world. It landed him on the cover of TIME Magazine.[21]
Time off from boxing
Loss of title and the "Long Count"
In September 1926, Dempsey fought Irish-American former U.S. Marine Gene Tunney in Philadelphia.[E] Tunney was an excellent boxer who had lost only once in his career. Nevertheless, Tunney was still considered the underdog.In a big upset, Dempsey lost his title on points in 10 rounds. No longer displaying his legendary punching power or hand speed, Dempsey was easily outboxed by the slick Tunney, who would dodge, use excellent pad level, and then let loose with a salvo of punches of his own. The attendance for this fight was a record 120,557, the largest attendance ever for a sporting event outside motor racing and soccer. When the battered Dempsey returned to his dressing room, he explained the defeat to his wife Estelle Taylor by saying, "Honey, I forgot to duck."[17] This phrase was later used by President Ronald Reagan to his wife after Reagan was shot during a failed attempt on his life in 1981.[25]
Dempsey contemplated retiring, but after a few months of rest, decided to try a comeback, despite a tragedy which befell his family in which his other brother, John, shot his own wife, then killed himself in a murder-suicide.[F] On July 21, 1927, at Yankee Stadium, he knocked out future Heavyweight Champion Jack Sharkey in the seventh round of an elimination bout for a title shot against Tunney. Sharkey was beating Dempsey until the end, when the fight ended controversially. Sharkey claimed that Dempsey had been hitting him below the belt. When Sharkey turned to the referee to complain, he left himself unprotected. Dempsey crashed a left hook onto Sharkey's chin, knocking him out cold. The referee then counted out Sharkey.
The Tunney rematch took place in Chicago, Illinois, on September 22, 364 days after losing his title to Tunney in their first bout. This fight generated even more interest than the Carpentier and Firpo bouts, generating an amazing $2 million gate, a record that stood for many years. According to legend, Al Capone offered to fix the rematch in his favor, but Dempsey refused. Millions of people around the country listened to the bout on the radio and hundreds of reporters covered the event. Tunney was paid a record one million dollars (equivalent to around $13,576,628 in today's funds[26]) for the Dempsey rematch (his official purse was actually $990,000, so he gave the promoters a check of his own for $10,000 so he could receive the "million-dollar payday", a photostat of which is still owned by the Tunney family). Dempsey earned about half that.
Dempsey was losing the fight on points when he knocked Tunney down with a left hook to the chin in the seventh round and landed several more punches. A new rule for boxing at the time mandated that when a fighter knocked down an opponent, he must immediately go to a neutral corner. But Dempsey seemed to have forgotten that rule (compare his fight with Willard where he almost stood over his downed opponent ready to strike again) and refused to immediately move to the neutral corner when instructed by the referee. The referee had to escort Dempsey to the neutral corner, which bought Tunney at least an extra five seconds to recover.
The official timekeeper for the fight counted the time Tunney stayed down as 14 seconds. But, after Dempsey finally went to a neutral corner, the referee started his count, and Tunney got up at the referee's count of 9. Dempsey tried to finish Tunney off before the round ended, but failed to do so. A fully recovered Tunney dropped Dempsey for a count of one in round eight, easily won the final two rounds of the fight and retained the title on a unanimous decision. Ironically, the new rule (which was not yet universal) was requested during negotiations by members of the Dempsey camp. Another discrepancy was, when Tunney knocked Dempsey down, the referee started the count immediately, not waiting for Tunney to move to a neutral corner.[27] Because of the controversial nature of the fight, it remains known in history as the fight of "the Long Count."
Retirement
In 1935, Dempsey opened Jack Dempsey's Restaurant on Eighth Avenue and 50th Street, across from the third Madison Square Garden, the name of which was changed later to Jack Dempsey's Broadway Restaurant in New York City's Times Square, when it moved to Broadway between 49th and 50th Streets. The restaurant was open until 1974.[28] Although closed today, many years later people still have fond memories of the legendary hangout. Dempsey was also an owner of the Colony Palms Hotel (then called the Howard Manor) in Palm Springs, California.[29]
Dempsey divorced Taylor and in July 1933 married Broadway singer Hannah Williams, who had just divorced Roger Wolfe Kahn, and had two children with her. Shortly after Dempsey divorced Hannah Williams in 1943, the boxer married Deanna Piatelli, and was married to her at the time of his death. Together with Deanna's daughter, Barbara, Dempsey would pen the book Dempsey later on in life.
True to his passion for the sport, Dempsey wrote a book on boxing called Championship Fighting: Explosive Punching and Aggressive Defense, which was published in 1950. The book emphasizes knockout power derived from enabling fast motion from one's heavy bodyweight. Though no longer in print, Dempsey's book became and remains the recognized treatise in boxing and has influenced such works from Edwin Haislet and Bruce Lee.
Dempsey was also something of a cross-trainer; he wrestled in training camp and later took judo lessons. During World War II, while in the Coast Guard, he coauthored with professional wrestler Bernard J. Cosneck, How to Fight Tough, which instructed Coast Guardsmen on close-quarters hand-to-hand combat incorporating boxing, wrestling, and jiujitsu.
After the Louis-Schmeling fight, he expressed the opinion that he was glad he never had to face Joe Louis in the ring. When the Brown Bomber fell on hard financial times, Dempsey served as honorary chairman of a fund to assist him.[3]
Dempsey made friends with Wills and Tunney after retirement, and many books were written about his life. Dempsey even campaigned for Tunney's son John V. Tunney when he ran for the U.S. Senate, from California. One of Dempsey's best friends was Judge John Sirica, who presided over the Watergate trials.
In 1971, Dempsey recounted a story in which he was mugged while walking home at night. The two young muggers attempted to grab his arms, but Dempsey broke free and laid them both out cold on the sidewalk. The tale first appears in print in the Hendersonville Times-News of July 1971, where it was said to have taken place "a few years ago".[31]
He was a Freemason, "as was fellow boxer Sugar Ray Robinson." [32][33] He was a member of Kenwood Lodge #800 in Chicago.[34][35]
Death
In 1977, in collaboration with his daughter Barbara Lynn, Jack published his autobiography, titled Dempsey. In May 1983, Dempsey died of heart failure at age 87. With his wife Deanna at his side, his last words were ... "Don't worry honey; I'm too mean to die." He is buried in the Southampton Cemetery in Southampton, New York. Deanna Dempsey died in 2003.Dempsey is a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame. The street where Madison Square Garden is located is called Jack Dempsey Corner.
Boxing record
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66 Wins (51 T(KO)'s, 14 decisions, 1 disqualification), 6 Losses (1 T(KO), 5 decisions), 11 Draws[36][hide]
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Published works
- Dempsey, Jack, Lt.; Cosneck, Bernard J. (1942, reissued 2002). How to Fight Tough (Softcover). Boulder, Colo: Paladin Press. p. 136. ISBN 978-1-58160-315-6. [37]
- Dempsey, Jack; Menke, Frank G. (2002). How to fight tough (Print). Boulder, Colorado: Paladin Press. ISBN 1581603150.[38]
- Dempsey, Jack (1950). Jack Dempsey's Championship Fighting: Explosive punching and aggressive defense. Prentice-Hall. p. 103.
- Dempsey, Jack; Stearns, Myron Morris (1940). Round by Round (Hardcover). New York: Whittlesey House, McGraw-Hill. p. 285.
- Dempsey, Jack; Considine, Bob; Slocum, Bill (1960). Dempsey By The Man Himself As Told To Bob Considine and Bill Slocum (Hardcover). New York: Simon & Schuster.
- Dempsey, Jack; Dempsey, Barbara Piattelli (1977). Dempsey:The Autobiography of Jack Dempsey. London: W.H. Allen, Harper & Row. p. 320. ISBN 0-491-02301-4. ISBN 9780491023016
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