Jack Dempsey: the Manassa Mauler and boxing’s first million-dollar gate | Ultimate Boxing Reunion

Why fans still care

JACK DEMPSEY was one of the biggest sports stars of the 1920s, the Golden Age of Sport. He won the heavyweight title in a single brutal afternoon, drew the first million-dollar gate, and is still remembered for one of the most argued-over counts in boxing history.

He held the title for seven years, and he grew even more popular after he lost it.

Early life

He was born William Harrison Dempsey on 24 June 1895 in Manassa, Colorado, one of a large family born to Hyrum and Celia Dempsey. In 1911, at 16, he left home for good and rode railroad cars from job to job. He fought in local clubs under the name “Kid Blackie”. How he came to be called Jack is told two ways: one account says he took it from the earlier middleweight “Nonpareil” Jack Dempsey, another that his brother Bernie boxed as Jack Dempsey and William stood in for him in a Denver fight.

The early years

He turned professional in 1914, fighting in Colorado, Utah and Nevada. In February 1917 Fireman Jim Flynn put him down four times in round 1 and Bernie threw in the towel, the only time he was ever stopped. Later in 1917 he met the manager Jack “Doc” Kearns in a San Francisco bar, and the knockouts started to come quickly. On 27 July 1918 at Harrison, New Jersey, he knocked out Fred Fulton in round 1, officially in 23 seconds.

Career chapters

1. 1914Turns professional in the mining towns of the West
2. 1917Stopped by Fireman Jim Flynn, then teams up with Jack “Doc” Kearns
3. 1919Beats Jess Willard for the world heavyweight title
4. 1921Knocks out Georges Carpentier before the first million-dollar gate
5. 1923Knocks out Luis Ángel Firpo in round 2
6. 1926Loses the title to Gene Tunney
7. 1927Loses the Long Count rematch with Tunney
8. 1928Announces his retirement

Willard 1919

On 4 July 1919 in Toledo he challenged the champion Jess Willard. He knocked Willard down seven times in round 1, and Willard did not come out for round 4.

The champion 1919 to 1926

He defended the title five times: Billy Miske, Bill Brennan, Georges Carpentier, Tommy Gibbons and Luis Ángel Firpo. Carpentier, at Boyle’s Thirty Acres in Jersey City on 2 July 1921, drew a crowd of between about 80,000 and 90,000 and a gate of about $1.79 million, boxing’s first million-dollar gate. Dempsey knocked him out in round 4. Against Gibbons in Shelby, Montana, on 4 July 1923, he won on points over 15 rounds.

Firpo 1923

On 14 September 1923 at the Polo Grounds he fought Luis Ángel Firpo of Argentina. Dempsey put Firpo down seven times in round 1, but was himself knocked through the ropes and climbed back inside the count. He floored Firpo twice more in round 2 and finished it 57 seconds into the round.

Tunney and the Long Count 1926 to 1927

On 23 September 1926 in Philadelphia, before about 120,000 people in the rain, Gene Tunney outpointed him over 10 rounds and took the title. In July 1927 he knocked out Jack Sharkey in round 7 at Yankee Stadium to earn a rematch. On 22 September 1927 at Soldier Field in Chicago, before just over 104,000 and a gate of $2,658,660, Tunney outboxed him for most of the fight, but Dempsey dropped him in round 7. He did not go straight to a neutral corner, the referee Dave Barry waited until he did before starting the count, and Tunney was down for an estimated 13 to 18 seconds before he rose. Tunney went on to win the decision. It was Dempsey’s last fight, and he announced his retirement in March 1928.

After boxing

He lost about $3 million in the 1929 crash. In the early 1930s he toured in exhibitions, and in 1935 he opened Jack Dempsey’s restaurant in New York. In the Second World War he served in the US Coast Guard as director of its physical fitness programme, with the rank of commander, until November 1945. In 1950 he published a boxing manual, Championship Fighting. He died at home in New York on 31 May 1983, aged 87.

Style, technique and the corner

How he fought

In Championship Fighting he named the full crouch, used by “bobbers and weavers”, as his favourite stance, and said it served him well against bigger men. The book sets out four ways of putting body weight behind a punch, the falling step, leg spring, shoulder whirl and upward surge, and a “power line” running from the shoulder to the knuckle of the little finger. It was a left hook that dropped Tunney in round 7 in 1927, and a left hook to the chin that finished Sharkey.

The corner

Jack “Doc” Kearns managed him from 1917 through his championship years. In his book he credits the trainer Jimmy DeForest, who prepared him for Willard at a camp on Maumee Bay, on Lake Erie.

Stories people still tell

1. I forgot to duck.

   After losing the title to Tunney in 1926, he told his wife, the actress Estelle Taylor, “Honey, I forgot to duck.”

2. The neutral corner.

   He was known for standing over opponents as they got up, and PBS ties the rule that sends a fighter to a neutral corner after a knockdown to that habit.

3. The draft case.

   He was accused of avoiding service in the First World War, and in 1920 a San Francisco jury acquitted him.

4. Harry Wills.

   He never fought the Black contender Harry Wills, and accounts of why still differ.

Legacy

He went into the Ring Boxing Hall of Fame in 1954 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame’s first class in 1990, and the US Postal Service put him on a 32-cent stamp in 1998. Max Schmeling said a film of the Carpentier fight started his own boxing career. He also served as honorary chairman of a fund for Joe Louis, Who’s Who number 21.