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Great Athletes

Jack Dempsey

by Bill Delaney

Sport: Boxing

Early Life

William Harrison Dempsey was born June 24, 1895, in Manassa, Colorado, the town that is the origin of his nickname, “The Manassa Mauler.” He adopted the name “Jack” in his teens. His parents were sharecroppers, and he was one of eleven children. The family moved to Utah during Jack’s early youth, but their fortunes did not improve.

Jack Dempsey, who was one of the most popular athletes of the Roaring Twenties and scored 51 knockouts in a fourteen-year career.

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(Library of Congress)

Jack had little formal education, never getting beyond the eighth grade. He held a number of jobs, all of which involved heavy physical labor. He was variously a fruit picker, a lumberjack, and a miner. At this stage of his life, his future prospects appeared dim. He spent much of his spare time in pool halls and bars and appeared to be no more than a local slacker.

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The Road to Excellence

One fact made Jack stand out from other young men of his limited social background: his fierce determination to succeed. He liked to fight and was good at it; therefore, he decided to put all his effort into becoming a topflight boxer. Jack adopted a rigorous program of training. In addition to the usual sparring and running, he soaked his hands, face, and upper body in brine to toughen them. He also did exercises to strengthen his jaw muscles.

Jack’s determination and training paid off. After turning professional in 1915, he began to win all his bouts, almost always by knockout. Starting from a crouch, he carried the fight to the opponent with relentless punching. Although thoroughly acquainted with ring technique, he was much more a slugger than a boxer. Jack’s relentless aggression placed him at risk of tiring, but this problem rarely arose. Jack was an incredibly hard puncher, ranking, according to most authorities, among the most devastating of all time. Few opponents could withstand one of Jack’s assaults.

At the end of 1916, the young fighter faced a challenge. He had proved himself against all local competition. His next step was to national recognition.

The Emerging Champion

In 1917, Jack Kearns, a boxing expert, became Jack’s manager. Kearns was a master of publicity and promotion.

Kearns matched Jack against a number of prominent fighters. Jack continued to knock out almost all his opponents. The combination of Jack’s ability and Kearns’s promotion secured Jack a national reputation. Only one setback marred his rise to the top. For the first time in his career, he was knocked out in a match by “Fireman” Jim Flynn, a veteran heavyweight who was often underestimated because he appeared to be fat and out of shape.

Jack did not let this defeat interfere with his progress. By 1919, he was clearly the leading contender for the heavyweight title, and a match between Jack and the champion, Jess Willard, was held on July 4.

Jack was tall and muscular, standing 6 feet and weighing 190 pounds. Willard towered 6 inches over him and outweighed him by 70 pounds, but Willard’s size and strength did him little good. Jack demolished Willard, knocking him out in four brutal rounds. As a result of the beating, the left side of Willard’s face was permanently caved in.

Jack’s slashing style made him a popular champion, and he successfully defended the title five times from 1919 to 1926. He easily defeated the French champion, Georges Carpentier, in a match held in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1921, the first million-dollar gate in boxing history.

Jack’s 1923 match against the “Wild Bull of the Pampas,” Argentine boxer Luis Firpo, proved much more exciting. The fight lasted only 3 minutes and 57 seconds. Firpo’s style was an exaggerated version of Jack’s: He floored Jack in the first round and, at the round’s close, hit him so hard that Jack was knocked out of the ring. Showing his iron determination, Jack retaliated in the second round by knocking out his wild-swinging opponent.

Continuing the Story

By 1926, Jack had passed his peak as a fighter. He signed for a match against Gene Tunney, whose approach to boxing differed strikingly from Jack’s. Tunney lacked Jack’s killer instinct and power but made up for this with a careful study of boxing technique. In their fight, held in September, 1926, in Philadelphia, Tunney avoided Jack’s charges, scoring heavily with jabs. Jack had not trained very hard for the bout. Tunney’s steady pressure wore him down, and by the end of the tenth round, the match was over. Tunney was awarded the world’s title by unanimous decision.

As one might anticipate, Jack was not finished. He trained hard to regain his title, and the rematch in 1927, in Chicago, made boxing history. Tunney repeated his tactics of the preceding year and by the seventh round had established a comfortable lead. Jack then charged at Tunney and battered him to the canvas with a series of seven punches. Instead of retreating to a neutral corner, as the rules of boxing mandated, Jack stood over his dazed foe.

The length of time that elapsed before Jack moved away and the referee began his count is uncertain, but Tunney gained at least 3 or 4 crucial seconds. He beat the ten count, lasted out the round, and came back strongly in the remaining few rounds to win the fight.

Jack made a few attempts at a comeback but eventually recognized that his time in the ring had passed. After his retirement, he enjoyed a long career as a successful businessman and restaurant owner. He died in New York City in 1983.

Summary

Jack Dempsey’s aggressiveness and punching power made him one of the greatest of all heavyweight boxers. His was successful not only because of natural talent but also because of hard work and study. Strong and fast boxers are not unusual, but few, if any, have equaled Jack in his desire to win and willingness to sacrifice to attain his goals.

Additional Sources

1 

Cavanaugh, Jack, and Gene Tunney. Tunney: Boxing’s Brainiest Champ and His Upset of the Great Jack Dempsey. New York: Random House, 2006.

2 

Dempsey, Jack, and Frank G. Menke. How to Fight Tough. Boulder, Colo.: Paladin Press, 2002.

3 

Howard, Robert E., and Earle Bergey. Jack Dempsey’s Fight Magazine: May 1934. Silver Spring, Md.: Adventure House, 2005.

4 

Kahn, Roger. A Flame of Pure Fire: Jack Dempsey and the Roaring Twenties. San Diego, Calif.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 2000.

5 

Platt, Jim, and James Buckley. Sports Immortals: Stories of Inspiration and Achievement. Chicago: Triumph Books, 2002.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Delaney, Bill. "Jack Dempsey." Great Athletes,Salem Press, 2009. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Athletes_1383.
APA 7th
Delaney, B. (2009). Jack Dempsey. Great Athletes. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Delaney, Bill. "Jack Dempsey." Great Athletes. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2009. Accessed December 14, 2025. online.salempress.com.