Background

Ethnicity: Dempsey had a lineage of Irish and Cherokee people. Some sources suggest that he might have been Romanian given his real name, Teodor Domșa.

Jack Dempsey, alias of William Harrison Dempsey, was born on June 24, 1895 in Manassa, Colorado, United States. He was the ninth child of eleven kids in a poor family of Hyrum Dempsey and Mary Cecilia Dempsey, both sharecroppers who were obliged to do some extra jobs such as restaurant work.

Education

Coming from a poor family, Jack Dempsey had to forsake elementary school after eighth grade to support his parents by fulfilling such odd jobs as a shoe shiner, dishwasher, farmworker and cowboy. Impressed by the stories about fighter John L. Sullivan, which his mother had read him, and watching his two older brothers become fighters, Dempsey decided at eleven that he would earn the heavyweight champion of the world title one day.

His brother Bernie, a prizefighter, gave him the first fighting lessons in 1910. His favorite training methods comprised racing against horses to develop speed, chewing gum for extra jaw strength, and soaking face in beef broth saturated with salt to darken and toughen it that was expected to make the fighter seem fiercer. A year later, Dempsey left home and got a mining job, earning three dollars a day. He devoted his spare time to his passion for boxing.

Career

The start of Jack Dempsey's career can be counted from the middle of the 1910s when he began to find his first rivals in back rooms of frontier saloons and competed under the name "Kid Blackie." Financial troubles often made him live as a beggar during the early years in boxing. Step by step, he adopted the "Manassa Mauler" nickname and developed a reputation for his menacing style and powerful punch, which made it difficult for him to find fights.

The situation improved a little when the rookie met a manager, named Jack Price, and traveled with him to New York City. The lack of training of a fighter from the big city didn't allow Dempsey to get much attention. However, he managed to catch the eye of another fight manager, John J. Reisler, after one bout at the Fairmont Fight Club. Reisler then organized a fight with a veteran heavyweight John Lester Johnson which ended up for Dempsey by three fractured ribs and two black eyes.

Dempsey's next step to the boxing Olymp was made with Jack Kearns, a former welterweight fighter who became a fight manager. In the spring of 1917, they began a series of fights that would pave the way to Dempsey's first title fight. In 1918 and early 1919, Jack Dempsey compiled a great number of knockouts, most in the first round, to earn a fight with Jess Willard.

The title bout with Willard was organized by George L. Rickard, at an outdoor arena in Toledo, Ohio, on July 4, 1919. Young Dempsey vigorously attacked his senior opponent right from the start and eventually knocked him out seven times in the first round. This is how twenty-four-year-old Dempsey became the heavyweight champion of the world.

The plans of the newly minted champion to enjoy the fame and fortune he received were ruined by increased attention from the press combined with Kearns' aspiration to capitalize on his ward's instant popularity. The enterprising fight manager began sending Dempsey for every event, from Vaudeville appearances to the fifteen episode film serial, Daredevil Jack.

The next important fight for Dempsey came in 1921 when he met a French war hero Georges Carpentier in Boyle's Thirty Acres arena, Jersey City. The match dubbed the "Battle of the Century" became the first to be broadcast on radio, the first to raise over one million dollars and the first to gather the biggest audience in the history of the sport. Dempsey defended his title during the four short rounds. He did it successfully over the next few years.

On September 14, 1923, Jack Dempsey fought against a heavyweight Luis Angel Firpo of Argentina at the Polo Grounds in New York City. After being knocked out in the first round, Dempsey won his opponent in the second. During the three following years, Dempsey attempted to live the life of the nouveau riche and fought only exhibition matches. His collaboration with Kearns ended right at the time.

Dempsey returned to the ring in September 1926 and was beaten by Gene Tunney at the Philadelphia's Sesquicentennial Stadium (later known as John F. Kennedy Stadium). The two fighters met again a year later, in Chicago, in the famous "Battle of the Long Count." Dempsey missed the last opportunity to prove his reputation and regain his title as Tunney became the winner of that historical bout.

Dempsey never publicly debated his loss. He then briefly tried his hand at fight promotion, but the collapse of the stock market and the Depression pushed him back to fighting. Early in the 1930s, Dempsey took part in many exhibition fights, but he was never again a serious contender for the championship. He retired from the sport for good in 1931 and served as a referee in boxing and wrestling matches for a while.

In 1936, he opened Jack Dempsey's Restaurant in New York City, which received visitors for about thirty years. At the outbreak of World War II, the boxing star joined the Coast Guard in 1942 where he served as a lieutenant commander. He was released from active duty in September 1945 and was discharged with honors in 1952. Dempsey penned a number of books, including autobiographies Round by Round, Dempsey, and Dempsey: The Autobiography of Jack Dempsey.

Achievements

• 

  A holder of the world heavyweight champion's title for 7 years, 2 months and 19 days, Jack Dempsey was one of the pioneers of the age of big-time sports. His rise from hobo to heavyweight champion and to Hollywood celebrity promoted the status of boxing, and the boxer himself became the prototype for every superstar athlete that followed.
  
  During his career, Dempsey won 60 fights of a total of 80 that he had, knocked out 50 opponents, 25 of whom in the first round, lost 6 times, drew 8, and fought 6 "no decisions." His fastest knockout came in just 14 seconds. In addition to the sports achievements, he set a number of financial and attendance records. He attracted not only the first $1 million but also the first $2 million gate. With his $770,000 for his first bout against Gene Tunney, Dempsey surpassed Babe Ruth who made $80,000 in that same season.
  
  Jack Dempsey was honored by many awards and accolades, including induction to The Ring magazine's Boxing Hall of Fame in 1954 and a seventy-fifth birthday party at Madison Square Garden. In 1990, the boxing star was included in the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He has also been the "charter class" inductee of the Utah Sports Hall of Fame since 1970. The Ring magazine listed him tenth in its list of all-time heavyweights and seventh among its Top 100 Greatest Punchers. In 1950, Dempsey was chosen as the greatest fighter of the past five decades by the Associated Press.

Works

More photos

• book

  • How to Fight Tough

    (Jack Dempsey gives 18 fully-illustrated lessons in the ar...)

    1942
  • Dempsey: By the Man Himself

    (The autobiography from boxing heavyweight champion himsel...)

    1960
  • Dempsey

    (Jack Dempsey's own story of his fabulous career inside th...)

    1977
  • Championship Fighting: Explosive Punching and Aggressive Defense

    (Jack Dempsey reveals fighting techniques and strategies w...)

    1950
  • Round by Round: An Autobiography

    (An autobiography co-written with Myron Morris Stearns.)

    1940

Religion

Jack Dempsey was baptized as Mormon in 1903 after his parents had converted to that faith.

Politics

Jack Dempsey supported Democrat John V. Tunney, the son of his former rival Gene Tunney, during his campaign for the United States Senate, from California.

Views

The hallmark of Dempsey's boxing style was constant movement and speed. He attacked by bobbing up and down and moving from side to side as he delivered short swinging blows out of a crouch.

Demsey's rise to prominence was overshadowed a little in 1920 when he was charged for dodging the draft during World War I. The accusation was based on testimonies provided by Maxine Gates, whom Dempsey had divorced a year earlier. He was eventually acquitted of the charges by the San Francisco United States District Court but the story would plague him for nearly six years as the public reacted negatively to the fact that the boxer had pursued his own career while other young men had been fighting and dying in Europe.

Quotations: "Going for a quick knockout was just common sense. I had a little motto about getting rid of my opponents. 'The sooner the safer.'"

"A champion is someone who gets up when he can't."

"A champion owes everybody something. He can never pay back for all the help he got, for making him an idol."

"You know what a champion is? A champion is someone who's ready when the gong rings – not just before, not just after – but when it rings."

"I was a pretty good fighter. But it was the writers who made me great."

"By forgetting the past and by throwing myself into other interests, I forget to worry."

"Nobody owes anybody a living, but everybody is entitled to a chance."

Membership

A Freemason, Jack Dempsey was a member of Kenwood Lodge #800 in Chicago, Illinois.

Personality

Jack Dempsey was a warm and generous person, always ready to share what he had with anybody who was down on his luck. An American sportswriter Grantland Rice cited Dempsey as probably the finest gentleman (in the literal sense of the term) he had met in half a century of writing sports.

Physical Characteristics: Jack Dempsey was 1.85 meters tall.

Quotes from others about the person

• Red Smith, American sportswriter: "In the ring, he was a tiger without mercy who shuffled forward in a bobbing crouch, humming a barely audible tune and punching to the rhythm of the song."

Connections

Jack Dempsey met his first wife-to-be, Maxine Gates, while being still unknown as a boxer. A piano-playing prostitute fifteen years his senior, she served in a Seattle saloon. They married in 1916. Their tempestuous relationship lasted for three years. Continuing to dream of fame and fortune, Dempsey did his best to make a good living for his spouse who didn't want to give up her lifestyle.

A well-paid fighter by the 1920s, Dempsey tied the knot with a movie actress Estelle Taylor in 1926. The boxer married a singer Hannah Williams in 1933, three years after having broken up with Taylor. The family produced one daughter, Joan Hannah. The marriage ended in divorce ten years later.

Deanna Piatelli became the fourth sweetheart of Jack Dempsey. Piatelli and Dempsey were married from 1958 to the end of his life. They had an adopted girl named Barbara.

Father:

Hyrum Dempsey

(born May 4, 1856 – died February 22, 1948)

Mother:

Mary Cecilia Dempsey

(née Smoot; born June 12, 1859 – died August 14, 1946)

Wife:

Deanna Dempsey

(née Piatelli; born June 30, 1911 – died January 23, 2003)

ex-wife:

Hannah Williams

(born July 16, 1911 – died January 11, 1973)

ex-wife:

Estelle Taylor

(born May 20, 1894 – died April 15, 1958)

Estelle Taylor, in full Ida Estelle Taylor, was considered one of the most beautiful silent movie stars of the 1920s. She was an animal rights activist.

ex-wife:

Maxine Dempsey

(née Gates; born 1880)

Daughter:

Joan Hannah Dempsey

(by marriage McNeal; born August 4, 1934 – died February 13, 1994)

Daughter:

Barbara Judith Dempsey

(by marriage Leonard; born August 28, 1936 – died March 4, 1993)

Friend:

Harry Wills

(born May 15, 1889 – died December 21, 1958)

Active in the ring from 1911 to 1932, Harry Wills was a three-time winner of the World Colored Heavyweight Championship.

Friend:

Gene Tunney

(born May 25, 1897 – died November 7, 1978)

Gene Tunney, in full James Joseph Tunney, was an American professional boxer. Active in the ring from 1915 to 1928, he held the world heavyweight title for two years, and the American light heavyweight title twice between 1922 and 1923.

Friend:

John Sirica

(born March 19, 1904 – died August 14, 1992)

John Joseph Sirica served as a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He was one of the pivotal figures in the trials related to the Watergate scandal. Sirica gained nationwide fame after ordering President Richard Nixon to disclose his recordings of White House conversations.

References

• A Flame of Pure Fire: Jack Dempsey and the Roaring '20s It is the extraordinary story of a man and a country growing to maturity in a blaze of strength and exuberance that nearly burned them to ash.
  1999
• Jack Dempsey, the Manassa Mauler In this incisive, fast-paced biography, Randy Roberts charts the life and career of a man widely regarded as one of the toughest ever to enter the ring.
  1979
• The Million Dollar Man: Jack Dempsey Brennan Thomas' incredible story of a man singularly possessed to become a world-class prizefighter.
  2017