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George Lewis Rickard
(promoter)
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The first of the great boxing promoters
was George Lewis Rickard, known to any and all as Tex...
...Rickard's biggest break came when he hooked up with Jack
Dempsey. Dempsey, perhaps the greatest attraction in the history of the
sport, understood Rickard's power.
"In every fight Rickard ever put on, he himself brought in at
least 50 percent of the gate," said Jack. "No matter who the fighters were,
they never accounted for more than the other 50 percent."
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__________________ |
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Jack "Doc" Kearns
(manager) |
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Of course, Dempsey did have a manager, perhaps
the ultimate manager, in John Leo McKernan-better known as Doc Kearns...
...A hard drinker and a hard gambler, the little, jug-eared
Kearns carried the traditional manager's self-inclusion a step further.
Where other managers said "we" when they meant the fighter-as in, "We just
signed to fight Robinson and we're going to take him in six"-Kearns saw no
reason to share the billing. He dispensed the fighter altogether. "I won the
title off Willard in 1919," Kearns would pipe. "I knocked Firpo down seven
times."
Under Kearn's freewheeling guidance, Dempsey fought his way
out of the mining towns of the west to the heavyweight championship of the
world. Kearns was a master showman. Together with Tex Rickard he created the
first million-dollar gates in the sport, when Dempsey faced Carpentier and
later Firpo. Though Dempsey and Kearn's would later split over money matters
(Kearns, it seems, had the same trouble distinguishing between his money and
Dempsey's that he had distinguishing between himself and the fighter), the
two remained close friends until Kearn's death in 1963. |
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Richard O'Brien-The Boxing Companion
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