Jack Dempsey Research Paper

William Harrison Dempsey, or more popularly known as Jack, was born on June 24, 1895, in the small mining town of Manassa, Colorado. His parents were Hyrum and Celia Dempsey and around 1880 they were converted to a Mormon couple. Hyrum later abandoned this religion but his mom, Celia, stayed true to Mormonism. Jack’s dad and brothers were employed as miners, thus moved frequently to fulfill their needs. Jack started working at age 8, doing whatever he needed to do to make money working hard. Bernie, Jack’s older brother, earned money as a fighter in the local saloons and taught Jack these life skills. A fun fact about Jack’s life is that his brother told him to chew pine tar gum and soak his face in brine to toughen his skin. Around the age

Dempsey had slowly developed into a skilled boxer and made the executive decision to box rather than work. From 1911-1916 Jack Dempsey migrated to small mining towns and fought in the saloons wherever he could. His most common place to fight was “Peter Jackson’s Saloon”, which was located in Salt Lake City. Hardy Downey, the organizer of the fights, was furious when Jack knocked out his first opponent in just one punch, he made him fight against before he gave him his money. One day in 1914 his brother, Bernie, fell ill and Jack actually filled in for him and won it decisively. He kept this up until he earned enough prize money and reputation to move to the coast for bigger

I know it sounds backwards but on September 23, 1926, Gene Tunney beat him in front of 120,000 people in Pennsylvania. He later returned to his wife at the hotel and said his most famous quote, “Honey, I forgot to duck.” Approximately one year later, Dempsey challenged Tunney to a second fight, which was the most disputed showdown in all of boxing history. There was a new rule in the boxing match that while the referee was counting to 3 (the normal count of a knock out), the fighter must return to his corner of the ring. Dempsey did not do this, and gave Tunney a chance to regain his posture and return to the fight via the extended count. Tunney ultimately won the