It's been debated, often and sincerely enough, whether the times make the man or vice versa. Jack Dempsey, the modern fight game's first real superstar, certainly was a product of his era, but no sports figure better epitomized what we recall in history books today as the Roaring '20s.
Forget pugs in general. There were some great ones in the 1920s -- Harry Greb, Mickey Walker, Benny Leonard and Jimmy Wilde, to name a few. Dempsey was on another level. His fame was such that he could mix with the fight game's various and sundry criminals and lowlifes as well as he could with Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino and Charles Lindbergh.
More people in America knew the name "Dempsey" than followed the exploits of infamous gangster John Dillinger in the daily papers. He was -- to apply a term that's overused in our modern, celebrity-based culture -- an icon.
Dempsey "was the greatest and most beloved sports hero the country had ever known," wrote author and writer Paul Gallico, whose career was launched by an article he wrote about Dempsey's having flattened him in a sparring session when Gallico worked for the New York Daily News.
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Iconic Dempsey exemplified the Roaring '20s
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TheOneIsHere2008
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Re: Iconic Dempsey exemplified the Roaring '20s
Thanks for posting this...
When I first started following boxing and reading up on it he was my favourite of the HWs. He was usually a lock in for a top 5 spot. These days though criteria has changed... He gets judged harshly IMO. Inactivity when champion was the norm for the times. On top of this is the missed fight with Wills and the fact that older HWs often seem to get marked down for not being as 'big' as our contemporaries.
I think had he fought and beaten Wills he'd be right up there. Harry was on the wane and I think a prepared pre-Hollywood Dempsey would porbably have won. Reading articles and reports Dempsey comes out very favourably when compared to accounts of other great champions...
What a great time in history though. To have privilege and education in the 1920s in NY would have been something.
When I first started following boxing and reading up on it he was my favourite of the HWs. He was usually a lock in for a top 5 spot. These days though criteria has changed... He gets judged harshly IMO. Inactivity when champion was the norm for the times. On top of this is the missed fight with Wills and the fact that older HWs often seem to get marked down for not being as 'big' as our contemporaries.
I think had he fought and beaten Wills he'd be right up there. Harry was on the wane and I think a prepared pre-Hollywood Dempsey would porbably have won. Reading articles and reports Dempsey comes out very favourably when compared to accounts of other great champions...
What a great time in history though. To have privilege and education in the 1920s in NY would have been something.