Tom Prendergast

Name: Tom Prendergast
Birth Name: Thomas James Prendergast
Hometown: Saginaw, Michigan, USA
Birthplace: East Saginaw, Michigan, USA
Died: 1960-10-31 (Age:80)
Pro Boxer: Record

Tom Prendergast was the son of John Patrick Prendergast, a local hotel/boarding house owner and later Sheriff of Saginaw County (1888-1892).

After working in his family's hotel business, Prendergast went on to pursue a career as a professional boxer in the early 1900s. He would rise through the boxing ranks and go on to hold the title of Lightweight Champion of Michigan. Much of his time was spent in the boxing camps in the area known then as the "Flats" at St. Clair Shores, northeast of Detroit, under the tutelage of the well-known Tommy Ryan.

After retiring from the ring, Prendergast relocated to the Royal Oak section of Detroit and was employed as a conductor, switchman, and brakeman for the railroad.

He was married three times: first to May Gerke on Jan. 7, 1902, in Carrollton, Michigan; then to Rena Moran (nee Pitts) on Dec. 20, 1915 in Toledo, Ohio; and finally to Leona Moffit of Detroit. Prendergast never had any children of his own. His many rough and tumble battles in the ring left their mark on Prendergast's face, and years of heavy smoking led to emphysema in his later years. He died in 1960 at Lambertville, Michigan, and is interred in an unmarked grave in Toledo Memorial Park in Sylvania, Ohio.