Jack Redmond

Name: Jack Redmond
Alias: Young Jack Redmond
Birth Name: Henry Fred Hoppe
Hometown: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Birthplace: Smith Mills, Minnesota, USA
Died: 1968-01-29 (Age:84)
Stance: Orthodox
Height: 164cm
Pro Boxer: Record

Jack Redmond was born Henry Fred Hoppe in the small country town of Smith's Mill, Minnesota.

Hoppe met George A. Barton, Athletic Instructor at the Minneapolis Y.M.C.A., the same man who discovered both Johnny "Kewpie" Ertle, and Mike Gibbons. Hoppe began as an amateur wrestler and Barton saw his athletic ability but thought he would be best suited for boxing and began instructing him and managing his early career. Because boxing was illegal, Hoppe quickly began using the name of "Young Jack Redmond", as he had originally substituted for a local fighter with that name, and since the sport was illegal and it was difficult to get fights, he kept the name and later moved to Chicago for a brief stint, where he met Teddy Murphy, the man who would manage Jack for the rest of his career. Redmond returned to St. Paul for a few years and resided there, but due to the illegal nature of the sport, found it too risky to fight in his homestate. He lived there for a few years, before following a cousin to Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he took up residence the remainder of his boxing career.

Redmond's battles with world champions, a pre-prime Jack Britton in 1912, Battling Nelson in 1911, and his three epic fights with Ad Wolgast, boosted Redmond's stock, who was already printed in papers as "the most aggressive Lightweight in the world".

He spent his years after boxing in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, working at an auto parts manufacturing company and then later as a grocer in his 70s. He is regarded as one of the better Lightweight contenders of the early 20th Century by boxing historians, and most newspaper articles found on his career all maintain that he had in excess of 150 bouts, which means there remains a good deal of his record undiscovered as of this writing, most likely during his early days of fighting in Minnesota when boxing was illegal.

In an interview in 1954 at the age of 70, Redmond (who still went by the name of Jack Redmond), said he was most proud of the fact that he had never been knocked out in any of his fights. He had been stopped due to to injury or referee intervention, but never out on his back--stating he was proud of this fact given the fact that he had faced Jack Britton, Ad Wolgast, Ever Hammer, Battling Nelson, Pal Brown, Philadelphia Pal Moore, Leach Cross, Eddie McGoorty, Jimmy Clabby, and Jimmy Potts.

July 9, 1910 Spokane Press Jack Redmond article [1]