Jimmy Rivers

Name: Jimmy Rivers
Alias: Dixie Flash
Birth Name: James Georgie Rivers
Hometown: Tacoma, Washington, USA
Pro Boxer: Record

Division: Lightweight
Manager: Jack Connor

Nicknamed at various times as: Dart of Dixie, Dixie Shadow, Broadway Sheik, and the Alabama Bama. Per the Dec. 13, 1922 Tacoma News Tribune (TNT), his true name was James Georgie Rivers.

The April 23, 1949 TNT published a retrospective of Rivers, and reported that he had come to Tacoma from New Orleans, LA. He was described as having a "statue-like bronze body" and dynamic showmanship.

"Against a light hitter or one without too high reputation, Rivers was unbeatable. The kid's speed in high was electrifying, more spectacular than [Bernard] Docusen's. He worked in wider circles, darted in and out over long distances, his black, long and wavy hair at times literally standing on end. But when he became mentally hamstrung, he faced a foe in a daze, speed gone from his legs and hands, an open pathetic, helpless victim.

"Rivers was a strikingly handsome boy of the Docusen type, his nationality being, it is generally believed, Italian-Creole.... Rivers could rattle off the Italian language with the same speed he put into his fists....

"But Rivers had a mental quirk. Matched with a hitter or a big-time name, he would maintain his composure until a day or two or three before such a match. He would become silent, glum. His naturally boyish smile disappeared. Color left his face.

"Gremlins bored into his brain, saying: 'The other guy can hit. See what the papers say? He's a knockout socker. He'll getcha sure.' Jimmy would complain to his manager, Jack Conner [sic], that he was ill and could there be a postponement? He'd complain of a hand or body injury as a result of a gym workout. His self-afflicted torment was so paramount that his lightning-like reactions, co-ordination melted, leaving him lead-footed, dull, a pathetic sight.

"On one or more occasions Manager Conner caught him prepared to leave the city on the morning of the fight. The boy seemed so overcome by fear or mental torture it often puzzled how he escaped a paralytic stroke, he was such a victim.

"Against someone he did not fear, who failed to stupefy his mentality, Rivers was ah! But against one who enveloped him in fear or whatever possessed him negatively, he was ooh! There never was one like him here, probably never will be a true paradox of fighting flesh.

"Rivers came to Tacoma as a soldier in the First World War, was discharged at Fort Lewis and for several years made his home here. He disappeared mysteriously one day and so far as is known in Tacoma never was found.

"His family, well to do New Orleans people, searched for years for their black-eyed, handsome son, using every means possible. But he disappeared as though the earth had opened and swallowed him.

"A mystery in ring performance, a mystery in life or death."