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William Harrison Dempsey
Changed his name to Jack Dempsey at the age of 19.
Called Harry while growing up.
Learned fighter skills while riding the railways as a hobo. It was here he had to constantly fight off ****sexual rape because of his young age and appearance.
Desperate for money, Dempsey would occasionally go into saloons and challenge for fights saying "I can't sing and I can't dance, but I can lick any SOB in the house." If anyone accepted his challenge, bets would be wagered. According to Dempsey's autobiography, he rarely lost these barroom brawls.
Digging ditches, picking peaches, cutting timber and being a circus roustabout were among his jobs early in his career while traveling from town to town.
After retirement, he worked occasionally as a referee and was owner of Jack Dempsey’s Broadway Restaurant from 1935 until 1974 on the site the old car barn across from Madison Square Garden. Dempsey was also a commander in the U.S. Coast Guard.
10 brothers and sisters
Dempsey made two films during his career, "Daredevil Jack" & "Manhattan Madness" He also co-starred in a Broadway play called "The Big Fight" with this then wife Estelle Taylor. • Jack was the 9th of 11 children.
Trained to be a boxer at Young Peter Jackson's gym in Salt Lake City Utah at the age of 16.
He started boxing professionally in 1914 calling himself "Kid Blackie".
Knocked out Jess Willard in 1919 to win the Heavyweight boxing title and held that honor until September 23rd, 1926 when he lost a 10 round decision to Gene Tunney in Philadelphia.
Throughout his career Dempsey had 4 different managers: Andy Malloy, A.J. Aurback, Frank Price and Jack "Doc" Kearns.
Never broke or injured his hands in his entire boxing career.
At one time Dempsey shared an apartment with Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks Sr.
On his 75th birthday, in 1970, Dempsey was invited to Madison Square Garden where 19,000 people sang "Happy Birthday" to him.
Dempsey was inducted into the boxing Hall of Fame in 1990.
Dempsey wrote a book on boxing, Championship Fighting: Explosive Punching and Aggressive Defence, which was published in 1950. Although the book has been out of print for the past 56 years, many boxers-- professional and amateur alike-- have continued to praise it as "the finest treatise on boxing ever written (source to follow)." The book was also seen as a turning point in boxing, as it was the first serious study of the sweet science. Dempsey, thanks to this book, has been proclaimed by some to be the world's first modern boxer.
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