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| Time, September 10, 1923 |
William Harrison Dempsey was born in Colorado 125 years ago today, on 24-June-1895. Around 1914 he took the name Jack Dempsey, inspired by great Nineteenth Century middleweight champ Nonpariel Jack Dempsey:
During World War One, he worked in a San Francisco Bay Area shipyard and fought in the four round fights that were then legal in California. He was accused of avoiding military service, but people later found evidence that he had tried to enlist in the army, but had been classified as 4-F.
On 04-July1919, Dempsey defeated Jess Willard, the Pottawatamie Giant, and won the heavyweight championship:
On 14-September-1923, Dempsey defended his title against Luis Ángel Firpo from Argentina. Dempsey wound up on the cover of Time Magazine:
Dempsey was one of the most popular athletes of the 1920s. Firpo was a hero in Latin America.
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