July 4, 1919: The Heavyweight Championship of the World changes hands in the most devastating fashion in its history.
The Champion was Jess Willard, from Kansas. At 6 feet, 6½ inches at 245 pounds, he was known as the "Pottawatamie Giant." He had won the title 4 years earlier, knocking out Jack Johnson, the 1st black Heavyweight Champion. He successfully defended his title against Frank Moran in 1916, before World War I prevented him from making another defense.
The war over, he was set to defend it at Bayfront Park in Toledo, Ohio, on the 4th of July. He took a 21-3-1 record into the fight. But he was 37 years old, and it was going to be hot. And his opponent...
William Harrison Dempsey was 24, stood 6-foot-1 and weighed 187, and was 56-4-9. That's right: 13 years younger, and had won more than twice as many fights as Willard had fought.
He was called Jack because of an earlier fighter, former Middleweight Champion Jack "Nonpareil" Dempsey (real name John Edward Kelly, held the title from 1884 to 1891). He was from Mansassa, Colorado, and was known as the Manassa Mauler. And, because this was the 1910s, and he was a white man who nonetheless had a very dark complexion, he was called "Kid Blackie."
His last 6 fights before his title shot all ended in knockouts, all of them in the 1st round. Or, as boxing historian Bert Sugar put it, "In his last two fights before the Willard fight, Dempsey knocked his opponents out in 19 and 27 seconds. Not rounds."
But he had learned to box in hobo camps and saloons, places barely removed from the "Wild West." He hadn't fought serious contenders. Surely, a seasoned professional and a gigantic man, like Willard, would be able to handle him easily. But Lightweight Champion Benny Leonard wrote a newspaper column predicting that Dempsey would win, because, despite being smaller, he was stronger.
Leonard was right: The fight was a massacre. Dempsey knocked Willard down 7 times in the 1st round. At the time, the rules allowed the standing fighter to remain standing over the one knocked down, to wait for him to get up, and then go after him again. Dempsey took advantage of this rule.
Had current rules been in place, Willard still wouldn't have lasted much longer: Dempsey would have had to go to a neutral corner (a new rule that he forgot about in 1927, in what became known as the Long Count Fight), Willard would have been given a standing 8-count, and with the 3rd knockdown of the round, the fight would have been declared over.
Somehow, Willard got up for the 2nd and 3rd rounds, but not the 4th. Dempsey was the new Heavyweight Champion of the World, and became one of the sports icons of the 1920s. For a while, he was both loved and hated in equal measure: Loved, even more than Babe Ruth for a time, for his success and his personality; hated, because some accused him of not properly serving his country in World War I, calling him a "slacker." Out of the ring, Dempsey was a considerably more mild-mannered man, but the "slacker" tag bothered him.
Go ahead. Call him a slacker. I dare you.
Reports on Willard's injuries were conflicted. The New York Times reported "severe swelling" on one side of his face, but mentioned no broken bones. Other reports suggested broken facial bones, several broken teeth, a broken jaw, and broken ribs.
Willard would accuse Dempsey of cheating. Many others agreed: How could Dempsey have injured Willard's face so badly, without injuring his own hands?
Eventually, Dempsey would have a falling-out with his manager, Jack Kearns. In 1964, with both fighters also still alive, Kearns gave an interview to Sports Illustrated, claiming he applied plaster of Paris to the wrappings on Dempsey's hands.
Also still alive at that point was Nat Fleischer, founder and editor of The Ring magazine, known as "the Bible of Boxing." He said he was present when Dempsey's hands were wrapped:
Jack Dempsey had no loaded gloves, and no plaster of Paris over his bandages. I watched the proceedings and the only person who had anything to do with the taping of Jack's hands was Deforest. Kearns had nothing to do with it, so his plaster of Paris story is simply not true.
And boxing historian J.J. Johnston said, "the films show Willard upon entering the ring walking over to Dempsey and examining his hands." That, along with an experiment conducted by a boxing magazine designed to re-enact the fight, have been noted as proof that Kearns' story was a lie.
Willard fought only twice more. In the 1st prizefight ever held at the original Yankee Stadium, on May 12, 1923, he knocked Floyd Johnson out in the 11th round. Two months later, at Boyle's Thirty Acres in Jersey City, New Jersey, he got knocked out in the 8th round by Luis Angel Firpo. That was it for Willard, who died in 1968.
Willard's last fight was Firpo's warmup for a fight with Dempsey at the Polo Grounds, one of the greatest fights in Heavyweight Title history. It was to be Dempsey's last title defense, as he then didn't fight for 3 years, losing the title to Gene Tunney in 1926. He lived until 1983, one of the last surviving sports stars of "The Roaring Twenties," a.k.a. "The Golden Age of Sports."
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July 4, 1919 was a Friday. Football, basketball and hockey were out of season. But baseball was in midseason, and the 4th of July was often a day for doubleheaders:
* The New York Yankees swept the Washington Senators at the Polo Grounds, 8-2 and 6-5. Bob Shawkey was supported in the opener by 2 home runs from former Athletics slugger Frank "Home Run" Baker. Former Red Sox star Duffy Lewis won the nightcap with a double in the bottom of the 9th.
* The New York Giants swept the Philadelphia Phillies at Baker Bowl, 3-1 and 8-3.
* A doubleheader was split at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Robins (as the Dodgers were known from 1914 to 1931) won the 1st game, 7-3. The Boston Braves won the 2nd game, 5-2.
* The Boston Red Sox swept the Philadelphia Athletics at Fenway Park in Boston, 9-2 and 9-6. In the 2 games, Babe Ruth went 3-for-4 with an RBI double.
* The Chicago Cubs swept the Pittsburgh Pirates at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, 7-3 and 4-1.
* The Cleveland Indians swept the St. Louis Browns at League Park in Cleveland, 9-4 and 11-1. Tris Speaker went 3-for-8, while George Sisler went 3-for-5.
* The Cincinnati Reds swept the St. Louis Cardinals at Redland Field in Cincinnati (it was renamed Crosley Field in 1934), 4-3 in 12 innings, and 4-2.
* And the Chicago White Sox swept the Detroit Tigers at Comiskey Park in Chicago, 8-1 and 2-1. Ty Cobb only appeared as a pinch-hitter in the 1st game, unsuccessfully, before going 1-for-4 in the 2nd game. Shoeless Joe Jackson went 3-for-7 with an RBI.
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