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10 unusual facts about Jack Dempsey


C.D. Luis Ángel Firpo

Originally named Tecún Umán, the club was soon renamed in honor of Luis Ángel Firpo, a famous Argentine boxer, who almost became the first heavyweight champion of Latin descent and came close by knocking Jack Dempsey out of the ring on September 24, 1923.

Dutch Clark

He was a charter member of the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame in 1965, along with footballer-jurist Byron "Whizzer" White and boxer Jack Dempsey.

Franklin D. Roosevelt's paralytic illness

The loss of his legs and two inches of height, and the consequent development of the rest of his body, gave Roosevelt a robust physique—Jack Dempsey praised his upper-body musculature, and he once landed a 237-pound shark after fighting it on his line for two hours—and many years of excellent health.

Jack Dempsey's Broadway Restaurant

Located next door to Jack Amiel's "Turf Restaurant" on Times Square, Amiel became famous as the owner of the "underdog" horse Count Turf who won the 1951 Kentucky Derby.

Johnny Bos

Bos was a frequent customer at Jack Dempsey's restaurant and surrounded himself with boxers.

Johnny Roventini

He shared a dinner table with General and Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower, clowned around with Red Skelton, sat ringside with fighter Jack Dempsey and participated in numerous parades and other public events.

Lady Wonder

Lady Wonder is said to have helped the Massachusetts police to find the body of a missing boy, to have predicted that Jack Dempsey would defeat Jack Sharkey in 1927, and to have helped discover oil.

Quirino Cristiani

Some of the titles included Firpo-Dempsey (1923) on the boxing match between American heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey and Argentinian champion Luis Firpo, Uruguayos Forever (1924) on Uruguay's Olympic gold medal in soccer, and Humberto de garufa (Little Umberto's Folic, 1924), on the visit of Italian Prince Umberto of Savoy to Buenos Aires.

Rock Lodge Club

Around 1919, Himmelwright built a bungalow (clubhouse), when the property was being used as a training camp for boxers—during the Roaring Twenties the property was a training camp for Jack Dempsey and other boxers.

William H. Leary

A student favorite, he was known to use Jack Dempsey anecdotes to illustrate principles of both assault and battery.


Blackhawk Hotel

The Blackhawk has been host to several high-profile people including Presidents Barack Obama, Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon, writer Carl Sandburg, and boxer Jack Dempsey.

Count Turf

In the mid-1950s, Amiel dispensed with his ownership of the Turf Restaurant and became a co-owner of next-door's Jack Dempsey's Broadway Restaurant.

Frank Gotch

He achieved a level of popularity similar to that formerly held by boxer John L. Sullivan and harness racehorse Dan Patch, and enjoyed later by such sports heroes of the Golden Age of Sports as boxing's Jack Dempsey, baseball's Babe Ruth, tennis's Bill Tilden and golf's Bobby Jones.

Gene Schoor

He expanded into radio, producing "Champ of the Week," "Sports Club of the Air," and "Hour of Champions," and using radio to promote client-athletes including Joe DiMaggio, Jack Dempsey, Tommy Henrich and Phil Rizzuto.

Greatest Heavyweights

The game features eight of the most famous and successful heavyweight boxers in history: Muhammad Ali, Jack Dempsey, Joe Frazier, Larry Holmes, Evander Holyfield, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, and Floyd Patterson.

Jerome Utley

He also briefly had a partnership with Jack Dempsey as a boxing promoter which included promoting the 1933 heavyweight championship match between Max Schmeling and Max Baer.

McFarlan Automobile

The McFarlan was a luxury automobile owned by celebrities of the day such as Wallace Reid, William Desmond Taylor, Fatty Arbuckle, Paul Whiteman, Jack Dempsey and Virginia governor E. Lee Trinkle.

Pete Mead

Over the years Mead kept in touch with such friends and former competitors as Rocky Marciano, Herbie Kronowitz, Joey DeJohn, Rocky Graziano, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, and Bill Hannigan.

The Prizefighter and the Lady

The Prizefighter and the Lady is a 1933 black-and-white Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer romance film starring Myrna Loy and famous professional boxers Max Baer, Primo Carnera, and Jack Dempsey.