Tex Rickard Dead

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 555, 7 January 1929, Page 1

Tex Rickard Dead

A GREAT FIGHT PROMOTER

Started as Texas Cowhand

( United. P A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) < Australian and N.Z. Press Association) (United Service)

Reed. 9 a.m. NEW YORK, Sunday. rX RICKARD, the great boxing promoter, died on Sunday morning, following an appendicitis operation on T ursday. He started work at the age of 12 as a Texas cow-hand.

I* Is . set down in the annals of the , . ring that when Jack Johnson hi. 1 * ® the hopes of the white world nL *y nlnfir “Tahmmy” Burns in Syd‘ey years ago, he took £1,200 as * n<l of the Purse. Burns was sum is subtracted from the •*ss*!!? odd cheerfully paid at the ii„“ of tho Century,” when W«_r unne y took the laurels from a r<!asoil will suggest itself i as cow -hand became translnto doyen « boxing pro*orM,S ’ * antl I; he figure round which fa\AV b °uts ioi die last decade j Ve revolved. •cliDalrf^ 0 yrars before Burns was t ' ae & lan t negro. news- . oug:hout the world were ,-t \*viy cab hng a little mining town -or*»k? u * or Particulars of a fight -•ed | -£K.OOO had been guaranvWat *k seeme d an unbelievable o b« time, but the report proved Gan e 'u ani “Battling” Nelson and hi* share’ pr * nc iP als » each received u * Ring ROMANCE ■CS* 6 reas °n for the offer be--11 tha boos t mining stock r ii: le . town of Goldfield, a citi*t th« t* 11 ** 66 bac * been formed to on the ma P> and the the °* a bi & Prize fight seemed belli, P !» actical idea. Because it jri *« e< L be ba d once witnessed a the Proprietor of the town’s as al °on, “The Northern,” quali- *® ' 6 J >rorn oter of the bout, and bow t (“Tex”) Rickard, made the fistic world, y cry naive, and with a H i, " >r 'bice people,” Rickard's 1 the hr.? of the greatest romances ’«Uto en *' o< 7 Of the ring. He was -e qj * h 1 to realise the possibili‘arg lat. csl uHflower industry,” and At When it was suggested ’• , 3 ' or a world's title light "»» i oud , n a certain saloon, Rickard Protesting that 'it kept Jhe n away from a fight i h ' sard of fighters doing *• saloon.” He had re-

cognised that promoting as , a business, and one likely t biSSreI 'sHOWMAN'S INSTINCT Then a client proposed to R |ck ' tXSXST "SE he S W a° t e ° Ut to°t n amn' g S £54,000. Thia was a satisfactory initial effort, but Rickard appeared mostelatedberauso of "all tlie nice people I bad at ?hU fllht—a lot of millionaires and imvernors and society ladies. st inct See for d showmanshi p, Bk established prSmoter.***Knowfnsr himself. Rickard would alwaj intent!v to any argument on ti e suo ject A £91.000 gate at Toledo in 1919 was his reward for listening to DEMPSEY AS A DRAW With Dempsey as his draw carffi there now came a series of successes which have made Rickard s name a household word. Dempseys poor showing against a medmere u'picht paved the foi an - w demand for a Carpentier match, and r*SSSS was on the spot. The money immediately poured in. and when the most unequal contest coninienc • " promoter was considering the best «a 5 to Hven o ßickarf dfd not hope for anything betten but he reckoned without the scowl of Luis Angel Firpo. . Tills piufkef d "another |oivd ,nt T o hen e Tu'nney Yo c ; ame Po affinTand won sr ssrs»”4."sr prus 1 ,• . , • “ flip la«t championship that being in the ia_L Xew i fight, between Tunney and j Zealander, Heeney.