Jack Dempsey's first trip to Nevada came as he clung to the underbelly of a train, a dangerous practice known as riding the rods and utilized by those too poor to purchase a ticket for one of the passenger cars. In later years, Dempsey, the heavyweight boxing champion from 1919 to 1926, returned to a hero s welcome with newspapermen, children and divorcees following his every move. Many people are surprised to learn that Dempsey once called Nevada home. Little remains to commemorate that time other than the yellowed archives of Nevada newspapers and the memories of a handful of old-timers. The fact is, Dempsey left footprints all over the Silver State. A new book by writer Guy Clifton, Dempsey In Nevada is an untold chapter in Nevada s history and an untold story in the life of one of the great sports figures of the 20th Century. Dempsey helped usher in the era referred to as The Golden Age of Sport. Along with baseball's Babe Ruth, football's Red Grange, golf's Bobby Jones and tennis' Bill Tilden, Dempsey was a giant of the era and made more money in a single fight than all the others combined. Babe Ruth s largest salary with the Yankees was $85,000. Dempsey made $717,000 for his first fight with Gene Tunney. He lost his fortune in the stock market crash of 1929 and set about reclaiming it with Reno as his base in the early 1930s, first as a fight promoter and then, once again, as a fighter as he set out to reclaim the heavyweight championship. Guy Clifton s meticulously researched and wonderfully illustrated volume captures virtually everything you wanted to know about boxing great Jack Dempsey in Nevada, said Nevada State Archivist Guy Rocha.
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Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Guy Clifton, a third generation Nevadan, has been a sportswriter since 1982, receiving state, regional and national awards for his writing. He is currently a senior reporter for the Reno Gazette-Journal. Dempsey in Nevada is his fourth book. He has also written Reno Rodeo: A History, and two volumes of You Know You re A Nevadan If ...
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dempsey in Nevada is a Knockout,
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This review is from: Dempsey in Nevada (Hardcover)
Who knew that one of the greatest sports figures of the 20th century spent so much time in sparsely populated Nevada? Longtime Nevada sportswriter Guy Clifton did a tremendous job of assembling the facts that tell the story of how and why Dempsey spent so much time in this far-west outpost. No less than boxing historian Bert Sugar and famed Muhammad Ali trainer Angelo Dundee praise Clifton for bringing out never-before-printed facts about Dempsey, and I agree with them. The author also captured facts from period newspapers and magazines that if not likely to have been lost forever, they were close to it. The best part is you don't even have to be a boxing fan to enjoy this book, which is a quick read. It's fascinating for anyone who has ever wondered, as I have, about how people really lived in the Wild West. The author is a newspaper columnist, so he's always looking for interesting nuggets to build upon, and he finds them in abundance. Many chapters are often just a few pages or more, which tells me the author made a conscious decision to not simply write page after page trying to expand the narrative when it wasn't necessary. Dempsey came to Nevada well before anyone even knew he was a boxer and came back after he had conquered the world, which is interesting in itself. The Las Vegas we know today barely existed when Dempsey arrived in Reno, Tonopah and Goldfield. After boxing made The Manassa Mauler one of the most famous people in the world, he returned to Nevada to live and promote boxing matches in Reno. It appears that Dempsey's good nature and charming demeanor had as much to do with his immense popularity as his exploits inside the ring. I learned a great deal about history, boxing history and the life of a meteoric sports superstar who came from a different time even though he lived until 1983. The great number of photos included help explain this amazing little story of Jack Dempsey's life and times in Nevada. This is a gem of a book that is definitely worth reading.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dempsey in Nevada,
By
This review is from: Dempsey in Nevada (Hardcover)
An amazing book.
I am a hugh Dempsey fan. I have most publications ever written about Jack Dempsey. This book stands out as one of the best
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best 'Nevada' book of the year,
This review is from: Dempsey in Nevada (Hardcover)
By John L. Smith
Las Vegas Review-Journal One of Goldfield's claims to fame is that it was the place a young Jack Dempsey worked as a bar bouncer. Dempsey fought a handful of bouts in Nevada early in his career and returned to the Silver State to box briefly in the summer of 1931. On May 31, 1915, Dempsey fought a 10-rounder in Goldfield against Johnny Sudenberg. So, it would only make sense that the "Manassa Mauler" pocketed extra coin by breaking up fights and busting a few heads while in the employ of one of Goldfield's whiskey dens or buckets of blood. If only it were true. Alas, that's a Nevada legend involving Dempsey that doesn't rise to the count of veracity. There are plenty of others, however, that actually happened. And I've come to believe Guy Clifton has collected every one of them in his latest book, "Dempsey in Nevada." It's a technical knockout for any boxing aficionado who seeks to understand one of the fight game's historical giants. In the Golden Age of sport, newspaper headlines were filled with the names Ruth, Grange and Dempsey. But while Babe Ruth earned the outrageously high salary of $85,000 a year for the Yankees, Dempsey's share of his fight against Gene Tunney was $717,000. Take that, Alex Rodriguez and Floyd Mayweather. And Dempsey loved Nevada. He hooked up with willing women and cut ties with a couple of wives here. He was a favorite of Reno gambling kingpins Bill Graham and James McKay. He dug in mining claims for exercise and entertainment, and even spent time in his later years in Las Vegas. For Clifton, an award-winning reporter for the Reno Gazette-Journal, working Dempsey's corner was as natural as a hook off a jab. Like many Nevada newspaper reporters, especially those who get their mail in Reno, Clifton had heard colorful stories about Dempsey. Clifton goes a long way to returning the legend to life and cutting through the hyperbole that followed his career. Along the way, he realized Dempsey was fond of Nevada in part because it was a place he could meet some women and part ways with others. "I was surprised that all four of his wives had a Nevada connection," Clifton says. Dempsey's first wife was a Wells prostitute. He divorced his second wife in Reno. He married his third wife in Elko, and his fourth wife signed the farewell papers in Reno. Reporters and fans followed Dempsey's one-man parade throughout his life, and Clifton draws from newspaper archives for many of his anecdotes. "The reason I ended up focusing on Dempsey in Nevada is that is really a part of his story and Nevada's history that has never been told," he says. Thanks to Clifton, the Manassa Mauler's Silver State rambling is secure for all time. Clifton's work tops my list of favorites by local authors in 2007.
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