Word: dempsey
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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DIED. Gene Tunney, 81, former world heavyweight boxing champion who twice defeated Jack Dempsey before retiring undefeated in 1928; of a heart attack; in Greenwich, Conn, (see SPORT...
Unfortunately for the sake of conversation, the litany isn't a very long one. After you get past the first few obvious names--Jack Dempsey, Mickey Cochrane, Charlie Conerly--the roster of Celtic greats starts to resemble a "Who's He?" of modern, and not-so-modern, athletics. Real old-timers--the ones ancient enough to remember when Notre Dame actually had more than two Irish ballplayers per year--like to pull out the names of The Great Ones. Big Ed Delahanty, the first man to hit four home runs in a major league game, and "Tip" O'Neill...
...from the earliest days, the greatest? Comparing fighters of different eras is a risky enterprise, flawed by changes in boxing rules, training methods, improved diet and medical care. Then there are those shifting subjectives: the accuracy of recollection and loyalty to generations. One expert favors Joe Louis, another Jack Dempsey, voting for the knockout punch that Ali admittedly never had. Rocky Marciano was inelegant, but he could hit and he never lost a fight...
...experts to say the best fighter probably was Louis, the man with the fast and powerful hands. But Ali had something else that put him in a class apart, a personal flair that, coupled with his athletic skills did indeed make him "the greatest." No less an authority than Dempsey praises Ali for his accomplishments: "He brought back boxing. It was dying, and he brought it back...
...goaded him with the mischievous argument that if he was really serious about participatory journalism, he should fight a professional boxer. There was a nice, traditional quality to the idea. Hemingway had gone many rounds with pugs, and Journalist Paul Gallico once had his fillings loosened by Jack Dempsey...