The Roaring Twenties were a time of great prosperity in America and they played host to two of the biggest sporting stars the world had ever seen?
February 1929, Palm Beach, Florida; Jack Dempsey, the former king of the heavyweights, the ?Manassa Mauler,? is showing his true class in the ring. He avoids the blows being thrown by his opponent and easily takes the first round.
Babe Ruth, the ?Sultan of Swat,? comes out for the second round, baseball bat in hand and swings for the fences as he charges at Dempsey. The former champion is out of the ring as quickly the time the Argentinean, Luis Angel Firpo, sent him flying through the ropes, except this time Jack leaves of his own accord to the cheers of a crowd who paid up to $5000 for a box to see the two legendary sports figures entertain. It seems the Babe had Dempsey covered, thanks to his once rumored colossal 54-ounce hickory bat which no doubt packed a bigger wallop than any of Dempsey?s previous opponents.
The Roaring Twenties were a time of great prosperity in America and they played host to two of the biggest sporting stars the world had ever seen. The golden age of sports shone bright due to the brilliance of Jack Dempsey and Babe Ruth. It was also a time of immense change. America?s wealth would double between the years of 1920 and 1929 and the nation?s people were introduced to a ?mass-culture? of consumerism. This ?mass-culture? would just happen to coincide with the Jazz Age, the automobile and a kind of lavish lifestyle and carefree attitude that was unheard of before the ?20s.
With such a cultural change, the sporting landscape would be forever changed. Dempsey would go onto to break many records for earnings in the prize ring much like Ruth, who would become baseball?s highest paid player.
Jack Dempsey won the world?s heavyweight championship in 1919 when he savagely mauled the gigantic Jess Willard in one the most one-sided title bouts the sport has known. He would go on to become, arguably, the biggest sports star in the world during his reign from 1919-26 with only Babe Ruth to contend with for that honor.
Ruth began his amazing career in 1914 and by the time he retired he was considered the greatest baseball player of all-time and a pioneer of the long ball. It?s fair to say he was responsible for baseball?s great rise as America?s pastime.
Such was the relationship between these two behemoths of their chosen professions that it was Ruth who was a major player in getting Dempsey back into the ring for his rematch with Gene Tunney in 1927.
The Park City Daily News ran an article on September 28, 1983 that gave insight into the way in which the great ?Bambino? encouraged Dempsey to climb back into the prize ring for one last shot at the greatest prize in boxing; the heavyweight title.
?Hey, Babe, you big tub of lard?, said Dempsey, ?how are you doing??
?I miss you champ?, said the Babe. ?Pals of mine are asking why you?re holin? up and what you?re doin? and here you are walkin? sideways and bumping into yourself. You owe it to them to give yourself one more chance.? ?I don?t know whether I?ve got what it takes,? replied Dempsey.
?One way to find out,? said Ruth. ?Does the title mean anything to you??
?It means everything,? said Dempsey.
?Then get it back,? urged Ruth. ?The public is what keeps you going. Look at me, I never felt better. You gotta go to bat.?
Ruth would go on to hit a record 60 home runs in 1927, a record that stood for 34 years, whilst Dempsey would win a tune-up fight over Jack Sharkey before losing his rematch with Gene Tunney in the infamous ?long count? fight.
1927 was a great year for Ruth and conversely a year of disappointment for Dempsey. It was a year diametric to 1922 whereby Ruth had arguably the worst season of his big league career while Dempsey was on top of the world following his victorious title defense over French champion Georges Carpentier in 1921.
Ruth would be suspended for the first six weeks of the 1922 season for barnstorming during the 1921 World Series; it would be Dempsey, like Ruth in ?27, who refused to believe his friend was anything but capable of coming back from such a thing.
In an article by the champ himself, in The Pittsburgh Press on August 27, 1922, Dempsey described that his faith in Ruth had never dissolved despite many claiming that he had lost something from his game after the suspension and a slow start.
I never lost confidence in my friend. I knew that Babe had the stuff and that it would only be a matter of time when he would be hitting them out as well as ever. I was talking to Babe the other day and asked him what he thought of the rumors that he wouldn?t be the champion swatter this year.
?Jack?, he said, ?that kind of talk looks silly to me. They cannot down me this year. I probably won?t make as many home runs as I did last year, but when the curtain rings down on the 1922 baseball season you will find me at the top, just as I have been the last few seasons.?
The ebbs and flows of both men?s careers were always going to cross paths at some point but the way in which each man was prepared to ?go to bat? for each other was indicative of a friendship forged in greatness.
Jack Dempsey will always be remembered amongst boxing fans as the hard hitting, relentless fighter who came from nothing to become one of the richest and most popular champions the prize ring has seen. His record stands at 54-6-9 and he held the world?s heavyweight title for seven years.
Babe Ruth finished his career as baseball?s all-time home run leader and won an amazing seven World Series titles while averaging an amazing .342.
Some 90 odd years after these two greats amazed the world it?s Ruth whose name lives on more than that of his close friend Dempsey. Ruth is a household name today, even in countries where baseball is a relatively unknown. Dempsey, in contrast, has suffered the same fate of many of boxing?s greats from yesteryear; he has been forgotten in the mainstream. This can be attributed to the decline in the popularity of the sweet science, whereas baseball grows exponentially as each year passes. It?s amazing to think that Ruth earned around $50,000 a year in the 1920s while Dempsey?s earnings were roughly three times that for each title defense.
Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey, two giants of their sports, two towering figures in a time of pure decadence, oh what a sight it must have been to witness these men forge their amazing sporting legacies.
