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Griffin Daily News
THE FIRST TIME: Jack Dempsey
'ln Montrose You
Grew Up Fighting'
tßy LEE
MUELLER,
NEA Sports
Writer
Every athlete begins as a
small boy. The day he dis
covers his first football, his
first basketball, or first pair
of boxing gloves is one of
the most important of his
life.
Lee Mueller describes Jack
Dempsey’s first experience
with a pair of boxing gloves.
The traditional deportment
of Colorado mining towns be
ing what it was—rowdy—it
seems only natural that Jack
Dempsey should have been
born in Manassa and raised
in Montrose
Montrose's deportment
was as traditional as that of
Cripple Creek, where pros
pectors brawled in the
streets or that. of Black
Hawk, where men some
times found it necessary to
shoot one another. “Every
body fought,” Jack Dempsey
recalls. “In the streets,
saloons, dance halls, any
where. A fellow grew up
fighting.”
It has been that Demp
sey's career began shortly
after i he quit school in the
eighth grade and went to
work as a mucker in a cop
per mine. “One day in the
pits a 200-pound bully threw
dirt in Jack's face,” says
Mario DeMarco in his book,
“Great American Athletes."
“In a few seconds the bully
was laid out by the smaller
and younger lad, thus start
ing one of the greatest of all
boxing careers.”
A nice story, but not quite
true.
The streets of Montrose in
1905 were of purest Colorado
dirt and occasionpl mud.
Wagon ruts led visitors into
town, past the livery stable,
a hotel and a. restaurant
called the Rio Grande Eating
House, an establishment
owned and operated by one
Hyrum Dempsey, a part
time Mormon schoolteacher.
It was at the Eating House
that Montrose became aware
of 10-year-old William Har
rison (Jack) Dempsey.
“We’d serve lunch every
day at noon for 25 cents,”
Dempsey said. "My job was
to go out across the street
and ring a bell at 12 o’clock.
I guess people started notic
ing me then. I know I wore
the same clothes every day
—a pair of bib overalls, my
one pair of shoes and, in
the winter, an old jacket or
maybe an old sweater.
That’s all I had."
Eleven children populated
Hyrum Dempsey’s home and
it was here, at the dinner
table, that Jack Dempsey
first lifted a fist against his
fellow man — who, in fact,
might have been a sister.
“My mother used to spank
g IK I
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V.ll
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Jack Dempsey
us a lot for fighting at the
table,” he said.
The Dempseys knew Mont
rose well. “We moved
. around,” he said, "always
renting because it was cheap
—<lo or sls a month.”
Wherever Jack Dempsey
moved, however, Freddie
Woods found him and vice
versa. There was always
Freddie Woods. Every boy
has a mortal enemy (and
sometimes friend), and
Freddie Woods was as re
sponsible as any man for
making Dempsey a boxer.
“Freddie and I were al
ways about the same size,”
he said. “I had decided when
I was 5, watching my broth
er, Bernie, work out in a
kind of gym they had, Jhat
I wanted to be a fighter. So
did Freddie. We scuffled on
the street (he bloodied my
nose many times) and later
in the ring.
“Freddie fought a lot of
fights around, but he never
left there. Just stayed
around. Had a blacksmith
shop, I think.”
When Dempsey was 14, he
finally put on his first gloves
in Montrose’s Elk Club.
"There were heavy, six or
seven ounces,” he says. “I
went four rounds with a kid
named Ted Woods. I don’t
know if he was a relation
of Freddie’s or not. Nobody
won.
“After that, I fought ev
erywhere—bars, dance halls,
you name it. The technique
was pretty simple. You just
walked into a place and chal
lenged anybody in the house
—man or boy—to a fight.
After the fight, they passed
the hat. One time I got
$2.50.”
(Newspaper Enterprise Assn.)
SPORTS
***********+*****
Big Leagues In Montreal:
A Love-in From the Start'
If R
A
Ira Berkow
NEA Sports Editor
MONTREAL—) N E A )-
For the greater part of this
baseball season, the Mon
treal Expos have led the
major leagues in number of
games lost.
Well, here it was the mid
dle of July and one mid
week night game there were
18,000 fans present for an
alleged contest against the
Pirates, 23,500 for a Friday
night game against the Mels,
21,000 the next afternoon and
over 27,000 ( 2,000 short of
capacity) for a doubleheader
with New York.
These folks, about 80 per
cent of whom are French-
Canadian, don’t use Jarry
Park simply as a comforta
ble place to daydream about
Jean Beliveau. They chant,
they stomp, they scream for
the umpire's hide and, with
the visitors ahead 9-0 in the
fourth inning, give a stand
ing ovation to a home run
by local hero Rusty Staub.
“It has been,” said Mon
treal Star sports editor Red
Fisher, “a damn love-in
right from the start."
GRIFFIN DAILY
NEWS
SPORTS SPECIAL
in whok or in port prohibited except by permission of Newspaper Enterprise
The Expos come off a road
trip, after having extended
a losing streak to 2Q, and are
greeted in a downtown
Claza by 10,000 people turn
ling out of offices at lunch
time. After another road
trip, Gary Waslewski takes
the mound and is met with a
roar, in appreciation for
having won two games in the
United States. He is belted
out in the first inning and
departs to polite applause.
Enthusiasm for the game
does not, however, match
the Canadians' knowledge of
the game, according to some
players.
One Expo player recalled
a game in which Bill Stone
man of the locals had a 2-0
lead in the last inning, with
one out. He was throwing
hard, but got a two-ball, no
strike count on the next
batter.
“The fans began shouting
to -take the pitcher out,”
said the Expo player. “But
Stoneman was in no trouble.
They just don’t know the
game that well.”
So how is it that these
Laver Almost Assured of Second
Martini & Rossi Gold Racquet
NEW YORK—(NEAT—The Martini &
Rossi Gold Racquet Award is a well
regarded piece of hardware that is gen
erally attended by at least a little
suspense.
There is, however, little suspense this
year. The prize, awarded annually to the
outstanding tennis player in the world by
an international panel of writers, belongs
to Rod Laver.
Winner of the Tiffanv-designed trophv in
1968, the 30-year-old left-handed Australian
seems almost certain to repeat according
to a recent poll based on records through
the Wimbledon championships. Laver, who
could become the first man to win tennis’
Grand Slam twice with a victory in the up
coming U.S. Open, already has captured
nine championships this year.
Final rankings will be made following
the Los Angeles Open in September, but
Laver already appears to have the trophy
wrapped up. John Newcombe and Tony
Roche of Australia follow Laver in the
rankings. Tom Okker of the Netherlands
is fourth, followed by another Australian,
Ken Rosewall. All are pros.
Arthur Ashe of Lynchburg, Va., is sixth.
The U.S. members of the 13-man
Martini & Rossi panel include NEA Execu
tive Editor Murray Olderman, Will Grims
ley of the Associated Press, Steve Snider
of United Press International, Neil Amdur
people have taken so grandly
to a game that is supposed
to be dead or, at least, is to
hockey what a sleep-walker
is to a sprinter?
One point is the aH-en
compassing promotional
genius of the Expo organiza
tion. Ride on one of the
town’s subway cars and
there is an advertisement
entitled, “Baseball Expose.”
Baseball terms, such as
pinch-hitter, Texas Leaguer
and Blind Tom, are trans
lated into English and
French and defined.
“Not long ago,” said
another Montreal sports
writer, “the Expos manage
ment ient engraved invita
tions for a dinner-dance
honoring, of all things, the
local press. Obviously it was
an attempt to butter us up.
Mind you, I didn’t go—after
all, my readers would think
'Ah, they plied him with
booze and gave him an old
baseball and now he writes
sweet things about the
Expos.’ But it shows to
what extent the club will go
for publicity.”
Expo manager Gene
Mauch said, “The fans want
to see good entertainment.
And we give it to them. Wc
lose a lot, sure, but we lose
hard. They like that. They
also like to see t*»e Mayses
and Aarons and Gibsons. It’s
a good show. And the people
like baseball. You know,
when Montreal had a Triple
A team here it always drew
well.”
F3|
■mßFf
Rod Laver
of the New York Times, Bud Collins of the
Boston Globe and Edward Potter of Coral
Gables, Fla. Other countries represented
are England, France and Australia.
(Newspaper Enterprise Assn.)
I *
Gene Mauch
. we lose hard”
Dan Rosenburg, a local
baseball writer, wondered
how hockey fans can go for
baseball. “I was reading,
he said, “where a psycholog
ist compared scoring a goal
to a sexual thrill. He also
said that the contact between •
bat and ball is the same. And
the fans here love to see a
baseball struck.”
For provocative joy, how
ever, one never has to even
gaze upon the playing field.
Usherettes like Monique
Archambault, runnerup in a
recent Miss Montreal con
test, are enough.
(Newspaper Enterprise Assn.)