JACK DEMPSEY BOXES FOR TITLE ON STATEN ISLAND

Jack Dempsey has been considered by many boxing analysts over the years to be, pound for pound, the greatest boxer that ever lived. His agility, speed and skill in the ring led him to a contest for the Middleweight Championship in 1884. Dempsey signed an agreement to box Englishman George Fulljames for the title and a $2000 purse (almost $50,000 in today’s money) in May of that year. The only problem was finding an out of the way place for the match; for in the 19th century Boxing was an illegal activity in New York State, and in much of the U.S. (boxing would become more legitimate and an Olympic sport some years later in 1906) the police had thwarted their earlier matches. For obvious reasons, there were no boxing matches in conventional locations like gymnasiums and theaters. A secluded place and an impromptu time were needed…

Some may be questioning the early date that Jack Dempsey was boxing. Wasn’t Jack Dempsey a famous and celebrated boxer from the 1920’s? If he was boxing in the 1880’s how old was he in the 1920’s? You’d be correct in questioning this.

This was the FIRST Jack Dempsey.

John Edward Kelly was born in 1862 in County Kildare, Ireland. He came over to the U.S. with his family as a child and settled in New York City. He was 5 foot 8” and weighed between 128 – 152 pounds during his career as a Lightweight & Middleweight. “Jack” took his mother’s maiden name for his boxing persona; due to boxing’s illicit nature, men rarely used their real names. He began boxing in 1881 and earned his way into the “mainstream” in 1883. The following year, he got his chance to compete for the Middleweight Championship, if they could only find a place to have the match…

That place turned out to be (as if you didn’t already know) Staten Island, specifically what we now call Crooke’s Point in Great Kills Park. On July 30 at 5:25 AM, a rope ring was strung up and Dempsey and Fulljames proceeded to pummel each other in hard, thin leather gloves for 21 rounds. Dempsey emerged victorious with a TKO (some sources say it was a knockout in the 22nd, but there is a first-hand newspaper account that says otherwise – the article follows below)

An analyst said of Dempsey: "…his style and method of boxing has a neatness about it … he stops blows aimed at him by his adversaries with so much skill, and hits his antagonist with such terrific force and comparative ease, that he astonishes and terrifies his opponents beyond measure … those ambitious to win the title of the middleweight champion are soon convinced of his superior knowledge and athletic prowess…"

[Some days later Jack was arrested and hauled into court on Staten Island, charged with the crime of boxing. At his arraignment, the charges were dismissed as no witness could be produced to say that it was definitively Jack Dempsey in the ring at Great Kills…]

Soon, Jack was bestowed with the moniker “Nonpareil”, meaning “one without equal; a paragon”. The Nonpareil boxed for 6 more years before he ever lost a match. In fact, he only lost 3 matches out of a total of 65, and that was toward the end of his career - and his life, as he was suffering from Tuberculosis and was slowly wasting away.

Jack “The Nonpareil” Dempsey died in November 1895 in Portland Oregon, at his wife’s family’s house and was buried in an unmarked grave.

Reporter M.J. McMahon upon locating the legend’s grave penned a poem dedicated to his memory. “The Nonpareil’s Grave” became widely known, much like “Casey at the Bat”. The following is an excerpt:

  Far out in the wilds of Oregon,

  On a lonely mountainside,

  Where Columbia’s mighty waters

  Roll down to the ocean side;

  Where the giant fir and cedar

  Are imaged in the wave,

  O’ergrown with firs and lichens,

  I found Jack Dempsey’s grave.

  O Fame, why sleeps thy favored son

  In wilds, in woods, in weeds,

  And shall he ever thus sleep on,

  Interred his valiant deeds.

  ‘Tis strange New York should thus forget

  Its "bravest of the brave"

  And in the fields of Oregon,

  Unmarked leave Dempsey’s grave.

But that’s not the end of the story. This poem captured the imagination of many a young boy when it was published, including 5 brothers who lived in a Colorado mining town; one of them, who turned to boxing said in an interview:

“…everyone knew that poem, we used to recite it – we knew it by heart, so did lots of people in those days…all of us wanted to be the new Jack Dempsey, the new Nonpareil. When it turned out I could fight the best, I got the name. When I was a kid the family called me Harry from my middle name. I began as Harry Dempsey. It was only when they found out I could fight the best that I got to be Jack.”

And so, William Harrison Dempsey, perhaps first taking an interest in a hero that shared the same surname as him, was inspired so greatly by The Nonpareil that HE became the “new” Jack Dempsey – and this is the man that so many are familiar with to this day...

...and his inspiration’s skyrocketing career was launched in the sand, right here, on Staten Island.

Jack "The Nonpareil" Dempsey was inducted into the Ring Boxing Hall of Fame in 1954 and the International Boxing Hall of Game in 1992.

A reporter's colorful account of the 7/30/1884 match on Staten Island: