Tex Rickard
George Lewis "Tex" Rickard (January 2, 1870 – January 6, 1929) was an American boxing promoter, founder of the New York Rangers National Hockey League (NHL) franchise, and builder of the third incarnation of Madison Square Garden in New York City. During the 1920s, Tex Rickard was the leading promoter of the day, and he has been compared to P.T. Barnum and Don King. Sports journalist Frank Deford has written that Rickard "first recognized the potential of the star system."[1]
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[edit] Early years
Rickard was born in Kansas City, Missouri. His youth was spent in Sherman, Texas, where his parents had moved when he was four.[2]
At the age of 23, he was elected marshal of Henrietta, Texas.[3] He married Leona Bittick[2] and acquired the nickname "Tex"[3] at this time.
He went to Alaska, drawn by the discovery of gold, arriving in November 1895.[3] Rickard was thus in the region when he learned of the nearby Klondike Gold Rush of 1897. Along with most of the other residents of Circle City, Alaska, he hurried to the Klondike, where he and his partner, Harry Ash, staked claims.[3] They eventually sold their holdings for nearly $60,000.[3] They then opened the Northern Saloon, but Rickard lost everything, including his share of the Northern, through gambling.[3] While working as a poker dealer and bartender at the Monte Carlo saloon and gambling hall, he and Wilson Mizner began promoting boxing matches.[3] In 1899, Rickard (and many others) left to chase the gold strikes in Nome, Alaska.[3]
By 1906, Rickard was running a saloon in Goldfield, Nevada. There he promoted another professional boxing match.[2][3]
Rickard temporarily left both boxing and the United States in the early 1910s. This was the time of Jack Johnson's tumultuous reign as heavyweight champion. With the heavyweight champion a fugitive from American justice (Johnson fled following his conviction on Mann Act charges), Rickard decided that there was little money to be made promoting boxing in the U.S. and went to South America. Rickard returned after Jess Willard dethroned Johnson in 1915.
[edit] Rickard and 1920s boxing
In 1925, Tex secured the rights to promote live events from Madison Square Garden in New York.
In the 1920s, the best boxing promoters and managers were instrumental in bringing boxing to new audiences and provoking media and public interest. Arguably the most famous of all three-way partnerships (fighter-manager-promoter) was that of Jack Dempsey (Heavyweight Champion, 1919–1926), his manager Jack Kearns, and Rickard as promoter. Together they grossed US$ 8.4 million in only five fights between 1921 and 1927 and ushered in a "golden age" of popularity for professional boxing in the 1920s. They were also responsible for the first live radio broadcast of a title-fight (Dempsey v. Georges Carpentier in 1921).
A key business partner of Rickard's in this period was a concert and boxing promoter named Jess McMahon, who was the grandfather of current World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) promoter Vince McMahon. However, due to Rickard disliking the sport of professional wrestling, he did not co-promote wrestling events with McMahon, and it was not until 1935 that McMahon's son, Vincent J. McMahon, would begin promoting his Capitol Wrestling Corporation events. In spite of these objections to pro wrestling, Rickard and McMahon did promote boxing matches like the December 11, 1925, light-heavyweight championship match between Jack Delaney and Paul Berlenbach.
John L. "Ike" Dorgan was Rickard's press agent[4] and, later, publicity manager for the Garden.
[edit] Rickard and hockey
Tex Rickard was awarded an NHL franchise in 1926 to compete with the now-defunct New York Americans. The team was immediately dubbed "Tex's Rangers", and the nickname stuck. "Tex's Rangers" were an immediate success, winning a division title in their first season and the Stanley Cup in their second season.
[edit] Other achievements
In 1928, Rickard opened "Boston Madison Square Garden," better known as the Boston Garden. Rickard also founded the South America Land and Cattle Company and the Rickard Texas Oil Company.
[edit] Death
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Rickard was engaged in fight promotion in Miami Beach when he died on 1929-01-06, of complications following an appendectomy.[2] He was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, NY
[edit] References
- ^ Deford, Frank (1971), Five Strides On The Banked Track, Little, Brown and Company, p. 110
- ^ a b c d "Rickard, George Lewis (1871-1929)". The Handbook of Texas Online. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/RR/fri15.html.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "From the Klondike muck to Madison Square Gardens". The Hougen Group of Companies. http://www.hougengroup.com/yukonhistory/nuggets_year/2000s.aspx?nugget=1871. Retrieved August 26, 2011.
- ^ Roberts, Randy. Jack Dempsey: The Manassa Mauler. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 2003, p. 140. ISBN 0252071484, ISBN 9780252071485
