The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1921-06-30
HISTORY OF HOW TITLE
DESCENDED TO DEMPSEY
(By Jack NelockD !

| (By Jack Nelock.)
international News Sporting Editor.
Back to the days when fighters
fought with bare fists, with the ring
pitched on the turf in some secluded
spot where the contest could go on
unmolested is far. far cry, yet we
must go back that far to take up the
history Of the heavyweight division
of which Jack Dempsey is a wing to-
day
| More than hundred years ago in
1876, Jake Hyer was the victor in the
first heavyweight championship fight
held in America. His defeated op-
ponent was Thomas Beasley. In those
far away days fighters were few and
far between and it was not until 1S41
that Tom Hyer, who beat John Nc
| Cluster, better known as Country Nc
Closkey, became the first really rec
iognized champion. The fight took
place at Caldwell's Landing, n. Y,
and went 101 rounds.
Yankee Sullivan was one of Nc
Closkey's seconds in the Caldwell
Landing fight and he ended it by
8 throwing a sponge into the ring at
the end of the 101st round. In 1S47
this same Yankee Sullivan, believing
he could defeat Hyer, challenged him
to battle and was knocked out in SIN
! teen. rounds at Rock Point Md, Hyer
/ later retired because he could not find
an opponent and Sullivan then claim
Cd the title and held it for 4 short
time when he. too. quit the ring.
Hecnan ". SayerS.
In 1852 John Morrisey defeated
i'm Il at
Mare Island. Cal. Six years later he
defeated John C. Heenan at Long
Island Point, Canada, and afterward
retired. later becoming a congress
man. Heenan claimed the title in
1860 and was recognized as the
American champion. He was known
as the Benicia Boy and when he found
opponents lacking he went to Eng
land to take on Tom Sayers. How he
beat Sayers until the British idol
was unable to come out of his corner
and how the ring ropes were cut and
the battle called draw are matter
of history.
Following Heenan came Joe Co.
burn, Jim Dunn, Mike McCool, Tom
Allen, Joe Ross and Paddy Ryan, who
held the American title from 1868 to
|1SS2 or up TO John L. Sullivan's de-
| but as the champion of this contin-
ent. 1t was on February :, 1882. at
mississippi City. that Sullivan won his
right to the title by knocking out
Ryan in nine rounds.
The Sullivan-Corbett Fight.
Sullivan held the title until James
j. Corbett beat him by knockout in
twenty-one rounds at New Orleans in
1892, his best fight in the meantime
being against Jake Kilrain. whom he
beat in seventy-five rounds at Rich
burg, Miss, in 1889. This fight, by
the way, was the last bare-knuckle
fight in American heavyweight his
tory and in the Sullivan-Corbettf fight
the first real American heavyweight
championship contest in which the
big gloves were used.
Corbett held the title until 1897,
when he lost it TO Bob Fitzsimmons
al Carson City. New. in fourteen
rounds. Fitz was champion only two
years. losing his crown to James J.
Jeffries at Coney Island. June 9. 1899
who held the title until 1906 when
he retired.
The historians of pugilism general
~ CTeull j iii JeIIrleS WIN DelnS tne
first American heavyweight with a
clean claim to the worlds cham
pionship.
Jim Corbett has as good a claim
as history of the division since JEFF
fries time is well known.
Jeffries refereed battle between
Marvin Hart and Jack Root, won by
Hart, in 1905, and presented the title
to Hart. who later was defeated by
Tommy Burns in twenty-rounder at
Los Angeles. Burns lost the title to
Jack johnson in fourteen rounds at
Sydney, Australia, in 1908, and in
1915, after seven years as champion
of the world, Johnson lost to Jess
Willard at Havana, Cuba.
Jack Dempsey, the present lncum-
bent, defeated the mighty Willard at
Toledo in three rounds July 4, 1919.
The manner in which the title has
come down to the present holder, Will
liam Harrison (Jack Dempsey fol-
lows:
Tenure of
Name Titlo Years
rom Hyers - 1S41-1849 8
dnKee sullivan 1SdQ-1S2