Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-08
BY WALTER TRUMBULL.
@EX RICHARD is dead.

Sport has lost the greatest
promoter it ever knew. Many
L of us have lost friend.
This must be somewhat
personal article, because it is personal
loss. In this world you disregard what
others tell you and take men as you
find them. I always found George
Lewis Richard courageous and honest
and big. In Is years he never told me
a lie, nor did I find him anything but
a straight thinking, straight acting
gentleman.
Richard was born in Kansas City,
Mo-, SO years ago and as q child was
taken to Henrietta, Tex. From there
the little farmboy travelled far afieid.
In distant corners of the world, in
strange and lonely lands he left foot
print. He knew what lay behind the
mountains and across the rivers, then
he came back and the big cities grew
to know him well. Here, too, he left
his mark.
There often is scornful talk OF a
dreamer of dreams. Richards whole
career is justification of the dreamer
He had that vision without which the
Good Book says a people perish.
Rickard has told nae that as a young
cowboy riding a herd at night he looked
up at the stars and wondered if one a
little brighter than the others might
not be his star to follow This tall
lean man was a romanticist at heart
He rode out of Texas on cowboy sad
die because he heard that same voice OF
adventure calling which has Whispered
to every real dreamer from Icarus To
Langley, from Marco Polo to Byrd.
Tex had a great curiosity concerning
people and places, a vlrile and vivid IN
terest in every new thing he saw. Most
valuable of all, he had what SO many
dreamers lack: The ambition ano
ability to make his dreams come true
When they did come true it was q
source of honest wonder to him and OF
simple pride.
I can remember when Madison Square
Garden was being built how Richard
almost would refuse to leave the place
for meals. He watched each column
and girder put into place, each brick as
1t was laid. And often as we stood to-
gether he would say:
Nothing Like 1t in World"
"There's never been anything like il
in the world. They can talk all they
want about their Roman Coliseum, but
it didn't have furnaces and electric
lights and those machine to change the
air like this has. I tell you it's the
greatest arena in the world. And 1t
isn't just for boxing I'm going to bring
every sport in here. Lots of times when
was a cowboy in Texas, or miner IN
Circle City, or a cafe owner in Nome
I used to dream of the things I'd do
but don't think ever figured I'd build
anything as big as this I've come a
long way since rode out of Texas"
It always was Richards vision, his
ability to see farther and to think big
ger than the other fellow which brought
him his success. Others had the same
chances, but they didn't have the same
courage or the same personality.
Boxing owes more to Richard than to
any man that ever lived. He took 1t up
when it was spoken of in the same
breath with safebreaking and gang war
fare and made it respectable, fashion
able and prosperous. This reused fierce
jealousy among those who lacked his
ability. They tried to get him in every
way they could, but he fought them
and beat them all. None of them had
his brains nor his genius for promo
ton. Always he kept his light shining
Just a little ahead of the rest.
Regarding what Richard actually did
financially in boxing I can tell you,
because on December "a, the last day
I saw him, when we said good-by and
agreed to meet in Miami in February,
he gave me the figures taken from the
books of the Garden and his own per-
sonal files.
From the day of the Gans-Nelson
fight in Goldheld. his first effort, to
December "a, 1928, Rickard promoted
289 boxing matches. The total gross
receipts of these bouts amounted to
| $24 500, 275.22.
"They talk about big business" Tex
said to me. II think $24,000,000 is big
business"
On these 289 bouts RickarN paid q
Government tax Of $2.oes.Ssg9ss u