The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-10-01

The window display was the purse that 8 bonanza -glutted min ing town offered for fight be- tween Joe Cans and Battling Nell son. The idea was publicity that would put the crude camp of Gold field on the map.
 Liked to F1ashlight
 Rickard owned the gaudiest sa- loon and gambling emporium of the many that fronted on Gold fields knee-deep-in-mud main drag. Consequently he was the community's leading citizen.
 Tex had started life as a COW hand. Then he became wan derer, mucking for gold in the west and the frozen north. Though he was not afraid of work, he dreamed of wearing a fancy fiddle and flute" (his slang for suiD carrying cane and handling the gold after it had gone through the United States mint. So he be- came gambler, and when the rush to relieve the gold lodes Of Nevada got under way. Rickard was nicely enconced in ''the North ern," where roulette, faro and other forms of gaming kept the precious metal In pleasant circu- lation.
 The outside boxing world, with headquarters in San Francisco, heard the rumor of Goldfeld's $30,000 display of gold, an offer that outbid the then Croesus of Fistiana, Jim Coffroth. for the Nelson-Gans fight. Newspaper men were sent to investigate, and in their stories from Nevada gave the world the first big ballyhoo of boxing.
 That fight at Nevada, the first real prize fight that Tex Rickard ever saw. gave him the vision of q new industry. When the gold frenzy at Goldfeld curled in the stretch, Rickard hurried away to Reno where he dealt in copper properties and kept an eye open for another chance to cash in on boxing.
 That opportunity grew out of the nationwide search for white hope to dethrone the arrogant champion, Jack Johnson. Rickard W as iOl lOIS III DoShNA- His calm eye and careless draTl put up the purse with only the reward of 6 couple of ringside tickets.
 Jeffries came out of retirement, signed a guarantee of s101,900 for his effort to restore ring suprem- acy to the Caucasians and became the first hollow shell' of the modern era. The mighty Johnson knocked him out. Rickard, soured on the fight game by the loss of important paper money. went back to poker. Johnson left the coun- try and lost the title to Jess Will lard in Havana.
 Great Trio
 Dempsey came riding out of the west on championship drive steered by the willy Jack kearns, first and greatest of the mdern "built-up" managers. Rickard saw him fight once and exclaimed: There's my feller." Here was q battler tailored to fit the order of Snowman Rickard, and Tex moved quickly in the promotion af a bout at Toledo.
 It was the greatest combination boxing has known - Showman Rickard, Dapper Jack Kearns and Dempsey. the killer. They climbed from peak to peak. striking richer and richer rewards. The pinnacle was reached with the second Tun- ney-Dcmpsey fight that grossed $2,658,660.
 Packard saw nice people" in evening dress at a ringside that he had brought up from the mud or Goldfield. And. at the climax of his career, he died.
 Rickard, the man who woull stake his last dollar on the drop of d fluttering maple leaf, trembled at the suggestion of a surgeon scalpel.
 They won't carve me with them things" he said when an operation for acute appendicitis was ordered.
 And they didn't. The knife was spared. Rickard passed along and, without him, boxing swiftly sue cumbcd to the attacks of sick ness as deadly as Richards. NEXT: A tank town trOuper tells
 his story.
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