Word: dempsey
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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There followed a period of drifting, to California, to Florida, but always back to Washington. He discovered how to use his fists, hung around with pugs (Jack Dempsey is still his best friend), boxed as an amateur and as a sparring partner. To his mother's horror, he accepted a bout as a professional, and won. But haunted by his father's nomadic, and futile, search for economic security, he returned again and again to law school, until on the last try he earned a degree...
...scene was Mayslack's Polka Lounge in Minneapolis. The 67 Harvard men stood before the proud but bewildered Stan Mayslack, former professional wrestler, and the overflow crowd of lunchtime patrons. "Not since the second Dempsey-Tunney fight has a rematch been so feverishly demanded," wrote a local columnist. Four years earlier, the Glee Club had entertained Mayslack and his customers with Renaissance lamentations, and they were back for a return bout. Conductor F. John Adams '66, beer in hand, led the group in Harvard fight songs, and the noontime throng loved...
...high school dropout at 16, he became a self-taught Shakespearean scholar. He was also an intelligent fighter, a master of the sweet science who won the title from Jack Dempsey on a decision in 1926. In their second fight, Tunney was ahead on points when Dempsey decked him, then lost his chance to regain the title when he was slow to go to a neutral corner. Given an extra four seconds to clear his head?the famous Gene Tunney in his prime (1926) Aloof from the Damon Runyon types. "long count"?Tunney got up and outboxed Dempsey...
...enough to quit at the top, and settled into a successful business career. He lived quietly with his wife Polly Lauder and four children in Greenwich, Conn. In 1971 the fighter's son, John, became U.S. Senator from California. As time went by, Tunney came to be friends with Dempsey. The old foes were thought of together, two men joined by their past. When Tunney's death was reported, Dempsey's wife Deanna said of her ailing husband, "He is taking it very badly. You must remember Gene was a big part of Jack's life for 60 years...
...sense, Bobby Hull and Bobby Orr were like Tunney and Dempsey: they transformed and lifted their sport. When Hull began to play for the Chicago Black Hawks as an 18-year-old left-winger, the National Hockey League gained not only a new idol, the Golden Jet, but also a new scoring weapon, the slapshot. At his best, Hull could skate at nearly 30 m.p.h., and his shot whistled at 118 m.p.h., sometimes knocking the glove off the goaltender's hand...