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Show Ipeaking Released by Western Newspaper Union. HOW many fight followers remember re-member the only time in the history of the heavyweight division that a man won the title while his opponent was sitting down? To end this horrible mystery in a hurry, it was July 4, 1919, when Jack Dempsey met Jess Willard in Toledo, Ohio, for the world cbam-, pionship. Challenger Jack now Lieutenant Commander Dempsey of the Coast Guard was in the best shape of his career. And he was exceedingly fortunate for-tunate because that particular Independence Independ-ence Day happened to be one of the hottest hot-test days in the meteorological history his-tory of Toledo. Both fighters were literally liter-ally bathed in perspiration per-spiration as they, climbed into the ' : x -&A ! Jack Dempsey I ring. Dempsey was considerably shorter than Willard and had given him a 65-pound weight advantage. Jack's excellent physical condition condi-tion wasn't accidental. He had long set his sights on the heavyweight title and was willing to work hard for it. And Willard was far from his best. In fact, he verged on softness. soft-ness. , 'The First Round Ollie Pecord was the referee. He called the two men to the center of the ring for their last-minute instructions. instruc-tions. Then came the opening bell and the brawl was under way. Dempsey circled around for a few seconds, then uncorked a vicious' right that plowed into Willard's midsection. mid-section. Willard staggered and Jack followed with a left high on Willard's Wil-lard's cheek. N Dempsey didn't overlook his cur-j rent opportunity. He moved in like! a wildcat. He let loose a long, hard right into Jess' stomach and Jess quivered like an aspen. Then came) the most telling blow of the fight. Dempsey let loose with a left to the. face that threatened to separate Willard's head from his shoulders, He went to the canvas, a surprised, sickly grin on his face. Pecord shoved Dempsey to one side and started to count over the prostrate champion. Jess managed to lurch to his feet when the count went up to six, but he was already a beaten man. Again Dempsey moved in for the kill. A left to the head, followed by a right to the body, put Jess on the canvas for the second time. Jack waited for him to get up, which he did at the count of eight. Dempsey belted him all over the ring, the champ going down again for the count of seven. All in all, Willard went down seven times in the first round. The last knockdown knock-down came just before the beD ended the round. Referee Pecord was counting when the bell rang and that's what caused the mixup. The crowd was yelling so hard that the referee didn't hear the bell and kept on counting. He finished the ten count, crossed the ring and held up Dempsey's right hand in the customary salute of battle. Jack Kearns, Dempsey's manager, man-ager, hurried Jack out of the ring into his dressing room while Willard's Wil-lard's handlers were helping him to his corner. Just before Jack got to his dressing room the officials were sending a messenger after him to come back to finish the fight. Hope for Willard The - one-minute rest had worked miracles for Willard. But the journey jour-ney towards the dressing room hadn't helped Jack's wind. Jack coasted for the first minute of round two. The tables were turned a bit' when Willard blasted through with a hard right to the chin that caught the challenger unprepared. un-prepared. Dempsey grabbed and held and didn't get up a full head of steam for the remainder of the round. But that first round had been hard on Willard. By the third round Dempsey was more rested and had recovered. He didn't manage to get in a sledgehammer sledge-hammer wallop, but he was giving Willard a terrific beating. Willard was groggy at the end of the third round. He looked like a beaten man. Just about 20 seconds before the start of the fourth, Jess held a fast consultation with his manager and trainer. At the end of their rapid-fire chat, Willard'j manager man-ager reached over and grabbed a white towel. Even as the bell rang for the fourth, the towel sailed over to the referee's feet and the fight was over. SPORTS SHORTS C. The New York racing commission commis-sion has increased prices at all tracks 10 per cent, to take care of increased t3xcs. C. The game of checkers is at least 3,500 years old and is believed to have been played by the Pharaohs. C. Reports say that Buddy Baer's hair turned almost white as the result re-sult of worry over a leg injury. He's ! in a Florida army hospital. C Bucky Harris' name is missing I from the rolls of major league managers man-agers for the first time in 20 years. |