A RING LEADER.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 5, 7 January 1929, Page 7

A RING LEADER.

"TEX ,, RICKARD DEAD,

Passing Of World's Most Famous

Fight Promoter.

APPENDICITIS OPERATION. (Australian Press Assn.—"United Serriee.) (Received 10 a.m.) VANCOUVER, January 6. George L. f'Tex") Rickard, the boxing promoter, died at Miami Beach, Florida, on Sunday morning after an operation on Thursday for gangrenous appendicitis. "Tex" Rickard was the most famoui fight promoter of all time. The first heavyweight championship match promoted on a gigantic scale wa6 that between Jack Johnson and James J. Jeffries, at Reno, in 1910, and the man responsible was Rickard. It was in this fight that Rickard appeared in the role of referee, the c-u* » v-: T_ le o apree vrpoQ aTi y. one else. After the match Rickard esid he would never act as third man in the ring again. From this match, which drew 270,715 dollars, Rickard made more than 100.000 dollars, excluding the picture rights. Johnson. as the winner got 60 per cent of the puree of 101,000 dollars, a record up to_ that time.

while Rickard presented each of the principals with a bonus of 10.000 dollars. Rickard'e method was to stage one big fight a year, usually termed the "battle of the century." Always he sought unexplofted territory for his chief draw card. "Never go back again, to a place you've drawn a huge price for a championship fight" he often declared. In New York Rickard attracted to boxing the cultured and wealthier classes. He promoted million dollar fights between Dempsey and Carpentler. and between Dempsey and Firpo. With the two Tunney. Dempsey contests all previous records were smashed, the takings running into two million dollars on each occasion. In the second clash between this pair, staged at Chicago, the receipts totalled 2,700,000 dollars. More recently Rickard staged the fight between Tunney and Tom Heeney, of New Zealand, but on this occasion the takings fell considerably below his estimate. The matches quoted above are but of the most important of tie many staged by the late promoter. Within recent months Rickard had been busy arranging elimination bouts to decide the successor to Gene Tunney, and only last week it was announced that he was hopeful of getting Dempsey to attempt a "come back. Rickard had as big a heart aa he bad a brain, and he was most popular witn the many sportsmen associated with him. The following story is typical of him. Shortly after the war there was a movement in New York State to ban the glove game. At that time Miss Anne Morgan happened to ask "Tex" for the loan of two boxers to give an exhibition so that she might get a thousand dollars or so for her fund to help restore devasted France Getting a guarantee that she would attend and bring her friends if he gave her a championship battle, Madison Square Gardens and his services free, he staged the A?l°?wS hie ****** All the "best people" of New York except those who were crowded out went-and dollSstatd d M^- n ** MjSS werf™2e d . he rab - kms «*•""«■