Tex Rickard

Tex Rickard

George "Tex" Rickard (born January 2, 1871 in Kansas City , Missouri as George Lewis Rickard , † January 6, 1929 in Miami , Florida ) was an American boxing promoter .

George Rickard was born in Kansas City. When he was four years old, his family moved to Sherman ( Texas ), where she earned a cattle ranch and business. Rickard spent his youth as a cowboy on the cattle ranch. Even after his father's death in 1881, he continued to support his family in this way.

At the age of 23 he was elected Marshall of the City of Henrietta, Texas. In this position, he built a reputation for being tolerant and honest law enforcement officers and a superior poker player , two qualities that may have been encouraged by the absence of serious crime in the city. During his time as Marshal, he married his first wife, Leona Bittick, in Fort Worth in May 1894 . In August Mrs. Rickard was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Their son, George L. Rickard, Jr., was born in February 1895. Three weeks later, the 20-year-old wife and baby died a few days later. The wife and child were buried in Henrietta.

Soon after the death of his wife, Rickard set off for Alaska , where he was the Klondike gold miner and Dawson City operator of casinos. He managed to make $ 500,000 in four years. He lost his fortune by buying claims that turned out to be worthless. After a short time playing in California, Rickard moved to Goldfield, Nevada in a mining area. In February 1905 he opened the "Northern Saloon ", where he started playing cards again.

Here he also met Jack Kearns for the first time . Rather by chance, he came to boxing and in 1906 hosted the match between the black lightweight Joe Gans and the popular Dane Battling Nelson in Goldfield ( Nevada ), the most lucrative match to date with sales of almost $ 70,000. His success in these endeavors encouraged Rickard to make a boxing promoter his profession.

In 1910 he organized the comeback of the undefeated former heavyweight champion James J. Jeffries against the unloved new world champion, the colored Jack Johnson . For this, the film rights alone were worth over $ 100,000, the admission $ 270,000.

In 1919 he hosted the coronation of new star Jack Dempsey in a fight against Jess Willard . Against Georges Carpentier , the earnings were $ 1,789,238. Five years later, 120,757 viewers ($ 1,895,733) watched Gene Tunney's title win against Dempsey. The rematch at Soldier Field in Chicago drew 104,943 viewers, with admission $ 2,658,660. He also arranged for the construction of a new Madison Square Gardens .

In 1926 he was offered a franchise in New York that would compete with the New York Americans . After him, the team was initially called Tex's Rangers , but then played as New York Rangers . Together with Conn Smythe he built up the team, but since he did not trust the team put together by Smythe, he fired him and brought Lester Patrick , who won the Stanley Cup with the players selected by Smythe . Based on the model of Madison Square Gardens, he also had the Boston Madison Square Garden built, which was then only briefly called Boston Garden .

Web links

Commons : Tex Rickard  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• George (Tex) Rickard . In: International Boxing Hall of Fame. Retrieved August 28, 2015