George Lewis Rickard
Encyclopedia
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
promoter, founder of the New York Rangers
New York Rangers
The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the borough of Manhattan in New York, New York, USA. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Playing their home games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one of the...
National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
(NHL) franchise, and builder of the third incarnation of Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden (1925)
Madison Square Garden was an indoor arena in New York City, the third of that name. It was built in 1925 and closed in 1968, and was located on Eighth Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets in Manhattan on the site of the city's trolley car barns. It was the first Garden that was not located near...
in New York City. During the 1920s, Tex Rickard was the leading promoter of the day, and he has been compared to P.T. Barnum and Don King. Sports journalist Frank Deford
Frank Deford
Benjamin "Frank" Deford, III is a senior contributing writer for Sports Illustrated, author, and commentator for National Public Radio and correspondent for Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel on HBO....
has written that Rickard "first recognized the potential of the star system."
Early years
Rickard was born in Kansas City, MissouriKansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
. His youth was spent in Sherman, Texas
Sherman, Texas
Sherman is a city in and the county seat of Grayson County, Texas, United States. The city's estimated population as of 2009 was 38,407. It is also one of two principal cities in the Sherman-Denison Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
, where his parents had moved when he was four.
At the age of 23, he was elected marshal of Henrietta, Texas
Henrietta, Texas
Henrietta is a city in and the county seat of Clay County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Wichita Falls, Texas Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 3,264 at the 2000 census.-History:...
. He married Leona Bittick and acquired the nickname "Tex" at this time.
He went to Alaska, drawn by the discovery of gold, arriving in November 1895. Rickard was thus in the region when he learned of the nearby Klondike Gold Rush
Klondike Gold Rush
The Klondike Gold Rush, also called the Yukon Gold Rush, the Alaska Gold Rush and the Last Great Gold Rush, was an attempt by an estimated 100,000 people to travel to the Klondike region the Yukon in north-western Canada between 1897 and 1899 in the hope of successfully prospecting for gold...
of 1897. Along with most of the other residents of Circle City, Alaska
Circle, Alaska
Circle is a census-designated place in Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 100....
, he hurried to the Klondike
Klondike, Yukon
The Klondike is a region of the Yukon in northwest Canada, east of the Alaska border. It lies around the Klondike River, a small river that enters the Yukon from the east at Dawson....
, where he and his partner, Harry Ash, staked claims. They eventually sold their holdings for nearly $60,000. They then opened the Northern Saloon, but Rickard lost everything, including his share of the Northern, through gambling. While working as a poker dealer and bartender at the Monte Carlo saloon and gambling hall, he and Wilson Mizner
Wilson Mizner
Wilson Mizner was an American playwright, raconteur, and entrepreneur. His best-known plays are The Deep Purple, produced in 1910, and The Greyhound, produced in 1912...
began promoting boxing matches. In 1899, Rickard (and many others) left to chase the gold strikes in Nome, Alaska
Nome Gold Rush
-Beach:Claim jumping was mostly a problem before the beach gold was found, since it could not be claimed and there was plenty of it. As a matter of fact, the beach gold seems to have been more important than the claimed gold in the creeks. The mining of Nome beach is a good example of gold rushes...
.
By 1906, Rickard was running a saloon in Goldfield, Nevada
Goldfield, Nevada
Goldfield is an unincorporated community and the county seat of Esmeralda County, Nevada, United States, with a resident population of 440 at the 2000 census. It is located about southeast of Carson City, along U.S...
. There he promoted another professional boxing match.
Rickard temporarily left both boxing and the United States in the early 1910s. This was the time of Jack Johnson
Jack Johnson (boxer)
John Arthur Johnson , nicknamed the “Galveston Giant,” was an American boxer. At the height of the Jim Crow era, Johnson became the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion...
's tumultuous reign as heavyweight champion. With the heavyweight champion a fugitive from American justice (Johnson fled following his conviction on Mann Act
Mann Act
The White-Slave Traffic Act, better known as the Mann Act, is a United States law, passed June 25, 1910 . It is named after Congressman James Robert Mann, and in its original form prohibited white slavery and the interstate transport of females for “immoral purposes”...
charges), Rickard decided that there was little money to be made promoting boxing in the U.S. and went to South America. Rickard returned after Jess Willard
Jess Willard
Jess Willard was a world heavyweight boxing champion. He won the heavyweight title from Jack Johnson in April 1915 and lost it to Jack Dempsey in July 1919....
dethroned Johnson in 1915.
Rickard and 1920s boxing
In 1925, Tex secured the rights to promote live events from Madison Square GardenMadison Square Garden (1925)
Madison Square Garden was an indoor arena in New York City, the third of that name. It was built in 1925 and closed in 1968, and was located on Eighth Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets in Manhattan on the site of the city's trolley car barns. It was the first Garden that was not located near...
in New York.
In the 1920s, the best boxing promoters and managers were instrumental in bringing boxing to new audiences and provoking media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
and public interest. Arguably the most famous of all three-way partnerships (fighter-manager-promoter) was that of Jack Dempsey
Jack Dempsey
William Harrison "Jack" Dempsey was an American boxer who held the world heavyweight title from 1919 to 1926. Dempsey's aggressive style and exceptional punching power made him one of the most popular boxers in history. Many of his fights set financial and attendance records, including the first...
(Heavyweight Champion, 1919–1926), his manager Jack Kearns
Jack Kearns
Jack "Doc" Kearns was an American boxing manager from the state of Washington. He is most famous for managing Jack Dempsey, who was World Heavyweight Champion from 1919 to 1926. He also managed Mickey Walker, Joey Maxim, and Archie Moore. He was given the nickname "Doc" from Dempsey....
, and Rickard as promoter. Together they grossed US$ 8.4 million in only five fights between 1921 and 1927 and ushered in a "golden age" of popularity for professional boxing in the 1920s. They were also responsible for the first live radio broadcast of a title-fight (Dempsey v. Georges Carpentier
Georges Carpentier
Georges Carpentier was a French boxer. He fought mainly as a light heavyweight and heavyweight in a career lasting from 1908-26. Nicknamed the "Orchid Man", he stood and his fighting weight ranged from...
in 1921).
A key business partner of Rickard's in this period was a concert and boxing promoter named Jess McMahon, who was the grandfather of current World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...
(WWE) promoter Vince McMahon
Vince McMahon
Vincent Kennedy "Vince" McMahon is an American professional wrestling promoter, announcer, commentator, film producer, actor and former occasional professional wrestler. McMahon is the current Chairman, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Committee of professional wrestling promotion WWE...
. However, due to Rickard disliking the sport of professional wrestling
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...
, he did not co-promote wrestling events with McMahon, and it was not until 1935 that McMahon's son, Vincent J. McMahon
Vincent J. McMahon
Vincent James "Vince" McMahon, better known as Vince McMahon, Sr. was an American professional wrestling promoter. He is best known for founding the American promotion, World Wide Wrestling Federation, which is now known as WWE.-Early life:Vincent James McMahon was born on July 6, 1914 in Harlem,...
, would begin promoting his Capitol Wrestling Corporation events. In spite of these objections to pro wrestling, Rickard and McMahon did promote boxing matches like the December 11, 1925, light-heavyweight championship match between Jack Delaney
Jack Delaney
Jack Delaney was a former light heavyweight boxing champion of the world and contender for the heavyweight crown...
and Paul Berlenbach.
John L. "Ike" Dorgan
John L. Dorgan
John L. Dorgan, known as Ike Dorgan, was a bookbinder, boxing manager, press agent, and publicity manager for the Madison Square Garden. He was a founding partner of The Ring magazine.-Biography:...
was Rickard's press agent and, later, publicity manager for the Garden.
Rickard and hockey
Tex Rickard was awarded an NHLNational Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
franchise in 1926 to compete with the now-defunct New York Americans
New York Americans
The New York Americans were a professional ice hockey team based in New York, New York from 1925 to 1942. They were the third expansion team in the history of the National Hockey League and the second to play in the United States. The team never won the Stanley Cup, but reached the semifinals...
. The team was immediately dubbed "Tex's Rangers", and the nickname stuck. "Tex's Rangers" were an immediate success, winning a division title in their first season and the Stanley Cup
Stanley Cup
The Stanley Cup is an ice hockey club trophy, awarded annually to the National Hockey League playoffs champion after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously as Lord Stanley's Mug...
in their second season.
Other achievements
In 1928, Rickard opened "Boston Madison Square Garden," better known as the Boston GardenBoston Garden
The Boston Garden was an arena in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Designed by boxing promoter Tex Rickard, who also built the third iteration of New York's Madison Square Garden, it opened on November 17, 1928 as "Boston Madison Square Garden" and outlived its original namesake by some 30 years...
. Rickard also founded the South America Land and Cattle Company and the Rickard Texas Oil Company.