QUOTES ABOUT JACK DEMPSEY
He came along at a time when the sport was at its all-time low.
Dempsey was the first universally-accepted American sports superstar.”
— Steve Farhood, The Ring Magazine
“You came out of a fight with Dempsey full of welts and bruises and every bone aching.”
— former heavyweight champion Jack Sharkey
“He reinvented himself. He was viewed as a villain, not a hero; but after losing to Tunney, he was a hero and he remained such until his death.”
— Steve Farhood, The Ring Magazine
“Somehow I feel as though I could go on and on writing about him, and never exhaust the colorful, incredibly fascinating story of a strange man and a full life.”
— Paul Gallico on Dempsey “Farewell to Sport. New York: Knopf, 1938
“Has there ever been a fighter quite like the young Dempsey?–the very embodiment of hunger, rage, the will to do hurt; the spirit of the Western frontier come East to win his fortune.”
— Joyce Carol Oates, “On Boxing”. Garden City, NY: Dolphin Doubleday, 1987.
“Whenever I hear the name, Jack Dempsey, I think of an America that was one big roaring camp of miners, drifters, bunkhouse hands, con men, hard cases, men who lived by their fists and their shooting irons and by the cards they drew. America at high noon.
— Jim Murray
“The public suddenly saw him in a new light, the two-handed fighter who stormed forward, a flame of pure fire in the ring, strong, native, affable, easy of speech, close to the people in word and deed and feeling.”
— John Lardner “White Hopes and Other Tigers.” Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, 1951
QUOTES BY JACK DEMPSEY
“I was afraid he was going to kill me. I wasn’t just fighting for the championship. I was fighting for my life.”
— Jack Dempsey on Jess Willard
“Number 4 should have been number 1.Thanks honey.”
“A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t.”
“Honey, I just forgot to duck.”
— Dempsey to his wife Estelle after losing his World Heavyweight title in 1926.
“Tall men come down to my height when I hit ’em in the body.”
“Tell him he can have my title, but I want it back in the morning.”