Rickard, "Tex" (George L.)
Boxing
b. Jan. 2, 1870, Sherman, TX
d. June 5, 1929, Miami Beach, FL
Rickard led a full life even before he became famous as a boxing promoter. Orphaned at ten, he worked as a cowboy and town marshal, then went to the Klondike during the gold rush of 1897 and found gold at the famous Bonanza mine. While in the Klondike, he met Jack Kearns, who later became Jack Dempsey's manager; and a young engineer named Herbert Hoover; and writers Jack London and Robert Service.
With $60,000, he opened a saloon-gambling casino, but was wiped out by lucky miners. After cutting wood for several months, Rickard went to Nome, AK, opened another saloon, and reportedly made $500,000, most of which he lost on gold claims that didn't pan out.
Rickard then went to Goldfield, NV, where he opened a hotel with a gambling hall and a saloon. To promote the town and the hotel, he put up $34,000 for a lightweight championship fight between Joe Gans and Battling Nelson on September 3, 1906, guaranteeing $23,000 to Nelson and $11,000 to Gans, an unusual practice at the time--most promoters simply offered fighters a cut of the gate receipts.
His next major promotion was a match between black heavyweight champion Jack Johnson and former champion Jim Jeffries on July 4, 1910, in Reno. He guaranteed the fighters $101,000 plus two-thirds of the movie rights and still made a profit.
Rickard's most lucrative promotions involved Jack Dempsey, beginning with Dempsey's victory over champion Jess Willard on July 4, 1919, in Toledo, OH. The specially built, 80,000-seat stadium included a special "Jenny Wren" section for women spectators.
In 1920, Rickard signed a 10-year lease for Madison Square Garden. He promoted six-day bicycle races, wrestling matches, and some boxing matches there, but he used outdoor arenas for major fights. The five Dempsey title fights promoted by Rickard during the next seven years grossed about $8 million.
Backed by several millionaire investors, Rickard built a new Madison Square Garden in 1925 and he established a new National Hockey League team, the New York Americans, to play there. A little more than three years after the garden opened, Rickard died of a ruptured appendix.
Rickard set the pattern for all major championship matches. Besides the guaranteed purses and the ballyhoo for which he was famous, he established the policy of having all seats reserved, with an army of ushers to enforce the policy. This enabled him to charge very high prices for ringside seats, which not only brought in more money, but also helped make boxing popular as a form of conspicuous consumption for the elite, including socialites, financiers, and stars of Broadway and Hollywood.