Gene Tunney's Gloves Enter the Ring
Fans still argue about who really won the 1927 "long count" fight between Gene Tunney and Jack Dempsey
- By Owen Edwards
- Smithsonian magazine, September 2011, Subscribe
Most sports controversies live for only a season or two. But some, like the athletes involved, have stronger legs. One of the most enduring of these events occurred on September 22, 1927, in a heavyweight championship bout between the 30-year-old champion, Gene Tunney, and the 32-year-old former champion, Jack Dempsey. Tunney, nicknamed the Fighting Marine, had taken the title from Dempsey a year before. The rematch at Soldier Field in Chicago was of national and international interest, with fans glued to their radios and gate receipts of more than $2.5 million. “My father earned one million for the fight,” says Jay Tunney, one of the fighter’s three sons, noting that the prize money constituted an astronomical payday in the 1920s. “The popularity of the match had a unifying power in the U.S.,” he adds.
Jay and his older brother John V. Tunney, a former U.S. senator from California, recently donated the six-ounce gloves Tunney wore in this epochal match to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History (NMAH). Eric Jentsch, deputy chair of the division of culture and the arts, calls them “an important addition to other [NMAH] historical boxing artifacts, including John L. Sullivan’s championship belt, gloves used by Dempsey and Joe Louis, and the robe Muhammad Ali wore for the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ with George Foreman in Zaire.”
Tunney, an Irish-American who had boxed since his teen years in New York City, was a stylish, intelligent fighter, as well as an avid reader. Dempsey had called him a “big bookworm,” close to slander in the fight game. In the rematch, Tunney was well ahead on the judges’ scorecards when, in the seventh round, Dempsey knocked him to the canvas with a sweeping left hook.
During his storied career, Dempsey—an aggressive hitter nicknamed the Manassa Mauler—typically hovered over a downed opponent and began swinging the instant the man got up. But a new rule in boxing decreed that when a knockdown occurred, the fighter on his feet had to go to the farthest neutral corner before the referee began his count. But Dempsey, perhaps doing what came naturally to him, stayed in his own corner, only a few feet from Tunney. While the champion cleared his head after the first knockdown of his professional career, five seconds elapsed before referee Dave Barry got Dempsey to move away so the count could begin. Tunney, in a sitting position with one arm on the lowest rope, watched the referee intently. Jay Tunney—who tells the story in a new book, The Prizefighter and the Playwright, an account of his father’s unlikely friendship with George Bernard Shaw—writes that one of Tunney’s corner men, someone he’d known since boxing in the Marines, shouted at him to wait until nine to get back up, to take full advantage of the time to recover.
At Barry’s count of “nine,” Tunney was on his feet, moving lightly away from the charging Dempsey. Toward the end of the round, Tunney landed a short, hard right to Dempsey’s body that caused him to grunt audibly and probably ended any hopes the ex-champ might have had about a quick end to the bout. Tunney continued on the offensive, knocking Dempsey down in the next round and taking the remaining rounds on points; he won the fight in a unanimous decision. The outfought Dempsey would not box professionally again. Jay Tunney says that “a third match would probably have brought in even more money for both men. But Dempsey’s eyes had taken a beating, and he may have been worried about losing his sight if he fought again.”
The next day, a New York Times headline said, in part, “Dempsey Insists Foe Was Out in 7th, Will Appeal,” and the “long count” controversy was born. But YouTube allows us to view footage of the round today: it seems clear that Tunney was down but far from out. Jay Tunney recalls his father saying that he could have gotten up at any time, and his sure-footed ability to evade Dempsey underscores that contention. “My dad trained with absolute devotion to becoming the heavyweight champ,” says Jay Tunney, “and he was in the best shape of any fighter of the time. His credo was, ‘Drink two quarts of milk a day and think of nothing but boxing.’”
Tunney retired undefeated after another year and one more fight. Not until 1956 would another heavyweight champion, Rocky Marciano, retire undefeated. Jay Tunney says that his father “loved the sport, but used boxing as a vehicle to get to where he wanted to be—which was to be a cultured man.” In this, as in boxing, Tunney triumphed. He became a successful businessman, and in addition to Shaw, made a number of literary friends, including Ernest Hemingway and Thornton Wilder. Attesting to his sportsmanship, Tunney also maintained a lifelong friendship with his greatest adversary—Jack Dempsey.
Owen Edwards is a freelance writer and author of the book Elegant Solutions.
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Comments (5)
Having watched the "long count" round 7 last evening on a big screen, it was obvious that Tunney was intently watching the ref and was using this time to get a rest. Even the Dempsey fans in the audience had to agree with that opinion. Mr. Dempsey was much more popular at that time and any chance to get him the win was going to be heard. As far as anyone beating Tunney badly, that was true. But try to take into account that he won around 74 matches and lost only one. My late father thought Gene Tunney the smartest and all around best fighter ever. Good enough for me.
Posted by Susan Wydra on November 16,2011 | 10:33 AM
Not only did Harry Greb beat Gene Tunney he also sparred with Dempsey when he was champion He beat Dempsey in such a convincing manner that Dempsey's manager ruled that he would never be allowed back in the ring with Greb. Greb held the Middleweight and Light Heavyweight crowns and quite possibly could have held the Heavyweight crown if he had ever been allowed into the ring again with Dempsey.
Posted by john liffmann on November 15,2011 | 09:53 PM
Gene Tunney and George Bernard Shaw, two Irish minds, had a lot in common in an unexpected and private friendship. Tunney "used boxing as a vehicle to get to where he wanted to be---which was to be a cultured man," a man whose heart was in the higher realm of intellectual pursuit.
Early on Jay R. Tunney, one of Gene Tunney's sons spoke at the Bernard Shaw Society about the book he was writing about his father and the book concept was enthusiastically received and we awaited its publication, but not for long.
The unlikely relationship between the world heavyweight boxing champion and the Nobel prize and Oscar-winning playright is well documented by author Jay R. Tunney in his book, The Prizefighter and The Playwright (Gene Tunney and Bernard Shaw)with riveting details about Gene Tunney's boxing career. It is a fitting tribute, therefore, that Gene Tunney's boxing gloves are in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History (NHAH)archives.
Jay Tunney's page turner book also includes a true love story, the romance between Gene Tunney and the heiress Polly Lauder, his parents. Being the romantic that I am I enjoyed the sentimental side of Gene Tunney and Polly's courtship, which provides an insider's account to their story.
Posted by Polly Guerin on September 29,2011 | 09:48 PM
To Don Scott:
Information on John Sullivan's belt can be found on the National Museum of American History website at:
http://americanhistory.si.edu/sports/exhibit/firsts/sullivan/index.cfm
Posted by Reader Services on September 19,2011 | 12:38 PM
A couple of comments here. First, while Tunney was undefeated as a champion (2 title defenses), he was not undefeated. On 5/23/22 he was badly beaten by Harry Greb. Also, while it is usually suggested that Tunney was Dempsey's last fight, some doubt that was true and see his comeback in the 30's as "real" and not just exhibitions. Either way, it was professional in that he got paid. The last point may be seen as semantics, the first is not.
Now for an opinion. Your story somewhat contradicts your photo. Many do not see Tunney as sitting watching the referee intently. To many he looks very dazed, as he does to me in the photo (and in the film). At any rate, Dempsey was fairly beaten under the rules and Tunney was, at the time, a superior fighter.
Glad to see the Smithsonian get the gloves. Hope they don't suffer the same fate as Sullivan's belt which has always been just a rumor, no one I know having even seen pictures of it since it supposedly went to the Smithsonian.
Don Scott
Posted by Donald Scott on September 4,2011 | 05:26 PM