[Illustration: Dempsey had been nothing more than a rugged in-and-out slugger until he fell into the hands of Jack Kearns (white cap, above), who groomed him for the title meeting with Willard at Toledo, July 4, 1919. Jack gained fistic immortality with an explosive three-round knockout victory. The beating that Jess suffered was so severe as to seem impossible to administer with only padded gloves. The false rumors that Jack’s gloves were “loaded” with plaster of Paris persist until this day. Jimmy Deforest (standing next to Dempsey), who bandaged Jack’s hands, denied the story. Below we see Willard down for the seventh time in the opening round.] [Illustration] [Illustration: Above is the architect’s sketch for a new Madison Square Garden which Dinty Scanlon had drawn up and which appeared with my exclusive story in the _New York Telegram_, May 22, 1923. We submitted it to Tex Rickard the following day. Tex feigned disinterest, calling our proposal impractical. However, he used our idea to get financial backing for the building of his own Garden, as is indicated by his architect’s drawing (below) which was not submitted to the press until more than a year later.] [Illustration] [Illustration: For breath-taking excitement, the Dempsey-Luis Firpo title fight at the Polo Grounds, September 14, 1923, was the wildest I have ever witnessed. In the picture above, Jack, who was down twice himself—once completely out of the ring—stands over the fallen challenger. Though as courageous as any man I’ve ever seen, the mammoth Firpo was finally knocked senseless and the fight ended with his tenth knock-down at 1:12 of the second round. Luis was floored seven times in the first round and twice in the second before the knockout punch was delivered.] [Illustration] [Illustration: Dempsey’s dominance of the heavyweight division was brought to an end by handsome ex-Marine Gene Tunney, who took the title with a ten round decision in Philadelphia, September 23, 1926. Jack’s defeat stunned the entire sporting world. Rematched before 104,000 in Chicago’s Soldier’s Field, September 22, 1927, Dempsey flashed his old time fury in flooring Gene in the seventh round (above). The long count resulting from his delay in going to a neutral corner (below) remains a subject for debate until this day, for Gene regained his feet, and his senses, and went on to victory.] [Illustration] [Illustration: One of the more colorful fighters of the 1920s was the unschooled primitive, Battling Siki, who somehow managed to swarm over Georges Carpentier to win the light heavyweight championship of the world, September 24, 1922.] [Illustration: Here is one of the greatest arrays of fistic talent ever assembled for an evening of boxing. Shown at the weigh-in for the Milk Fund Show at Yankee Stadium, June 26, 1924, are (l. to r.) Harry Greb, Tommy Loughran, Young Stribling, Sandy Seifer, Ted Moore, Gene Tunney, Ermino Spalla, Dan Lieber and Panama Joe Gans.]