OREGONBIOGRAPHIES.COM Tale Of The Tape Stats for Jack Dempsey “The Non-Pareil” Jack Dempseyà Height: 5’ 8” Weight: 128-152 lbs. Age at first bout: 20 Oregon Boxer Age at final bout: 32 Record: 58+/- Wins/3 Losses

Historic Fighter First With Name, recording sixty victories this vanquished victor won. Second In Fame by Roy Widing, Contributing Writer No rose, no shamrock, could I find, no mortal here to tell, John Kelly aka Jack Dempsey, decisions.” Sports historians where sleeps in this forsaken The Non-Pareil Bo xing fans are familiar have long ranked the original spot, immortal Nonpareil. with Jack Dempsey. But few Jack Dempsey an outstanding Life Events of Jack realize the original fighter with fighter. In 1954, The Non-Pareil A winding wooded canyon road, that mortals seldom Dempsey, The Non-Pareil that name lived in Oregon’s was elected to the Ring Boxing tread, leads up this lonely • December 15, 1862 Willamette Valley. Dempsey’s Hall of Fame. mountain, to the desert of the more famous heavyweight dead Born John Kelly in County Kildare, Ire- counterpart garnered most of land. the praise. Yet to those who 45 Round Fight And the Western sun was sink- • April 7, 1883 ing in Pacific’s golden wave, know boxing, the middleweight Kelly takes the ring name Jack Dempsey Perhaps his most interesting and three solemn pines kept champion now at rest in an and wins his first bout in 21 rounds bout was against Johnny Reagan watching, Oregon cemetery was himself against Ed “Rug” McDonald. (Long on December 13, 1887. That over poor Jack Dempsey’s Island, New York). an especially gifted pugilist. fight began outdoors at Long Is- grave. • July 30, 1884 Born John Edward Kelly in land, New York in torrential rain. Forgotten by ten thousand Defeats Canadian George Fulljames and 1862, he’s now dubbed The By the fourth round, the ring was considered the welterweight & middle- throats Non-Pareil (without peer) to reportedly underwater. The event weight champion (Staten Island, NY). that thundered his acclaim, avoid confusion with the more was relocated miles away as the • February 3, 1886 forgotten by his friends and famous fighter. “Peerless” is rain turned to snow. Dempsey foes Successfully defends world middle- weight title vs. Jack Fogarty (NYC). an apt description, because dur- won by knockout in the 45th Who cheered his very name, ing much of his career, John round. • March 4, 1886 Kelly was considered unbeat- Oblivion wraps his faded form, Retains world heavyweight title vs. Kelly eventually married and but ages hence shall save, able. But while he was first on George LaBlanche (Larchmont, NY). settled here in Oregon, where he record to claim his fighting the memory of that Irish lad spent his final years battling tu- • December 13, 1887 moniker, he was unable to par- that fills poor Dempsey’s berculosis, his most formidable grave. Successfully defends middleweight title lay it into a household word. vs. Johnny Reagan (Long Island, NY). foe. Plenty of intriguing stories

February 18, 1890 have been told about Jack Oh, Fame, why sleeps thy fa- • That task was accomplished Dempsey. 16 years after his vored son, Retains world middleweight title against by The Manassa Mauler, the Australian Billy McCarthy in San Fran- death, Dempsey’s friend and for- in wilds, in woods, in weeds, cisco, CA. famed world heavyweight mer pupil, Joseph Askey, so- and shall he ever thus sleep on, • January 14, 1891 champion also known as Jack journed all the way from Balti- Interred his valiant deeds? Loses middleweight title to Bob Dempsey. The more famous more, Maryland to Portland, Ore- Fitzsimmons in New Orleans, LA. Dempsey was born William ‘Tis strange New York should gon’s Calvary Cemetery to leave thus forget, • November 2, 1895 Harrison Dempsey on June 24, flowers for his fallen friend. For John Kelly aka “Jack Dempsey” dies in 1895 and was but 5 months old its “bravest of the brave” Portland, Oregon of tuberculosis. a time, Dempsey’s burial site was when the earlier fighter sharing and in the fields of Oregon, said to be unmarked. This in- his ring surname died. unmarked, leave Dempsey’s spired Dempsey’s attorney, M. J. grave. For his first match, legend McMahon, to pen ‘Jack says Kelly the Irish immigrant Dempsey’s Grave.’ barrel maker agreed to stand in Far out in the wilds of Oregon for a missing fighter in Long on a lonely mountainside, Island, New York. Kelly won where Columbia’s mighty waters that match using the ring name roll down to the ocean side Jack Dempsey. Where the giant fir and cedar Records vary, but according are imaged in the wave, to the International Boxing Hall overgrown with ferns and lichens of Fame, Dempsey The Non- I found Jack Dempsey’s grave. Pareil won 58 fights, 8 by knockout and lost only 3. He I found no marble monolith, no broken shaft or stone had 8 draws and 4 “no- Dempsey Family Gravesite Jack Dempsey, The Non-Pareil