Rickard, Tex

Tex Rickard, byname of George Lewis Rickard, (born Jan. 2, 1870/71, Kansas City, Mo., U.S.—died Jan. 6, 1929, Miami Beach, Fla.), American gambler and fight promoter who made boxing fashionable and highly profitable. His promotions featuring Jack Dempsey, world heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926, attracted the first five “million-dollar gates” ($1,000,000 or more in ticket receipts).

After being a cattleman and a town marshal in Texas and then a gold miner and a professional gambler in the Yukon, Rickard in 1903 established a casino in the mining town of Goldfield, Nev. To publicize the community, he promoted a world lightweight title fight in which Joe Gans defeated Oscar (Battling) Nelson on a foul in 42 rounds on Sept. 3, 1906. He then promoted Jack Johnson’s successful defense of the heavyweight championship against former titleholder James J. Jeffries at Reno, Nev., on July 4, 1910.

In 1920 Rickard gained control of Madison Square Garden, New York City. On July 2, 1921, at Jersey City, N.J., he staged the first boxing match to attract a million-dollar crowd: Dempsey’s four-round knockout of Georges Carpentier. In Chicago on Sept. 22, 1927, Dempsey’s unsuccessful attempt to regain the heavyweight title from Gene Tunney drew for Rickard the only $2,000,000 gate in boxing history before the mid-1970s. Throughout his career, Rickard’s promotions appealed to prejudice: black against white (Gans versus Nelson, Johnson versus Jeffries), draft dodger against World War I hero (Dempsey versus Carpentier), and American against “foreigner” (Dempsey versus Luis Angel Firpo of Argentina). Much of his press agentry was aimed at women, and he sought socially prominent patrons by organizing numerous bouts for charity. He was probably the first boxing impresario to prove expert at handling large crowds.

In addition to his career as a promoter, Rickard founded the New York Rangers hockey franchise in 1926, which he owned until his death.