Willard Was a Giant in Boxing Community

Big Jess Willard, once the most famous athlete in America and the world heavyweight boxing champion between the eras of Jack Johnson and Jack Dempsey, died 31 years ago today.

Willard was a true-to-life Oklahoma cowboy when he began a years-long quest to wrest the heavyweight championship from Jack Johnson, the widely hated black champion who had so easily beaten popular ex-champion Jim Jeffries in 1910.

“I never had a glove on until I was 28,” he said, years later.

Willard, schooled in an Oklahoma gym, found himself matched with Johnson in 1915 at a Havana race track. He was 33, Johnson 37.

Willard knocked Johnson out with one punch in the 26th round, and became the most famous and also the richest athlete in America in short order.

Within a week, he was pulling down $5,000 a week in New York vaudeville theaters. By 1917, he had made $600,000-$700,000 since the Havana fight.

But he lost everything in the Depression and spent his final years in a small cottage in Sunland. He was 87 when he died of a heart attack.

Also on this date: In 1973, Sandy Hawley became the first jockey to ride 500 winners in a single year when he won with Charlie Jr at Laurel Race Course in Maryland. . . . In 1974, arbitrator Peter Seitz ruled Oakland pitcher Jim “Catfish” Hunter a free agent, allowing Hunter to sign with the Yankees.