Tex Rickard Essay, Research Paper

Tex Rickard: the story of his life. The man who was known

as Tex Rickard, was born on Jan 2, 1870 with the byname

of George Lewis Rickard. He led a life of different jobs, I

guess you could say he was a jack of all trades. His life, or

the part of it that dealt with the gold rush, was what I would

say as, short lived. After raising cattle in Texas, and ruling a

little town as the town marshal he decided to move on to

something different. He moved to a small city in Nevada

called Goldfield. Goldfield was a boom town, which came

about with the help of gold, and the fact the Rickard set up a

casino. Now Tex didn’t make his money by mining for gold

in California or in Nevada, but instead he was a professional

gambler, and fight promoter. It is his final profession that he

decided to stick with, and to say the least, he was most

prosperous in this final job. As a fight promoter his life was

very active. To publicize the community he decided to

promote the world lightweight title fight between Joe Gans

and Oscar Nelson. The fight was a long one, not only was it

more then the normal 12 rounds, but it was nearly 4 times

the normal, being 42 rounds in length. This would be the

start of something big for Rickard. In 1920 he gained control

of Madison Square Garden, and in his new arena he would

stage the first million dollar fight, this would be the first of five

million dollar crowds. Rickards achievements didn’t just

come to him by luck. He made boxing a sport for all races

and both the sexes. He appealed to the racism in people by

posing a black against a white. He also aroused the patriots

in the country by fighting a draft dodger and a war hero,

along with this he set a American against a foreigner. He was

the first promoter to understand the people, and who was

able to control large crowds. All in all, he was a fighter,

gambler, miner (in the Yukon), and a promoter, and was

prosperous in all. He helped to change the face of the west

by controlling where the people went, and helped California

to grow, making him a very important man in the history of

California and the United States.