Boxing scholars don't quite know what to make of John Patrick Leo McKernan - better known to the aficionados of the Sweet Science as Jack "Doc" Kearns. Yes, Doc Kearns was the manager of some of the greatest boxers of all time - particularly Mickey Walker, Archie Moore, and - yes - Jack Dempsey. And it was as the manager of the Manassa Mauler that Doc machinated the first "Million Dollar Gate" in 1919 when he matched Jack with the not-so-gentle giant Jess Willard.
But yet (to quote Shakespeare) one article referred to Doc rather discourteously as "one of the great sports con men of the century." William "Bill" Daly, one of the longest tenured fight managers, said of Doc, "He's been a millionaire and a bum several times over".
The problem in sorting out Doc's contributions is that he himself made no bones of doing whatever it took to have his fighters win. True, some of the statements are second hand, such as what he (allegedly) told a young magician who later became an author on gambling books. Doc met John Scarne at the House of Morgan nightclub in New York City and hired him to perform card sleight-of-hand at a banquet in Chicago. While they were waiting to go in the room Doc started talking about his own skills at prestidigitation.
According to John, Doc told him, "Johnny, you know, Jack Dempsey was your age when I first met him, and believe me he would never have become heavyweight champion if it hadn't been for me."
Doc went on. "You know, Scarne," he said, "I'm also sort of a magician. As a matter of fact, I should have been nicknamed the Ring Magician."
John expressed his bewilderment at the reference. So Doc elaborated further.
"Scarne," Doc said, "I can switch a pair of eight ounce boxing gloves for a pair of six-ounce gloves right in the center of a prize-fight ring. And remember, I accomplish this feat under the very noses of the referee, rival fight manager, his chief seconds, and the state boxing officials, and none of them will ever detect the switch."
The point, of course, is that 6 ounce gloves are lighter than the usual minimum weight of 8 ounces. So the fighter wearing lighter gloves can move and hit faster. Also in Doc's time there wasn't specially designed foam cushioning and so the punches landed harder.
Whether Doc's statement to John was accurate or whether it was horse hockey, bullshine, and poppycock can be debated. But there is one statement that Doc made that produced considerable raised eyebrows among the boxing fans (to put it mildly). In an excerpt from Doc's then as yet unpublished memoir that appeared in Sports Illustrated Doc claimed he did more than just switch to lighter gloves when managing Jack Dempsey.
Doc said that in the fight with Jess Willard in 1919 - "The Million Dollar Gate" - he had loaded Jack's gloves with plaster of Paris. Or rather the bandages that were used to wrap Jack's hands had been impregnated with plaster of Paris and soaked in water. This would have produced a hard covering on Jack's knuckles that Doc was responsible for the beating that Jess took. Jack, Doc said, was unaware of the subterfuge.
We can't say that Doc was telling the story from Olympian detachment. For various reasons - which range from Jack thinking Doc mishandled his money to Doc objecting to Jack marrying actress Estelle Taylor - by that time Jack had long severed all associations with Doc. That, of course, cost Doc a lot of money and - as one author once said - that's what makes people bitter.
Scholars of boxing almost unanimously express doubt about Doc's story. For one thing, Jack would have recognized that the bandage had solidified plaster on them simply by the loss of flexibility in his hands (not to mention that plaster gets hot when it's mixed with water). Besides solidified plaster on the bandages would have broken Jack's hands long before Jess's face. Also Doc's claim that Jack was so inexperienced he didn't know enough to recognize his bandages had been loaded doesn't hold up. Jack was not that young a fighter when he fought Willard - he was twenty-four - and had been boxing professionally for eight years. He had been in over 60 bouts before he took on Jess.
Perhaps, though, the biggest argument against the loaded gloves legend was that Jess's team examined Jack's taped hands before the fight. There's even a film showing Jess, who reportedly was concerned that Jack's glove might be enhanced, looking at Jack's hands and evidently he saw nothing amiss.
Doc didn't get to see how his memoir was received. The Sport Illustrated article was published in January 1964 about six months after Doc had died. Jack, it need not be said, was not pleased, as Sports Illustrated soon found out. So it's no surprise when Doc's memoir appeared in as a book in 1966, the account of Doc loading Jack's glove was quietly omitted.
Gene Tunney
He boxed and lectured on Shakespeare.
Jack's last professional bout was also his most famous - even more famous than the Million Dollar Gate with Jim. That was the "Long Count Match" on September 22, 1927.
The match was between Jack and Gene Tunney - a younger man who in addition to boxing once lectured the Harvard student body on Shakespeare. For the first rounds Gene seemed to have the advantage but in the seventh a series of punches from Jack sent Gene down to the canvas against the ropes. Due to a new rule, Jack was supposed to go to a neutral corner and wait for the count to begin. But Jack stayed near a visibly dazed Gene before the referee reminded him of the rule. The delay gave Gene a longer count than the usual ten seconds and he was able to get up and eventually win the fight. The question that was raised then and now was if not for the long count could Gene have gotten up in time and gone on to win?
Unlike some world famous boxers whose later lives turned down toward the skids, Jack managed his later years astutely. Things were complicated by the Stock Market Crash of 1929 where Jack lost much of his $3 million dollars assets. Jack, though, was not a man to bewail his lot and he began some lucrative tours giving boxing exhibitions. But after he lost a match to King Levinsky in 1931, Jack gave up any aspiration for a professional comeback and retired from the ring for good.
Jack managed a number of business and entertainment ventures and in 1935 he established Jack Dempsey's Restaurant in Manhattan. He was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Coast Guard Reserve as a during World War II and ended up as a commander and served in the Pacific.
In his later years Jack kept managing his restaurant but also continued his association with sports. Over the years he refereed a number of fights, both boxing and wrestling. He also appeared in motion pictures sometimes as himself and sometimes in starring roles where he did not always play a pugilist.
Of course, Jack appeared on television once the tube began proliferating the American homes. He even appeared on a famous talk show where one of the other guests was none other than Gene Tunney. When asked about the famous Long Count Fight, Jack said Gene could have gotten up even without the extra seconds and gone on to win the fight.
References and Further Reading
Jack Dempsey: The Manassa Mauler, Randy Roberts, University of Illinois Press, 2003.';
"Jack Dempsey", BoxRec
"Jess Willard vs. Jack Dempsey",BoxRec
The Odds Against Me, John Scarne, Simon and Schuster, 1966.
"World's Boxing Championship is Won by Dempsey in Three Fast and Furious Rounds,", Cordova [Alaska] Daily Times,Chronicling America, Library of Congress. July 5, 1919.
"Sport: Best Bum of the Lot", Time, February 6, 1950.
"Dempsey's Gloves Were Loaded", Doc Kearns, Sports Illustrated, January 13, 1964.
"Did Boxer Jack Dempsey Use Loaded Gloves When He Won His First Heavyweight Title?", Los Angeles Times, August 31, 2011.
"Jack Dempsey vs. Jess Willard at 100: Looking Back at One of Boxing's Landmark Fights", Thomas Hauser, Sporting News, July 4, 2019.
"Town in Montana Was Overmatched", Earl Gustkey, Los Angeles Times, February 5, 1989.';
"Doc Kearns's Last Dirty Trick", American Heritage, Volume 28, Issue 3, 1977.
The Birth of a Champion, Jack Dempsey, Jess Willard, Fistic Film Company, 1939.
"'Honest Bill' Daly Wears a Toupee", Dave Anderson, New York Times, March 23, 1979.
"The Destruction Of A Giant", Barbara Piattelli Dempsey, American Heritage, Volume 28, Issue 3, April 1977.
"Defeats Didn't Dampen Dempsey", Larry Schwartz, ESPN, August 11, 2005.