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.
