The One Is Jack Hurley, Volume Two: The Old Professor's Chicago Days

The One Is Jack Hurley is an epic three-volume bio-history of boxing’s Golden Age beginning with Jack Dempsey in the 1910s and ending with the emergence of George Foreman in 1970, as filtered through the life experience of legendary manager and promoter “Deacon” Jack Hurley. Hurley began his career in Fargo, North Dakota, just before World War I, worked in and around New York and Chicago from the mid 1920s through the ‘40s, and settled in Seattle in 1950.

Hurley’s life, more than any other, personifies pro boxing’s journey out of the backrooms and bars of the 1900s, to the arenas and stadiums of the 1920s, ‘30s, and ‘40s, and into the parlors and family TV rooms of the 1950s and ‘60s. It is a history not only of one man’s life, but of the sport itself. A tale long neglected only because Jack’s career was so long and multifaceted.

Volume 2, The Old Professor’s Chicago Days, catalogs Hurley’s middle years when he faced the challenge of rebuilding his career after the retirement of Billy Petrolle, his No. 1 fighter and meal ticket. From 1935 through 1949, Jack made a lasting mark in Chicago as a fight manager and promoter/matchmaker at the city’s three most important boxing venues: Marigold Gardens, the Chicago Coliseum, and the Chicago Stadium. This volume in the Hurley trilogy presents a detailed history of professional boxing in Chicago during those years and Jack’s role in shaping it.

Known as “the old Professor” by virtue of his syndicated boxing column, Hurley the manager comes close to landing title fights for lightweight Billy Marquart in 1939 and heavyweight Lem Franklin in 1942, only to fall short of these goals when both fighters lose elimination bouts to top-rated contenders in their respective divisions.

In the latter part of 1942, Hurley joins with Irving Schoenwald and Jack Begun to promote boxing at the Chicago Stadium, then the nation’s largest indoor arena. For seven years, they preside over the most exciting period in the history of Windy City boxing, culminating in the Rocky Graziano-Tony Zale world middleweight title fight which grossed $422,918, an indoor record that endured until 1961.

The trio’s run ends in 1949 when the arrival of free TV kills off demand for live boxing. Seeing the writing on the wall, Hurley leaves the promoting business to manage welterweight Vince Foster. The present volume ends just as Foster’s death in an auto accident convinces Jack the time has come to leave Chicago.