Gene Tunney

James Joseph Tunney was born in Greenwich Village, New York City, to Irish immigrant parents from County Mayo. Serving in the United States Marine Corps during World War I in France, Tunney won the American Expeditionary Forces light-heavyweight championship in Paris in 1919, earning his nickname 'The Fighting Marine.' An avid reader of Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw, Tunney approached boxing as an exact cerebral science of angles, footwork, and left jabbing.

In the light-heavyweight division, Tunney engaged in a classic five-fight series with the savage Harry Greb; after suffering a brutal points defeat in 1922 (the only loss of his career), Tunney defeated Greb in all four of their rematches. Moving up to heavyweight, Tunney systematically studied motion-picture film of Jack Dempsey's fighting style for three years.

On 23 September 1926 in Philadelphia before a record crowd of 120,557 spectators, Tunney outboxed Dempsey over ten rounds to capture the world heavyweight title. In their September 1927 rematch at Soldier Field in Chicago before 104,000 fans, Tunney survived the famous 'Long Count' in the seventh round after Dempsey failed to immediately retreat to a neutral corner, getting up at the referee's count of nine to decisively win the decision. After stopping Tom Heeney at Yankee Stadium in 1928, Tunney retired as champion with a record of 82 wins, 1 loss, and 1 draw.