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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 921
EAN num: 9780812967838
ISBN number: 0812967836
Label: Ballantine Books
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 496
Printing Date: October 30, 2007
Publishing house: Ballantine Books
Release Date: October 30, 2007
Sale Popularity Level: 275929
Studio: Ballantine Books
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Among the legendary athletes of the 1920s, the unquestioned halcyon days of sports, stands Gene Tunney, the boxer who upset Jack Dempsey in spectacular fashion, notched a 77—1 record as a prizefighter, and later avenged his sole setback (to a fearless and highly unorthodox fighter named Harry Greb). Yet within a few years of retiring from the ring, Tunney willingly receded into the background, renouncing the image of jock celebrity that became the stock in trade of so many of his contemporaries. To this day, Gene Tunney’s name is most often recognized only in conjunction with his epic “long count” second bout with Dempsey.
In Tunney, the veteran journalist and author Jack Cavanaugh gives an account of the incomparable sporting milieu of the Roaring Twenties, centered around Gene Tunney and Jack Dempsey, the gladiators whose two titanic clashes transfixed a nation. Cavanaugh traces Tunney’s life and career, taking us from the mean streets of Tunney’s native Greenwich Village to the Greenwich, Connecticut, home of his only love, the heiress Polly Lauder; from Parris Island to Yale University; from Tunney learning fisticuffs as a skinny kid at the knee of his longshoreman father to his reign atop boxing’s glamorous heavyweight division.
Gene Tunney defied easy categorization, as a fighter and as a person. He was a sex symbol, a master of defensive boxing strategy, and the possessor of a powerful, and occasionally showy, intellect–qualities that prompted the great sportswriters of the golden age of sports to portray Tunney as “aloof.” This intelligence would later serve him well in the corporate world, as CEO of several major companies and as a patron of the arts. And while the public craved reports of bad blood between Tunney and Dempsey, the pair were, in reality, respectful ring adversaries who in retirement grew to share a sincere lifelong friendship–with Dempsey even stumping for Tunney’s son, John, during the younger Tunney’s successful run for Congress.
Tunney offers a unique perspective on sports, celebrity, and popular culture in the 1920s. But more than an exciting and insightful real-life tale, replete with heads of state, irrepressible showmen, mobsters, Hollywood luminaries, and the cream of New York society, Tunney is an irresistible story of an American underdog who forever changed the way fans look at their heroes.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Rated by buyers 
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This biography of Gene Tunney is an excellent work that paints a portrait of an exceptionally interesting person, who happened to be a professional boxer for part of his life. Clearly, boxing was not his life, for his interests were many and varied and fascinating. The contrasts with Jack Dempsey, with whom Tunney's younger years were entwined, are drawn beautifully, even though both men were gentlemen at the core and appreciated each other into their later years. I read Dempsey's autobiography (an "as told to" book) when I was a boy and was fascinated by his story. I was no less drawn into Tunney's story and am very happy that I was able to read it and come to learn about this very remarkable man who sought to leave rather than to linger in the limelight.
Rated by buyers -
After his very first and only defeat in the ring,
heavyweight boxing champion Gene Tunney salved his
physical and mental anguish by pondering the pithy
perplexities of Shakespeare's retelling of the Iliad,
Troilus and Cressida. Lanky, literate, blessed with
athletic and mental agility, uncommon self-possession,
and artistic tastes, ranging from Victor Hugo to
Wagnerian opera, Gene Tunney is portrayed as a
pugilistic enigma in Jack Cavanaugh's fascinating
biography. A Marine Corps boxing champion in WWI who,
after turning pro, went undefeated as a heavyweight
(his only loss came as a light-heavyweight), Tunney
was knocked down only once in his career. He retired
at age 31, married heiress Polly Lauder, and for the
rest of his life pursued a variety of business
ventures and the arts. Tunney, like F. Scott
Fitzergerald's Gatsby, was a remarkable, self-created
individual. Tunney's heroic flaw, however, was that
he wasn't the champ the people wanted him to be -- but
what a fighter he was. What a man.
Jack Cavanaugh's wide-ranging biography chronicles not
only Tunney, but also the parallel rise of his
nemesis, heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey. Tunney
defeated Dempsey twice, the very first time to take the
title from Dempsey in the "fight of the century" in
1927. Their rematch a year later became an indelible
event in boxing and sport history when Tunney was
knocked down by Dempsey for the only time in his
career in the round that became known as the "long
count." Cavanaugh takes the reader on a fabulous
carnival ride through the world of boxing as well as
providing a wonderful panorama of American popular
culture during the 1920s.
Cavanaugh engages the reader early with Tunney's
upbringing in Greenwich Village in New York. Tunney's
Irish immigrant father, John, was a hardworking
stevedore who labored on the docks of the Hudson
River. John loved boxing and encouraged his oldest
son, James, called by family members "Gene," to box,
buying him gloves when he was ten years old. A tall,
rangy kid, Gene Tunney learned how to fight not only
for self-protection but also to defend his two younger
brothers. It's not clear that Tunney ever loved
fighting -- he was simply very good at it, as he was
at almost everything he was to do in life from boxing
to literature to business. He was highly disciplined,
adept at learning and adapting from previous mistakes,
and had unusually high self-confidence in his mental
and physical abilities.
Cavanaugh also plumbs fascinating biographical
information about heavyweight champion and
contemporary rival, Jack Dempsey. Dempsey's
relentless, snarling, back-'em-up with hooks and
uppercuts from out of his trademark coal miner crouch
served as a marked contrast to Tunney's master-boxer
style. Dempsey's story -- going from town to town,
fighting grown men in bars while still a teenager --
is boxing true grit. A charismatic fighter before,
during, and after becoming champion, Dempsey had his
share of image problems, stemming from a highly
publicized divorce as well as the incorrect, yet
public, perception that he avoided fighting in WWI.
Dempsey was immortalized as an American icon in the
famous George Bellows painting depicting him being
knocked out of the ring (in one of eleven total
knockdowns in less than four minutes) in his fight
with the Argentinean "Bull of the Pampas," Luis Firpo.
Firpo, who incredibly became a successful businessman
and one of the wealthiest people in South America,
commented, "so many writers pushed him [Dempsey] back
in the ring it looked like he was getting a back
massage!"
Cavanaugh also describes an eerie foreshadowing when
Dempsey and Tunney accidentally met on a ferry in New
York. Tunney, recognizing Dempsey, strode over and
introduced himself. Dempsey, as affable and friendly
outside the ring as he was a raging pit bull inside,
even advised Tunney how he could wrap his right hand
to protect a knuckle that Tunney had previously
injured. The right hand, of course, was one of
Tunney's most damaging weapons in his future
domination of Dempsey in their subsequent twenty
championship rounds against each other.
A fascinating digression in Tunney's tale is
Cavanaugh's discusion of the great lightweight
champion Benny Leonard, about whom writer Budd
Schulberg said, "I think that Leonard was to many
young Jews what Ali became to young blacks many years
later." Cavanaugh tells the "you can't make this
Read More
Rated by buyers 
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I really enjoyed this book.
The only reason I didnt give it 5 stars was because it lacked info on the private and older Tunney.
Rated by buyers -
Tunney was one of boxing's most underrated and unappreciated champions. Jack Cavanaugh did an excellent job writing about this renaissance man's remarkable life and of boxing scene in the very first three decades of the 20th century. Of particular interest was the information of how grey boxers were treated in that era. Tunney's life and times were thoroughly researched by Cavanaugh. (I assumed that Dempsey was always a very popular champion...not so, he attained hero status after his fights with Tunney.) The book could've been more succinctly edited - some of the subject matter was often repeated, but it was an easy and informative read.
Rated by buyers -
If you're a boxing fan, you MUST read TUNNEY: BOXING'S
BRAINIEST CHAMP AND HIS UPSET OF THE GREAT JACK
DEMPSY by Jack Cavanaugh . . . fans of other sports and
history buffs will enjoy it, too.
It is the tale of Gene Tunney, the poetry-quoting fighter, who
always was overshadowed by Dempsey--even though he
beat him twice . . . but what made the book so enjoyable
was that it featured tales of many other fighters of
the era, including the amazing Harry Greb who fought
for several years with just one eye . . . in addition, it
gave me a greater appreciation of the role played by
sports (and boxing in particular) in the 1920s and 30s.
I also got a kick out of finding the story behind such
famous quotes as the following:
* Even Flynn seemed surprised at the knockout. "Well, it was this
way," he explained some years after his most notable victory. "I hit
him with a one-two. But just put it down that I didn't exactly knock
Dempsey out. He just forgot to duck."
* As he had feared, Dempsey was called on to say a few words. Though
he had already appeared in movies and on the vaudeville stage, Dempsey
was not comfortable speaking in public. But he handled himself well and
seemed to win over his audience. "I feel like the Irishman who was asked
to do something special for the guests at a very fancy affair," Dempsey
said to the assembled guests. "The Irishman said, 'I can't sing, I can't
dance, and I can't tell a story. But I will tell you what I will do. I'll fight
anybody in the house.' "
* Several days after the fight, Dempsey apologized to Firpo for hitting
him as soon as he got up, claiming he was so dazed he didn't know
what he was doing. To which Firpo, likable and with a wry sense of
humor--and whose varied business interests would make him one
of the richest men in South America-replied, "There were three of
us in the ring, Jack, so if you didn't know what you were doing,
why didn't you hit the referee?"
I was most impressed by the author's thorough job of
research . . . only the ending of the book left me a bit disappointed,
in that it didn't contain very much information about Tunney's life
after he left the ring . . . that was probably because he was
such a private individual; however, he was one great fighter that
might now finally get some credit that failed to come his way
when he was active in the ring.
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