Boxer.
Born at Winnipeg on 13 September 1910, he attended John M. King School then became a professional prizefighter on the advice of Jack Dempsey. In the early 1930s he was regarded as one of the best middleweight fighters in the world, although he never won a world championship, losing in title fights to Ben Jeby at Madison Square Garden in 1933 and to Freddy Steele in 1936. He retired from the ring and moved to California. He returned to Winnipeg in the 1950s to manage a restaurant at the corner of Pembina and Stafford but later went back to California, where he died at Los Angeles on 17 December 1971.
“John M. King ‘a must’ in booming city of ‘05” by Claire Tisdale, Winnipeg Free Press, 5 February 1949.
California Death Index, merged 1940-1997.
Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.
We thank Grace Jacobs for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 24 April 2022
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