Jess Willard

Fought Victor McLaglen circa 1911. Eventually, McLaglen abandoned the ring for acting. Interestingly, in 1909, McLaglen had boxed in an exhibition match against heavyweight champion Jack Johnson, the man Willard beat for the title in 1915.

The "Pottawatomie Giant" came up through the ranks quickly and in 1915, faced Jack Johnson for the title at the Oriental Park Racetrack in Havana, Cuba. Johnson was in exile from his home country, which had persecuted him under the Mann Act (which prohibited the transportation of prostitutes across stat lines) for his other unpardonable sin at the time, his love of white women. (All three of Johnson's wives were Caucasian.

In the months leading up to his legendary fight with Jack Johnson, Johnson ran his mouth about how he was going to destroy Willard, someone he considered to be a joke of a fighter. However, Willard got the last laugh when he literally knocked Johnson out cold in the 26th round (The longest ever prizefight under Queensberry rules). When later asked why he didn't respond with insults back at Johnson, he said "I let my fists do the talking.".

Following the passing of Harry Harris in 1959, he became the oldest living world champion. When he died that status passed to Abe Attell.

Boxer Jess Willard went down in history for three things: being the tallest world's heavyweight champion in history until Primo Carnera wrested that title from him; losing his championship belt to Jack Dempsey in a controversial title bout that saw him knocked down seven times in the first round, leading to rumors that Dempsey had "loaded" his gloves; and being The Great White Hope (1970)" that brought the the heavyweight crown back to the "white race" after being in the possession for seven years of grinning gold-toothed, black-skinned Jack Johnson, an African American who committed the sin of being proud to be a man of color in racist America.

Was elected to the Ring Boxing Hall of Fame in 1977.

Inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, 2003.

(See Ken Burns's documentary Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (2004) for the story of this remarkable man. )Standing nearly 6'7" tall, Jess was a professional horse wrangler from rural Pottawatomie County, Kansas who did not take up boxing until he was 28 years old.