Jess Willard

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. (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. 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 brutal heat and humidity of Havana, Willard knocked out Johnson in the 26th round and became heavyweight champion of the world, a title he lost four years later to Dempsey. He will remain a footnote in American history for being "The Great White Hope" for as long as racism mars American society.