Jackie Fields

Infobox_Boxer
name = Jackie Fields
nationality = United States
realname = Jacob Finkelstein


nickname =
weight = Welterweight
birth_date = February 9 1908
birth_place = Chicago, Illinois
death_date = June 3 1987
death_place = Los Angeles, California
style = Orthodox
total = 86
wins = 74
KO = 31
losses = 9
draws = 2
no contests = 0

Jackie Fields (February 9, 1908 – June 3, 1987), born Jacob Finkelstein, was an American boxer.

He was an Olympic flyweight gold medal winner, and the world welterweight champion.

In 1962, legendary fight manager Jack Kearns called Fields the “best all-around battler the United States has ever produced.”

Boxing career

Early life

Fields, who grew up in a Jewish neighborhood in Chicago, said, "Being in the ghetto, you had to fight." When his father contracted tuberculosis, the family moved to Los Angeles, where he was introduced to boxing.

Legend has it that Fields took his ring name from either a Chicago department store, or in honor of an obscure fighter named Marty Fields.

Olympic championship

He began in 1921, and by 1924, had competed in the pre-Olympic AAU Nationals. Despite a broken hand, he reached the semifinals and a place on the Olympic team as an alternate. On the boat ride to the 1924 Summer Olympics, Fields defeated two other Olympic candidates to make the team.

Results:
*Defeated Doyle (Ireland) points
*Defeated Hansen (Norway) points
*Defeated Abarca-Gonzalez (Chile) points
*Defeated Pedro Quartucci (Argentina) points
*Defeated Joe Salas (United States) points

Fields was only 16 years old in when he captured the Olympic featherweight championship, the youngest athlete ever to win an Olympic boxing crown. When he got home from the Olympics, however, his mother spanked him for stepping into the ring.

Amateur career

Fields finished his amateur career with a record of 51 victories in 54 fights.

Pro career

Fields turned professional in 1925 and quickly moved up the ranks, defeating Mushy Callahan, Sammy Baker, Vince Dundee, and Jack Zivic.

He then defeated Young Jack Thompson for the National Boxing Association welterweight championship in March of 1929 via a 10-round decision.

In July 1929, Fields faced defending champion Joe Dundee for the world welterweight title, and won the match after Dundee fouled him with a 2nd-round low blow.

Fields totally dominated the abbreviated fight. He floored Dundee once in the first round and four more times in the first part of round 2. After the fifth knockdown in that round, Pal Joey crawled across the ring on his hands and knees until he got right in front of Fields and sucker punched him in the groin. Fields nailed the issue succinctly: "That bum and his buddies had bet money on the fight." [http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/fields.htm] Dundee knew he was a goner and he also knew if the fight ended on a foul, all bets were off.

In May 1930, Fields lost the title to Jack Thompson in a 15-round fight.

Fields retired after the fight, but returned to the ring two years later fighting for the welterweight world title against Lou Brouillard, who had won it from Thompson. Fields regained it, winning in 10 rounds, in January 1932.

In 1932, he was involved in a car accident in which suffered a detached retina and lost sight in one eye, though he did not tell anyone about it at the time.

In February 1933, Fields lost the title in a 10-round decision to Young Corbett III in San Francisco. The referee, Jack Kennedy, admitted to Jackie's manager Jack Kearns after the fight in the dressing room: "I made a mistake," and told him he had raised the wrong hand. Kearns hit Kennedy, sending him sprawling to the floor and knocking him out. [http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/fields.htm]

Fields fought only one bout after his loss to Corbett because his eye injury had become too troublesome.

He retired with a professional record of 74 victories (30 knockouts), 3 draws, 9 losses, and 1 no-contest.

Life after boxing

Fields earned an estimated $500,000 during his career, which he had invested in real estate. However, due to the Depression, Fields like millions of others was financially wiped out. Fields landed a job as an assistant unit manager for 20th Century Fox, and in the latter half of the '30s as a film editor for MGM.

Until 1949, Fields sold jukeboxes for Wurlitzer. Later Fields became a business representative for J & B Scotch in the mid-West. In the late 1950s Fields bought a large share of stock in the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas. Although he sold his shares a few years later, he remained on as Public Relations Director for the hotel. He also served for many years as Vice Chairman of the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

Movie

His Olympic triumph was made in to a 1939 movie called "The Crowd Roars".

Coaching in the Maccabiah Games

Fields coached the U.S. boxing team at the 1965 Maccabiah Games.

Halls of Fame

He was elected to the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1977.

Fields, who was Jewish, was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1979. [http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/JackieFields.htm]

He was inducted as well into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2004. [http://www.ibhof.com/fields.htm]

External links

*
* [http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/JackieFields.htm Jewish Sports bio]
* [http://www.jewsinsports.org/Olympics.asp?sport=olympics&ID=5 Jews in Sports bio]
* [http://www.ibhof.com/fields.htm International Boxing Hall of Fame bio]
* [http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/fields.htm Cyber Boxing Zone bio]