100 years ago in Spokane: The Chronicle blasted a ‘fiasco’ of a boxing match with heavyweight Jack Dempsey

Heavyweight champ Jack Dempsey beat plucky challenger Tom Gibbons in Shelby, Mont., in what the Spokane Daily Chronicle described as the “biggest fiasco in the history of boxing.”

The fiasco was not inside the ring. Gibbons proved to be surprisingly elusive and lasted all 15 rounds, although he lost by decision.

The fiasco was in the crowd, or lack of it. The Chronicle estimated that fewer than 7,000 spectators showed up in the pine-board arena built to seat 40,000.

One problem: Thousands of motorists parked on a nearby hill and watched free through binoculars. The box office receipts were so sparse that, at one point, the announcer told the crowd the preliminary bouts were canceled. The trustee for the promoters was nowhere to be found, and no money was available to pay the referee.

Finally, after an hour’s delay, the preliminaries began. Ticket prices were reduced 50 percent to $10 each, and fans began “thrusting $10 bills” through the fence at the ticket sellers. The promoters in Shelby and Great Falls lost an estimated $80,000.

By Shelby standards, however, the throng seemed enormous. The soda pop stands outside the arena were doing brisk business. Tourists were buying cowboy-style bandanas to block the scorching sun.

From the Fourth beat: Meanwhile, in Spokane, the Independence Day celebrations were off to a roaring start. Firecrackers started a number of fires, mostly roof fires caused by rockets.

The city jail was already jammed with drunks. The city broke “all arrest records for three years,” with 96 people in custody by mid-afternoon. The booking officers at the jail had to line up the miscreants “like ticket purchasers at a prizefight.” Many more would follow.

The police judge , with wry understatement, said “there seems to be no diminishing of customers.”