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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2017 - 2018
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | September 12, 2017 10:29 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Thomas J. Quigley |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Resolution Recognizing the 90th Anniversary of the “Long Count” |
| I will be introducing a resolution recognizing the 90th Anniversary of the “Long Count”. The Long Count Fight, or the Battle of the Long Count, was a professional boxing rematch between world heavyweight champion Gene Tunney and former champion Jack Dempsey. It took place on September 22, 1927, at Soldier Field in Chicago. The term "Long Count" is applied to the fight because when Tunney was knocked down in the seventh round, the count was delayed due to Dempsey's failure to go to and remain in a neutral corner. This heavyweight title fight was governed by a new rule that required the fighter scoring a knockdown to move to a neutral corner before the 10 count would be administered. Whether this "long count" actually affected the outcome remains a subject of debate. Some believe that if Dempsey had responded to the referee's orders in time, he would have likely regained the world Heavyweight crown with a seventh round knockout of Tunney. The validity of this argument has been debated even to this day. In the fight film, a clock was superimposed that recorded Tunney's time on the floor as 13 seconds, from the moment he fell until he got up. Because of this delay, it became known as The Long Count Fight. Please join me in co-sponsoring this resolution recognizing one of the first controversies in American sports history. |
Introduced as HR543