The Dempsey-Gibbons Fight For Glory
and a Little Montana Town’s Impossible Dream
CENTENNIAL EDITION 1923-2023
After the world war and the global pandemic, America’s Jazz Age explodes in 1923, launching always-smiling boxing maestro Tommy Gibbons on a byzantine road to glory that leads to Shelby, Montana — a tiny prairie outpost desperate to put itself on the map by throwing a million-dollar prizefight.
Tommy’s mission is urgent and personal: to defeat savage Heavyweight Champion of the World Jack Dempsey in Montana and, with the spoils of war, heal his beloved wife from the savage mental illness that threatens their family.
Along the way, Tommy must navigate a kaleidoscopic parade of long cons, old grudges, unexpected nightmares, and vivid characters (from sportswriters to gamblers, trigger-happy cowboys to heartbroken Indians, to vaudevillians, millionaires, and movie stars) — all in hopes of winning a breathtaking showdown with the man-killing Dempsey. Here, told in full for the first time, Tommy Gibbons’ century-old fight for glory in Shelby, the little Montana town that was nearly knocked out by its impossible dream.
The Dempsey-Gibbons Fight For Glory and a Little Montana Town’s
Impossible Dream
CENTENNIAL EDITION
1923-2023
After the world war and the global pandemic, America’s Jazz Age explodes in 1923, launching always-smiling boxing maestro Tommy Gibbons on a byzantine road to glory that leads to Shelby, Montana — a tiny prairie outpost desperate to put itself on the map by throwing a million-dollar prizefight.
Tommy’s mission is urgent and personal: to defeat savage Heavyweight Champion of the World Jack Dempsey in Montana and, with the spoils of war, heal his beloved wife from the savage mental illness that threatens their family.
Along the way, Tommy must navigate a kaleidoscopic parade of long cons, old grudges, impossible dreams, and vivid characters (from sportswriters to gamblers, trigger-happy cowboys to heartbroken Indians, to vaudevillians, millionaires, and movie stars) — all in hopes of winning a breathtaking showdown with the man-killing Dempsey. Here, told in full for the first time, Tommy Gibbons’ century-old fight for glory in Shelby, the little Montana town that was nearly knocked out by it’s impossible dream.