No, no...not the BEER Baron. He's down in Great Falls. I'm blogging about James F. Dougherty, also known as the "Baron of Leiperville, & he was a larger than life sportsman whole hotel, bar & fight arena back in Leiperville, Pennsylvania, was a mecca for boxing from 1916 to 1947. Dougherty was the 3rd man in the ring for 3 of Jack Dempsey's bouts & he gave Dempsey a job at his hotel & let him train there in late 1918 for his fight with Battling Levinsky, which he refereed. The book is, "The Baron Of Leiperville: The Life and Times of James F. Dougherty," authored by sport historian Richard Pagano. Our Golden Triangle readers will dig the 1st chapter when they read  "The fight won't stay dead!" Back of April 1923 Jack "Doc" Kerns, Jack Dempsey's manager, was notified that a group of wealthy bankers, oilmen & cattlemen from Montana wished to stage a heavyweight championship fight between Dempsey & Tommy Gibbons here in Shelby. Dougherty is quoted in the book as saying, "Dempsey forgets that I went a long ways for him that day I refereed his fight with Tom Gibbons at Shelby. The crowd was hostile that day & it took a man with some nerve to lift his hand after the 15 rounds were over. He won the fight on his merits, but I could have called it a draw or given it to Gibbons & walked out of the place unharmed." Check out Richard Pagano's FANTASTIC read, "The Barobn Of Leiperville: The Life and Times of James F. Dougherty" published by CHOICE Marketing (www.choicemarketing.net) & read "The Story-Behind-The-Story" on "The fight that won't stay dead."

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