SPORTS JOURNALIST, JACK CAVANAUGH

NOVEMBER 30

ABOUT GENE TUNNEY, FORMER HEAVYWEIGHT BOXING CHAMPION

Jack Cavanaugh, a veteran sports journalist and author, will speak at the weekly meeting of the Y's Men of Westport/Weston on Thursday, November 30th. He will talk about Gene Tunney, the Shakespeare-reading boxer and scholar who overcame media disdain and upset the great Jack Dempsey to win the world heavyweight title. The meeting begins at 10AM at the Saugatuck Congregational Church, 245 Post Road East.

Cavanaugh will discuss his new book, published this month by Random House, titled TUNNEY: Boxing's Brainiest Champ and His Upset of the Great Jack Dempsey. The book is a unique perspective of sports, celebrity and popular culture in the 1920s.  Full of politicians, mobsters, movie stars, athletes and the elite of New York Society, TUNNEY tells the remarkable story of one of boxing's greatest underdogs, Gene Tunney, and his unlikely ascension to the world heavyweight boxing title during one of America's most glamorous eras. In addition to being a skilled boxer, Tunney was handsome, articulate and well-read to the point of alienating sportswriters and fans who perceived him as a phony literary highbrow. To this day, Tunney remains an unappreciated champion despite his outstanding career as a boxer (he lost only one of seventy-seven fights and avenged that loss four times) and, later, as a business executive and supporter of the arts.

Jack Cavanaugh is a native of Stamford and was a signalman in the Navy. He attended Syracuse University, where he played baseball and basketball and graduated with a bachelor's degree in liberal arts. After graduation, he worked at the New Haven Register, Providence Journal, United Press International, Reuters news agency and The New York Times. He was a reporter at ABC News and CBS News and has written for Sports Illustrated, the Reader's Digest, Golf and Tennis magazines and a few in-flight airline magazines. His last book was Damn the Disabilities: Full Speed Ahead! He has taught at Quinnipiac University, at the Stamford branch of the University of Connecticut and at Norwalk Community College. Currently, he is an adjunct writing professor at Fairfield University.  He and his wife, Marge, who live in Wilton, have a son and a daughter and two grandchildren. 

For more information about the Y's Men, contact Bill Meyer, Membership Chairman at 226-3704 or Jon Fox, President at 227-2679 or visit their website: www.ysmenwestportweston.org