Mike, just Mike. That is the name by which Jacobs, the new "Czar of New York boxing," who promoted the Louis—Farr fight, is known to all those connected with the boxing business, declares the well-known, writer Norman Hurst.
The first week in October Mike takes over Madison Square Garden. Already he controls the Hippodrome. Yankee Stadium polo grounds, and has hooked up with Chicago and Philadelphia.
In the fight game, strong characters and men with personalities forge to the front or the power and strength ig felt to be somewhere in the background.
That is Mike Jacobs. He has for the past thirty years been a power behind the scenes in American boxing. From a ragged kid selling newspapers, then aspiring to higher honours he started peddling hat cords aboard to prevent straw hats being blown into the river from the ferry boats.
Mike has climbed. His first start in real money was when he saw the big opportunities there were in tickets speculating or, in the colourful language of the country, "ticket scalping."
His tales of waiting up all night-in order to be first at the booking office door so that he could secure a big block of tickets in choice parts are good to hear.
There were times when the speculaters got trapped, but as he smilingly admitted to having made 1% million dollars in 1928 with his ticket gambles, he has been making enough to keep the wolf from the door.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.