Jess McMahon

Roderick James McMahon Sr. (May 26, 1882 – November 22, 1954) was an American professional wrestling and professional boxing promoter, and the patriarch of the McMahon family. It is not certain if either he or his son Vincent J. McMahon was the founder of the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF, known today as WWE). While some sources stated it was his son[2][3][4] other sources however mentioned him as the founder of the company.[5][6][7] WWE is run today by grandson Vince, since he took over in 1982.

Jess McMahon
Born
Roderick James McMahon

(1882-05-26)May 26, 1882[1]
Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
DiedNovember 21, 1954(1954-11-21) (aged 72)
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, U.S.
OccupationProfessional boxing and wrestling promoter
Spouse(s)
Rose Davis (1891–1997)
(
m. 1912)
Children3, including Vincent J. McMahon
FamilyMcMahon

Early life

Roderick James McMahon (pronounced "mick-MAN") was born May 26, 1882 in Manhattan, New York City, to hotel owner Roderick McMahon (1848–1922) and Elizabeth McMahon (1846–1936), from County Galway.[8] His parents had recently moved from Ireland to New York City.[1] He and his siblings Lauretta (born 1876), Catharine (born 1878) and Edward (born 1880) attended Manhattan College. McMahon graduated with a commercial diploma at the age of 17. The McMahon brothers showed a higher interest in sports than in a banking career.[1]

Career

By 1909, the McMahon brothers were managing partners of the Olympic Athletic Club and bookers at the Empire and St. Nichols Athletic Clubs, located in Harlem. Because of a loss of public interest in boxing, the two McMahons expanded their affairs in 1911, founding the New York Lincoln Giants, a black baseball team, which played at Olympic Field in Harlem. With a team that included five of the best black players in the nation (who the McMahons recruited away from teams in Chicago and Philadelphia), the Lincoln Giants dominated black and white opponents for three seasons. In 1914, financial difficulties forced them to sell the team; however, they retained the contracts of many of the players, and for three more years they operated another team, the Lincoln Stars, using Lenox Oval on 145th Street as a home field.[9] Touring with the squad, McMahon and his brother ventured to Havana, Cuba, in 1915, where they co-promoted the 45-round fight between Jess Willard and then-champion Jack Johnson.[1]

In the 1930s, the McMahons operated the Commonwealth Casino, on East 135th Street in Harlem. Boxing was the primary attraction. The McMahons booked black fighters to cater to Harlem's growing black population; fights between blacks and whites drew the largest, racially mixed crowds. In 1922, they established a black professional basketball team, the Commonwealth Big 5, to try to attract patrons to the casino. For two years, the team defeated black and white opponents, including Harlem's other black professional team, the Rens. Sportswriters considered the Big 5 the best black team in the nation, although they could not defeat the dominant white team of the time, the Original Celtics. Despite their success, the Big 5 did not attract large crowds, and the McMahons shut the team down after the 1923/1924 season, leaving the Rens to become the dominant black team of the 1920s and 1930s.[10]

After 1915, Jess anchored in Long Island, where he became the first McMahon to promote professional wrestling, at the Freeport Municipal Stadium.[11] The wrestling wars led McMahon to ally himself with another independent faction, captained by Carlos Louis Henriquez. Together they booked the Coney Island and Brooklyn Sport Stadiums, with Carlos being the main fan favorite.[12] The formation of "the Trust" calmed New York territory enough to allow McMahon access to a larger pool of wrestlers. Among those wrestlers were Jim Browning, Hans Kampfer, Mike Romano and Everette Marshall.[1] By 1937, wrestling's popularity was waning. However, while most bookers left the city for fresher ground, Jess dug in for the long haul. His contacts allowed him to freely trade wrestlers with promoters in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Connecticut.[1]

A perpetual force in the Northeastern Sportsworld, McMahon may be more remembered for his spell as matchmaker at the Garden than for his 20 years as a wrestling promoter. On November 22, 1954, as a result of a cerebral hemorrhage, Jess died at a hospital in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.[1] Upon his death, his second son, Vincent, took over the business, eventually creating the World Wide Wrestling Federation promotion, known today as WWE.

Personal life

McMahon married a young New York City woman named Rose E. Davis (1891–1997) in 1912 who was of Irish descent, and together they had three children: sons Roderick Jr. and Vincent, and daughter Dorothy.[1] His grandson, Vince McMahon, is currently the Chairman and CEO of WWE. Jess's great-grandchildren Stephanie McMahon and Shane McMahon also work for the company.

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gollark: Does anyone know where I can get help on weird SQLite issues? A query in my application was really slow when running but fine when I ran it in `sqlite3`, and I tracked it down to the query planner generating different code for a prepared statement using parameter binding versus one which just contains the value directly.
gollark: Never mind, I checked nimble instead of just the stdlib, there is a thing for this.

See also
  • List of professional wrestling promoters

References
  1. Hornbaker, Tim (2007). National Wrestling Alliance: The Untold Story of the Monopoly That Strangled Professional Wrestling. ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-55022-741-3.
  2. Hornbaker, Tim (2015). "Capitol Revolution: The Rise of the McMahon Wrestling Empire". p. 117. He Inaugurated his promotion on January 7, 1953, [...].
  3. Solomon, Brian (2006). "WWE Legends". p. 6. McMahon formed a company he called the Capitol Wrestling Corporation, and presented his first regular wrestling show under the Capitol banner on January 7, 1953
  4. Sullivan, Greenberg & Pantaleo (2016). "WWE Encyclopedia of Sports Entertainment". p. 372. On January 7, 1953, he put on the first-ever Capitol Wrestling Corporation event
  5. "Vincent J. McMahon official bio on wwe.com". From the time Vince, Sr. took over Capitol Wrestling Corporation from his father, the company continued to flourish in the northeastern United States.
  6. Krugman, Michael (2009). Andre the Giant: A Legendary Life. Simon & Schuster. p. 11. ISBN 1439188130.
  7. Cohen, Daniel (1999). Wrestling Renegades: An in Depth Look at Today's Superstars of Pro Wrestling. Pocket Books. p. 16. ISBN 0671036742.
  8. "The fighting Irish and the WWE". Irish Examiner. September 20, 2013.
  9. Stephen Robertson, "Harlem and Baseball in the 1920s", Digital Harlem Blog, July 27, 2011, accessed August 23, 2011
  10. Stephen Robertson, "Basketball in 1920s Harlem", Digital Harlem Blog, June 3, 2011, accessed August 23, 2011
  11. "POINTER CAPTURES BEST IN SHOW PRIZE; Nancolleth Markable Gains Additional Honors at the Brookline Exhibition". The New York Times. June 5, 1932. pp. S8. Retrieved August 31, 2012.
  12. "Gracia in Shape to Defend Middleweight Honors Tomorrow". The New York Times. May 22, 1940. Retrieved August 31, 2012.
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