TOMMY “HURRICANE” JACKSON

 

TOMMY “HURRICANE” JACKSON

 

A hurricane is a tropical cyclone; a rotating system of clouds; one of nature’s most powerful storms with strong winds, storm surge, heavy rains, flooding, tornados and rip currents.

“Hurricane” Jackson fits none of the previous descriptions, yet he inflicted damage on opponents and ultimately himself.

He was a heavyweight boxer from Rockaway Beach New York, who gained fleeting fame during the 1950s.

 

He got the nickname, “Hurricane”, because he fought like a swarm of bees; a cloud of mosquitos; a visitation of wasps. He didn’t knock opponents out. He drove them mad.

He fought Floyd Patterson in a much-ballyhooed heavyweight title bout in the Polo Grounds in 1957, losing in the tenth round.

He took so many punches that he was barred from the ring at age twenty-four.

Like a hurricane, that does its damage and passes on, the same could be said of this “hurricane”: he did what damage he could in the ring and passed on.

He died at age fifty. He never learned to read or write. He just did what he did and was all but forgotten.

We remember the name of some storms, at least, the most damaging.

Very few remember the name of Tommy “Hurricane” Jackson.