Johnson-Jeffries Prize Fight Postcard

On July 4, 1910, in Reno, Nevada, the "Fight of the Century" boxing match took place between Jack Johnson, first-ever black world heavyweight champion, and the “Great White Hope” Jim Jeffries, who came out of retirement to reclaim the heavyweight title for white America. Boxing promoter George Lewis “Tex” Rickard intended to hold the event in San Francisco; a last-minute cancellation by California Governor James N. Gillette forced a change of venue to Reno, Nevada.

The competitors arrived in Reno in advance to train. Jim Jeffries trained at Moana Springs and Jack Johnson at Rick’s Resort. On June 23, workers began to construct a wooden amphitheater on East 4th Street, the site of the 1905 Hart-Root fight. On the eastern edge of city limits, the location was situated near both the Southern Pacific railroad tracks and the streetcar line joining Reno and Sparks. Supervised by San Francisco architect W. L. McLaughlin, a crew of up to 300 men at a time toiled for ten hours a day, supplied with whiskey breaks by contractor Charles Friedhoff.

It was the most publicized sporting event in American history to that date. Attendance was estimated at more than 20,000, with live telegraph coverage keeping the world riveted and nine cameramen documenting the event from different angles. The fight quickly escalated from a few tentative thrusts into a defeat of Jeffries by Johnson. Rickard, recognizing that Jeffries was about to collapse, called the match at the fifteenth round, crowning Johnson the heavyweight champion of the world.

[Historical note adapted from "Johnson-Jeffries Fight (site)" entry on the Reno Historical website, accessed March 18, 2022.]