The temperamental and charismatic world heavyweight champion Jack Sharkey died #OnThisDay in 1994 at the Beverly, Massachusetts hospital. He was 91 years old and had been the oldest former heavyweight champion. Joseph Paul Zukauskas was born in Binghamton, NY, in 1902, to Lithuanian immigrant parents. While getting a start as a 21-year-old boxer in the Irish-dominated boxing world of Boston, he was persuaded to change his name and did so in honour of two boxers he admired, Jack Dempsey and Tom Sharkey. Famously, he is the only boxer to have fought Dempsey ("You came out of a fight with Dempsey full of welts and bruises and every bone aching") and Joe Louis ("A methodical, punishing type of boxer who built up to a terrific explosion") – two of the sports immortal champions. Sharkey was world heavyweight champion between June 1932, when he won a controversial points verdict over Germany's Max Schmeling, and June 1933, when he lost on an equally controversial knockout against the huge Primo Carnera, of Italy. #boxing #BoxingNews #BoxingHistory #JackSharkey #TheBostonGob (at Beverly, Massachusetts) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bmlcbt5B3-F/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=2vdaz7elc3xj