Dempsey goes down and Worthington will go to court (but not over the bout).
So many important things were going on in the September 23, 1927 issue that the editors didn't know what to lead with, so they went with two unrelated stories.
First there's W.J. Worthington, the former exalted cyclops of a local Klan chapter who was facing charges after a "flogging probe." Sounds painful on its own.
Worthington, arrested after raids on Chinese restaurants downtown, would later be discussed in Angelo Herndon's book. Herndon doesn't appear in the paper.
Jack Dempsey did, and the decision against him in the Gene Tunney fight certainly did. Tunney went down in the seventh, got what Dempsey's corner thought was a long count and ultimately won. Controversial as it was, the fight is historic for earning the largest gate ever, at $2.65 million. The number, so outlandish at the time, was typed out, rather than using million as a word.
Some say the 10-count was actually 17 seconds, according to this account. If you look at the picture (a reverse angle from the muddied photos in the paper) Dempsey is almost begging for a count. Tunney is counting stars.
Elsewhere Birmingham had a budget of $7.1 million dollars. Eighty years later, the budget is about $315 million. Most of the rest of this front page is marred in the transfer, but there's no mistaking two of the key events of the day that have meant an awful lot to the Magic City over the last eight decades. First there was a conference going on in Miami that would discuss an "all weather" north and south highway from Chicago to Mobile.
And there was a little story about an upcoming Birmingham Southern and Howard College (now Samford) football game where some 25,000 spectators were anticipated. Legion Field was about to open.