This lot is closed. Bidding ended on 5/11/2001.
John L. Sullivan was America's first great sports idol. Sullivan's baleful image, standing foursquare with his bare-knuckled fists extended, was all over newspapers and product ads in the 1870s and ‘80s. He won the heavyweight crown on February 7, 1882 when he KOd Paddy Ryan, and his 75-round KO of Jake Kilrain on July 8, 1889 was the last bare-knuckled fight. "The Great Sullivan" was clearly made for the rougher style of fisticuffs. When he donned boxing gloves in his next fight, on September 7, 1892, he was KOd by James J. Corbett and lost the crown for good. A hard-drinking man who earned over $1 million but squandered it all, he later became a Prohibition advocate. This classic cabinet card shows Sullivan in his prime, with a debonair handlebar mustache and dressed to kill. On the back of the 4 ½" x 6 ½" card is an ad for a Reading, Pennsylvania cigar house which like many advertisers wanted to tap into Sullivan's enormous popularity. The card is in excellent condition and a great boxing curio.