John Dean

From The Great Outdoor Fight

"Bad" John, once thought to be an up and coming champion. For many years he resisted calls to enter the Great Outdoor Fight. Finally, in 1925 his friends prevailed upon him to take the qualifying matches. He died in a tragic mining accident just days before the Great Outdoor Fight was scheduled to begin. He managed to hold back a cave-in long enough for the rest of the miners to scramble out. Several of the twenty men who he had rescued entered the next year in his honor.

A giant of a man, he stood six foot six, broad shouldered and powerful. At 245 pounds, he was a powerful fighter. Rumors spoke of a man in New Orleans who was struck dead from a single blow from his huge right hand. A quiet man, people often wondered what could have provoked him that far; most agree that a woman was involved.

To this day, a marble memorial stands above that mine in remembrance of the one fell there. The simple epitaph reads "At the bottom of this mine lies one Hell of a man." Parts of his life have been commemorated in song.