Boxing and dementia with heavyweight boxer Jerry Quarry

United States news report on top heavyweight boxer Jerry Quarry and his dementia.

Jerry Quarry fought in what has been called "The Golden Age Of Heavyweight Boxing", where the talent level of the sport and its level of international interest were at a peak.

Jerry Quarry (May 15, 1945 – January 3, 1999), nicknamed "Irish" or "The Bellflower Bomber", was an American heavyweight boxer. During the peak of his career from 1968 to 1971, Quarry was rated by Ring magazine as the most popular fighter in the sport. His most famous bouts were against world champions Floyd Patterson, Jimmy Ellis, Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali and Ken Norton.

Quarry had over 200 fights in his amateur career. He turned professional in 1965 and finished with a record of 53–9–4, with wins over some of the best heavyweights of his era. Quarry was undersized compared to many of his rivals, but very durable and had a great left hook. A recurring problem was that he would sustain cuts easily, which caused many of his fights to be brought to an end. He retired from boxing in 1975, but had comeback fights in 1977, 1983 and 1992.

Towards the end of his life the punishment sustained in his boxing career caused Quarry to become a shell of himself. He developed chronic traumatic encephalopathy and required assistance to perform everyday tasks. He was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1995, where he gave a slurred speech. He died in 1999, at the young age of 53.

Quarry was from an Irish American family of agricultural laborers in California. His younger brothers Mike and Bobby Quarry also boxed. Mike was a high-ranked contender in the light heavyweight division Jerry's older brother James was the only Quarry brother not to box. James became a carer for Jerry and set up the Jerry Quarry Foundation, a non-profit that assists disabled boxers.

When he returned in 1983, he was 38 years old. Though appearing to be in good health, Quarry was in fact already beginning to show the effects of his lengthy boxing career. A Sports Illustrated reporter was researching an article about health problems among retired boxers, especially among those who started as child boxers. The reporter met Quarry, and although he appeared to be in good health, Quarry's performance on several simple cognitive tests was shockingly poor. This was the harbinger of the mental decline that would eventually destroy the last part of his life, dementia pugilistica, the atrophy of the brain from repeated blows to the head, eventually leading to an Alzheimer's-like state. A 1983 CT scan of Quarry's brain done for the article and agreed to by him, showed classic evidence of brain atrophy, including the characteristic cavum septi pellucidi found in many boxers with long careers. Despite these developing facts, Quarry had two wins in 1983, but the fights accelerated his mental decline.

He retired again and was inactive as a boxer from 1984 to 1992, but Quarry continued to decline physically and mentally. His entire boxing fortune completely gone by 1990, Quarry filed for Social Security at age 45. Denied a boxing license in many states because of his condition, Quarry found a loophole in Colorado that allowed him to schedule an October 30, 1992 bout with Ron Cramner, a cruiserweight 16 years Quarry's junior. At age 47 years and 6 months old, Quarry provided nothing more than a 6-round punching bag for the younger fighter, losing all six rounds and the decision. Only Quarry's courage and great chin let him last the full 6 rounds. Quarry was never the same after that fight.

Soon Quarry could not feed or dress himself and had to be cared for by relatives, such as James, the only one of the four Quarry brothers not to box professionally. Jerry's brother, Mike, who had contended for the light-heavyweight championship, was himself beginning to show signs of dementia pugilistica and died in 2006. Another brother, Bobby, suffers from Parkinson's disease, believed to be the result of his own heavyweight boxing career. Jerry Quarry was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1995. A television news broadcast of the event showed him barely aware of the proceedings, the dementia he suffered now severe. Quarry was hospitalized with pneumonia on December 28, 1998, and then suffered cardiac arrest. He never regained consciousness and died on January 3, 1999 at the age of 53. His body was interred at Shafter Cemetery in Shafter, California in the United States of America. A foundation was established in his honor to battle boxing-related dementia, a condition that has afflicted many boxers and brought Quarry's life to an early end.

Anyone seriously considering being a boxer should see Jerry Quarry    • Anyone seriously considering being a ...  

There is a video on Jerry Quarry's younger brother, and boxer, Mike Quarry who also died of dementia see    • Anyone seriously considering being a ...  

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