For her skills in the ring and her volubility, Jackie Tonawanda was known as “The Female Ali.” She was a pioneering fighter in the heavyweight division, though she found it difficult to get a license as a professional. After she sued the New York State Athletic Commission in 1975 the court ruled in her favor, but by this time she was well past her prime and lost her only professional fight.
Her record as an amateur, though, was unblemished and she won all of her 36 bouts, and even knocked out a male opponent in a contest that remains cloaked in controversy as to whether it was a staged event.
Born Jean Jamison in Suffolk County, New York on Sept. 4, 1933, she was sometimes known as Jackie Garrett. At eight years of age she was orphaned and by the time she was 13 one of her habitats was Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn. As her boxing skills improved so did her size and she was soon a legitimate heavyweight at 175 pounds, and considerably larger than most of her future opponents.
Her size also made it difficult for her to find women able to match her weight, to say nothing of her skills. Most of her training and sparring matches were with men because, as she said, “the women don’t show me anything and they can’t take my power.”
One woman, Diane “Dynamite” Clark, apparently could take her punch and defeated Jackie in a split decision in 1979. Jackie said that fight never should have occurred since she was ailing and out of shape.
Her lawsuit against the N.Y. State Athletic Commission was denied because the commissioners believed that a female boxer’s reproductive organs and breasts would suffer too much trauma. Undaunted, Jackie forged ahead charging that women had every right to compete in the ring in just the same way that female wrestlers were permitted. While her case was being reviewed she competed in several martial arts tournaments at Madison Square Garden, where later, through the ingenuity of promoter Aaron Banks, she was inducted in the Garden’s Hall of Fame.
It was during a contest in one of the martial arts tournaments promoted by Banks that she defeated a male opponent in a mixed-rules event where kicking was allowed. The fight was a tough one and she suffered several serious blows before felling her opponent in the second round, breaking his jaw.
If her professional career was limited, she established an enviable record in other matches, many of which were unsanctioned, and eventually became the only female boxer member of Ring 8, the Veterans Boxing Association, which also inducted her into its Hall of Fame.
Jackie came into my life when she worked with my wife on her autobiography, that was never completed. Even so, she shared several folders of personal information and allowed me to accompany her to many events, including our inductions into the Garden Hall of Fame, she as a heavyweight boxer and me as a lightweight writer.
Besides the money she got from the fight with the male fighter in the martial arts tournament, Jackie was offered a cameo appearance in the film “The Marathon Man,” starring Dustin Hoffman. In 1976, Muhammad Ali invited her to his training camp where he was preparing for a bout against Ken Norton. Write-ups about her appearance at the camp were published in several papers and it only added to being dubbed the Female Ali. She told me how wonderful it was to spend time with Ali and to watch him train. But there was a downside—she was often so nervous that she had indigestion and could hardly eat.
Through the ’70s and ’80s, despite being recognized as a professional in New York, Jackie had a number of fights elsewhere, and there were several offers to fight heavyweight contenders after her defeat of the male fighter. In fact, there was a second bout with a male fighter and she knocked him out at the Nassau Coliseum in 1984. That would be her last contest before a car accident put an end to her career. Unable to put on the gloves, she nonetheless continued to be a fixture in the gyms, often advising young aspiring boxers at the Fort Apache Youth Center in the Bronx. She was also a trainer of several fighters, including heavyweight contender Israel Garcia in 1986, who bumped into her one day in the apartment building where she lived and he worked.
During one occasion at Madison Square Garden, Jackie was saluted along with Laila Ali and Jacqui Frazier-Hyde, Joe Frazier’s daughter, both of whom cited Jackie as an idol and on whose shoulders they stood.
Those massive shoulders gave way on June 9, 2009 where Jackie died of colon cancer at Harlem’s Mount Sinai Hospital. With no life insurance, pension, or savings, she was slated for Potter’s Field on Hart Island. But thanks to Aaron Banks and Ring 8, enough money was raised for a marked grave for her in the Bronx.