Thomas Heeney (18 May 1898 – 15 June 1984) was a professional

heavyweight Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling. Boxing Professional Boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 3 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation, the Wo ...

boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: * Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing *Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom * Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe ee ...

from

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, best known for unsuccessfully challenging champion

Gene Tunney James Joseph Tunney (May 25, 1897 – November 7, 1978) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1915 to 1928. He held the world heavyweight title from 1926 to 1928, and the American light heavyweight title twice between 1922 and 1923 ...

for the heavyweight championship of the world in New York City on 26 July 1928.

Biography

Heeney was born in

Gisborne, New Zealand Gisborne ( mi, Tūranga-nui-a-Kiwa "Great standing place of Kiwa") is a city in northeastern New Zealand and the largest settlement in the Gisborne District (or Gisborne Region). It has a population of The district council has its headquarter ...

, and worked as a plumber until he left New Zealand. He was a strong swimmer and was awarded a bronze medal by the Royal Humane Society of New Zealand in 1918 for helping rescue two women from the sea off Waikanae Beach, Gisborne. He also retrieved a third woman who did not survive.Mackay, Joseph Angus.
Tom Heeney's Bid For World Crown
in ''Historic Poverty Bay and the East Coast, N.I., N.Z.'', 1949. He learnt to box from his father and his older brother Jack Heeney, who was the New Zealand amateur

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like Muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify the ...

champion in 1914 and

middleweight Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above and up to . Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have be ...

champion from 1919 to 1924. He became a professional boxer when he fought Bill Bartlett in Gisborne in 1920.Expatriates — biographies
, ''An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand'', edited by A. H. McLintock, originally published in 1966. ''Te Ara — The Encyclopedia of New Zealand'', updated 18 September 2007 In October 1920, Heeney became the New Zealand heavyweight champion when he beat Brian McCleary of

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

on a technical knockout. Heeney was also a

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player and played for the Hawke's Bay — Poverty Bay team against the

Springboks The South Africa national rugby union team, commonly known as the Springboks (colloquially the Boks, Bokke or Amabokoboko), is the country's national team governed by the South African Rugby Union. The Springboks play in green and gold jersey ...

in 1921. He boxed in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and won the Australian heavyweight champion title in 1922, and fought in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

in 1924. Heeney went to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in 1926. He beat Jim Maloney, Johnny Risko and Jim Delaney and eventually ranked fourth among the world's heavyweight boxers. After fighting

Jack Sharkey Jack Sharkey (born Joseph Paul Zukauskas, lt, Juozas Povilas Žukauskas, October 26, 1902 – August 17, 1994) was a Lithuanian-American world heavyweight boxing champion. Boxing career He took his ring name from his two idols, heavyweight ...

, later a heavyweight world champion, in 1928 for the right to fight Tunney, on 26 July 1928, Heeney fought Gene Tunney at

Yankee Stadium Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx, New York City. It is the home field of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, and New York City FC of Major League Soccer. Opened in April 2009, the stadium replaced the origi ...

, New York City, for the world heavyweight championship title. Heeney entered the boxing ring wearing a

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

cloak that was given to him by Heni Materoa, the widow of Sir James Carroll. The referee, Ed Forbes, stopped the scheduled 15 round fight in the 11th round, and Tunney won. It was said of Heeney: :

''His gritty performance in this fight would have been considered by many observers to have justified his sobriquet of The Hard Rock from Down Under given by renowned writer and journalist, Damon Runyon.''

A week after his defeat, Tom married Marion Dunn, an American. Heeney became an American citizen and boxed until 1934, accomplishing a fighting record of 70 professional bouts, 38 wins, 22 losses, 8 draws, and 2 no-contest. After retiring from boxing, he owned a bar in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. He served with the United States Navy Civil Engineer Corps in World War II, and afterward coached boxing and refereed armed forces bouts in the South Pacific. He often fished with his friend, the famous writer

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...

. Heeney's wife, Marion, died in 1980. They had no children. Heeney was inducted into the

New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame The New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame is an organisation commemorating New Zealand's greatest sporting triumphs. It was inaugurated as part of the New Zealand sesquicentenary celebrations in 1990. Some 160 members have been inducted into the Hall o ...

in 1996.

Professional boxing record

All information in this section is derived from

BoxRec BoxRec or boxrec.com is a website dedicated to holding updated records of professional and amateur boxers, both male and female. It also maintains a MediaWiki-based encyclopaedia of boxing. The objective of the site is to document every profess ...

, unless otherwise stated.

Official record

All

newspaper decision A newspaper decision was a type of decision in professional boxing. It was rendered by a consensus of sportswriters attending a bout after it had ended inconclusively with a "no decision", as many regions had not adopted the National Sporting Club o ...

s are officially regarded as “no decision” bouts and are not counted in the win/loss/draw column.

Unofficial record

Record with the inclusion of

s in the win/loss/draw column.

References

5. Vogt, Anton: 'Tom Heeney in heaven,' ''New Zealand Listener'', 14 October 1960

External links