Jerry Quarry was unquestionably the most popular heavyweight boxer in history to never win a world title. Jerry Quarry, heavyweight contender of late 1960's and early 1970's who faced sport's greatest names of his era and then spent his final years debilitated by … Quarry is one of eight children of Jack and Arwanda Quarry. After Jimmy failed, Jack zeroed in on Jerry. Jerry Quarry was known as "The Great White Hope," a clever marketing scheme in an era of great black heavyweights and lingering racism, but Quarry didn't care for it. Although Buster put on a dazzling performance in his dramatic win over Mike Tyson, that wasn’t the usual Buster Douglas that showed up for fights. Actor Mickey Rourke, old foes Joey Orbillo and Mac Foster, and friends and family attended the funeral. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was an icon, the Great White Hope who battled such legendary champions as Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton and … Jerry Quarry, bred for the ring but an erratic performer, prepares for his most important bout, with Joe Frazier, far more confident than before and with a significant advantage in fighting style ... essentially, Quarry is not really Irish. Jerry Quarry died January 3, 1999, at the age of fifty-three. Quarry had the "bad" luck that his professional boxing career occurred during the 1960s and 1970s, when the division was "packed" with some of the greatest heavyweights in history. Michael Julian Bond, Atlanta Councilman and son of Julian Bond ; Kathleen Quarry, Wife of Jerry Quarry ; Jerry Quarry, Jr., Son of Jerry Quarry ; Lynn Friedman, Head Usher at the Ali-Quarry Fight ; Stan Sanders, Friend of Howard Bingham ; Pee Wee Kirkland, Former Harlem Gangster ; Margaret B. Ware, Personal Assistant to Sammy Davis, Jr. He was born in Bakersfield, California, into a family of boxers. The soul and the heart are pure Okie. RIP Jerry Quarry By … His father and older brothers had been associated with the sport. Jerry Quarry was one of my favorite and surely a favorite son of California fight fans and many that really never followed boxing but did watch some of his biggest TV bouts. Or, maybe it was the “White Hope” thing that got more people to watch those fights. Jimmy, a year older than Jerry, turned out to be the lucky Quarry. JERRY QUARRY lived for the moment, in the boxing ring and out. Jerry Quarry was an American boxer, also known by the nicknames “Irish” and “The Bellflower Bomber.” In the peak of his career, in the late 1960s, he was known as one of the most popular boxers in the world. His mind still intact, he is a bank loan officer in Palm Springs. 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