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ball, you walk a batter, you don’t worry about him. You’re looking for the next batter. One of them hits a home run, you forget that home run. You can’t do anything about it. You have to move to the next batter. You lose a fight, you can’t worry about it. Forget it. You lost it. You’ve got to win the next one.” After retirement, he worked in the sporting goods business until taking a job as a resource officer — essentially, a police investigator — assigned to the county school system. He held that job for 16 years. The next phase of his life would see him climb into a very different arena — the political kind. In 1993, he ran for sheriff of Mobile County and won.He held the position until 2006, retiring after three terms. Again, his time in the ring served him well.

any sport, and certainly not in one as brutal as boxing. There’s no “pretty good shape” in boxing: You’re either all in, or you’re knocked out. From that first professional bout in the Crescent City, Jack took his job seriously. His mornings each day started at four, and he’d pound pave- ment for five to 10 miles. After that, he went to work, and when he got off, it was straight to the gym for training: sparring, weights, cardio. “I was in shape all the time,” he says, “and could get ready for a fight in two weeks.” Another piece of advice from his father: “The world loves a loser, but they love winners most.” Jack soon ranked among the top 10 fighters in the world and — unlike today — to keep that kind of ranking, a boxer had to be in the ring all the time. One year he had 14 fights. “Way too many,” he says, laughing. “But that’s what you did back then!” Jack was fortunate in that, unlike many fighters, he lived in a boxing city. “I didn’t have to travel. I could fight right here or in New Orleans.” SECOND GENERATION Before the name Jack Tillman struck fear into the hearts of opponents, there was another Tillman able to instill dread in many a man. Jack’s father, Gene, was himself a boxer of the old school. Gene fought his way through the 1920s and the Great Depression of the ’30s, sometimes fighting as often as once a week. Fighters in those days might go 10 rounds for $150, and by the end of his career in 1936, Gene had over 120 fights to his name. So decades later, when Jack turned nine years old, it wasn’t strange or unexpected that the boy might pull on a pair of gloves and give his dad’s sport a go. Gene was one of the best fighters in Alabama history. Why wouldn’t Jack fight? “I had about 60 amateur fights before I was 10,” says Jack. But it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that he would end up a professional boxer.He also had a talent for pitching, and when he graduated from high school, he was signed to a baseball scholarship at the University of South Alabama. “My first love was baseball,” he says. But the reputation he had built in the ring and the crowds he could draw meant the real money, for Jack, was in boxing. So he went pro, and was soon drawing five-figure paydays per fight. His career would take him across the country and around the world — New Orleans to London and everywhere in between. AFTER THE FINAL BELL At 29, Jack retired from boxing. He had watched fellow fighters keep going past their prime, only to pay the price physically and mentally. Despite hanging up his gloves, the lessons he learned in the ring would remain with him for the rest of his life. “I learned discipline,” he says. “I learned if you don’t run those 10 miles, you’re going to get beat.” He adds, “Athletics also taught me how to lose. In base-

Professional prizefighter Jack Tillman packs a punch on welterweight Papo Villa during a 1973 fight at Mobile’s Municipal Auditorium. Photo belongs to Jack Tillman.

“I learned how to handle fear. You can get killed as a policeman, and every case you handle is different, just like every fighter and every fight is different. You’ve got to learn how to deal with life every day. It’s a tough game, fighting is. Same with law enforcement.” Jack recently completed a book about his career in the school system, and the young men and women he helped there.He also writes poetry, and is working on a book about his childhood. And if anyone should celebrate Boxing Day this year, it’s Jack — and not only because of his time in the ring. His wife has two sisters and a brother. He has seven siblings and 72 nieces and nephews. He has two children of his own who have children of their own. That’s a lot of turkey to carve. And a lot of presents to unwrap. A family that size really needs that extra day to celebrate the holidays.

81 everyday NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018