He went on to be Chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission at a fascinating time too. It was effectively the Global governing body for boxing but under threat from 13 other states who formed the NBA. And real power in the sport was shifting from Mike Jacobs to IBC too. Eagan was the main person against reinstating Rocky Graziano too after he was banned for not reporting a bribe offer.
Fascinating deep dive into an underappreciated athlete. The bobsled story is wild, joining a team with zero prior experience and winning gold anyway, but whatreally stands out is how Eagan kept saying yes to absurd opportunities throughout his life. Most people peak athletically once, he did it in three different sports across two Olympic formats. The circumnavigation record at the end feels like a footnote but honestly deserves its own article.
He went on to be Chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission at a fascinating time too. It was effectively the Global governing body for boxing but under threat from 13 other states who formed the NBA. And real power in the sport was shifting from Mike Jacobs to IBC too. Eagan was the main person against reinstating Rocky Graziano too after he was banned for not reporting a bribe offer.
Interesting. He was Dempsey's sparring partner at times in 1919.
Fascinating deep dive into an underappreciated athlete. The bobsled story is wild, joining a team with zero prior experience and winning gold anyway, but whatreally stands out is how Eagan kept saying yes to absurd opportunities throughout his life. Most people peak athletically once, he did it in three different sports across two Olympic formats. The circumnavigation record at the end feels like a footnote but honestly deserves its own article.
Agree, but the circumnavigation story is too far away from football for me to do a full story on it. Here a full article about it at the time: https://digitalcollections.library.miami.edu/digital/collection/asm0341/id/15535/
Holy cow! What an amazing life this man led! Thank you for the research on this incredible person.
Yeah, I'd never heard of him until a week ago. There are more guys like him out there, we just have to find them.