[bob_bask]

Originally Posted by bear

In the late 20's the Ring began publishing annual rankings in their February Issue. These were originally promoted as compilations of Tex Rickard. After his death in January of 1929 they continued with Jack Dempsey's name providing these rankings with some cachet. The rankings were always more extensive then simple top ten lists and involved group ins of relatively equal boxers. These ranking grew in size throughout the 30s. Rickard and Dempsey's rankings in the early years were limited by a parochial attitude favoring New York and the United States. After the initial annual rankings appeared in the Ring, the magazine began doing the monthly top ten rankings. Eddie Borden was one of the Ring staffers associated with the monthly ratings. Other publications, notably the annual The Everlast Record Books began publishing annual top ten rankings. At some point in the 1960s the Ring shifted from February to March for their annual ratings.

Thanks for the information bear. Just went on belief that 1942 was first time as I have a single February issue prior to that year and it did not feature such an extensive lists. Do you know if they were published in a different month prior?

The shift from February to March was 1965.

Originally Posted by bear

Years ago, I had begun working on a compilation of all of the annually ranked ranked boxers and the project bogged down around 1943 or 44.
I'll have to search for my files for this stuff.

Impressive stuff bear and I can easily understand how it got bogged down.