Jimmy Sharman

James ("Jimmy") Sharman senior (20 June 1887 – 18 November 1965) and junior (1912 – 24 April 2006) were father and son Australian boxing troupe impresarios.

Jimmy Sharman Sr refereeing a boxing match between Prest and Lewis in the 1910s

Born in Narellan, New South Wales Jimmy Sharman Sr had established a boxing tent in 1911 at Ardlethan near Temora. The tent visited 45 to 50 shows each year. His son, Jimmy Sharman Jr, took over the business in 1955. The tent formed part of the Australian Show landscape until 1971, when regulations barred boxers fighting more than once a week. Sharman then turned to dodgem cars in partnership with Reg Grundy.

Jimmy Sharman junior

Jimmy Sharman playing for Wests

Sharman junior was born in Narrandera, New South Wales. He attended his first Sydney Royal Easter Show in 1926 working in his father's tent. Sharman junior played rugby league for Western Suburbs Magpies. He was fullback in Western Suburbs' 1934 premiership win. In 1938 he became First Grade captain. He retired after 7 seasons in 1939 to become a journalist, taking over the boxing tent from his father in 1955. Sharman played 45 games between 1935 and 1939, scored 12 tries and kicked 11 goals. He was awarded life membership in 1998.

Jimmy Sharman's Boxing Tent

Many famous boxers worked in the Sharman tent, including:

• Frank Burns (middleweight champion)
• Teddy Green (bantamweight)
• Harry Mack (featherweight)
• Mickey Miller (bantam and featherweight)
• George Cook (heavyweight)
• Jack Hassen (lightweight)
• Billy Grime (triple titleholder)
• Jackie Green (triple titleholder)
• Dave Sands Aboriginal boxer
• Greg McNamara (light-heavyweight)

Famous Indigenous Australians to work in the tent include:

• George Bracken, Aboriginal lawyer
• Geoff Clark, former ATSIC chairperson
• Douglas Nicholls, later Pastor with the Churches of Christ in Australia and then Governor of South Australia
• Max Stuart, convicted murderer and Arrente elder

Some boxers came from the Cherbourg Aboriginal mission, near Nanango, Queensland.

In 2003 the Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales honoured Sharman Jr. with the title of "Show Legend".

In popular culture

• The Australian rock band Midnight Oil's 1984 album Red Sails in the Sunset includes the song "Jimmy Sharman's Boxers" whose lyrics assert that Sharman exploited the aboriginal boxers he employed in his show.
• The Australian rock band Cold Chisel's song "Yesterdays" has lyrics which refer to Jimmy Sharman's boxers [1].
• The 2007 Peter Carstairs film September features its main characters - 15-year-old boys Ed and Paddy - setting up a boxing ring on Ed's family's wheatbelt property in anticipation of a visit by Sharman's boxing troupe. Paddy later joins the troupe.
• Jimmy Sharman Jr's son Jim Sharman became a theatre and film director known especially for the musicals Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Rocky Horror Show, and the movie version, The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

External links

• Description of the boxing tent:
• Pictures:
• ADB biography