RIP Jerry Springer, and thanks for the MMA recognition

Gerald Norman Springer was born in a London bomb shelter on February 13, 1944, and died of pancreatic cancer on April 27, 2023, in Evanston, Illinois, on April 27, 2023. The son of German-Jewish refugees, he lost two grandparents in Nazi concentration camps. But he overcame birth in horror to have a series of remarkable careers.

In 1968 he earned a law degree from Northwestern University, and that same year became a political campaign adviser to Democrat Robert F. Kennedy. By 1973 he was a partner in a law firm, and had already run for Congress, albeit unsuccessfully. By 1977 Springer was the mayor of Cincinnati, for a year. While mayor he provided commentaries for AOR radio station WEBN-FM, continued an interest in broadcast that began as an undergraduate.

In the 90s Springer developed his reportorial and commentary skills, becoming a managing editor, and the most popular news anchor in Cincinnati, winning ten local Emmy Awards. And he helped coin the memorable phrase, “Take care of yourself, and each other.”

In 1991 Jerry Springer rose to international prominence with his eponymous controversial tabloid talk show. He was a pioneer for the cultural phenomenon ‘Trash TV’, a genre that spawned Jersey Shore, The Bachelor, Intervention, Catfish: The TV Show, and Say Yes to the Dress, among countless others.

And, relevant to martial arts, several times he brought the sport to national prominence when it was in its infancy. Today the UFC is an international colossus, but from 1995 to 1997, it had a hugely influential competitor – Battlecade Extreme Fighting, funded by Penthouse magazine founder Bob Guccione, and run in part by the woefully underappreciated John Perretti.

Extreme Fighting had a number of firsts including:
•First use by a mixed martial arts promotion of the term mixed martial arts;
•First promotion in North America to mandate the use of fingerless gloves;
•First use in the USA of weight classes (two years before the UFC instituted them); and,
•Brought to prominence a number of pioneers of the sport, including Erik Paulson, Matt Hume, John Lewis, Ralph Gracie, Marcus Conan Silveira, Maurice Smith, and Mario Sperry.

Two of those figures, Gracie and Lewis, appeared on the Jerry Springer show, and showed an international audience what happens when a large, completely untrained person goes after a trained fighter with a black belt in jiu-jitsu. It was insanely great then, and it’s still pretty cool.

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