ONE OF ST. PAUL’S GREAT FORGOTTEN STORIES COMES HOME The St. Paul Phantom Resurrects Boxing Legends Mike & Tommy Gibbons

Descendant Dr. Gerard Gibbons returns to St. Paul for a week-long Homecoming Book Launch, September 13–19

St. Paul, Minnesota , Sept. 10, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Before Madison Square Garden, national headlines, and boxing immortality, there was St. Paul.

On September 15, author, historian, filmmaker, and Gibbons-family descendant Dr. Gerard Gibbons will publish The St. Paul Phantom: The Gibbons Brothers’ Fight for Glory, Volume I, a sweeping, critically acclaimed work of illustrated narrative nonfiction about legendary St. Paul brothers Mike and Tommy Gibbons.

From the immigrant neighborhoods of St. Paul, the brothers rose from poverty and prejudice to become internationally celebrated fighters known as the “Shining Knights of the Ring.”

Their story stretches far beyond boxing, unfolding against immigration, race, faith, family, women’s suffrage, World War I, the 1918 influenza pandemic, and the birth of modern media and celebrity culture. Their world intersects with such figures as Jack Johnson, Joe Gans, Sam Langford, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Houdini, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nellie Bly, Grantland Rice, Damon Runyon, and many others.

And now their descendant is bringing their story home.

TWO EVENTS, ONE HOMECOMING

Publication Celebration — Tuesday, September 15, 2026, 7:00–8:30 p.m.

Celeste of St. Paul Hotel + Bar, 26 Exchange Street East, St. Paul. Free and open to the public. An evening celebrating the publication of The St. Paul Phantom featuring author readings, conversation, multimedia historical storytelling, Q&A and a book signing at the historic former St. Agatha’s Conservatory of Music and Art, a landmark with deep ties to the Gibbons family.

St. Paul Boxing History & Community Celebration — Friday, September 18, 2026, 5:00–8:00 p.m.

Rice Street Old School Boxing Gym, 900 Ocean Street, St. Paul. Free and open to the public. A community celebration of St. Paul’s extraordinary boxing heritage featuring Dr. Gibbons, readings and conversation, multimedia history, youth boxing demonstrations, Q&A and a book signing.

Both events are free and open to the public. Additional launch-week activities include interviews, community-history programs, appearances, and meetings with readers, media and local organizations throughout the Twin Cities.

THE “ST. PAUL PHANTOM” AND THE GIBBONS BROTHERS

At the center of the book is Mike “The St. Paul Phantom” Gibbons, one of boxing’s most cerebral and elusive fighters. Rather than relying on brute force, Mike helped perfect a dazzling form of “scientific boxing” built on movement, timing, defense, speed and strategy.

His younger brother Tommy Gibbons followed him into the ring, eventually challenging heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey in their legendary 1923 bout in Shelby, Montana, before later serving 24 years as Sheriff of Ramsey County. Together, the Gibbons brothers became two of St. Paul’s most celebrated athletes.

Their development was shaped by figures including sportswriter George A. Barton, St. Paul firefighter Captain Hugh McFayden, and pioneering Black champions Joe Gans, Jack Johnson and Sam Langford. Their journey carries readers from St. Paul gyms and outlaw prizefights to Madison Square Garden, Havana, wartime military camps, and some of boxing’s greatest arenas.

Drawing on never-before-seen family archives and thousands of historical sources, Dr. Gibbons spent years reconstructing both the brothers’ lives and the remarkable St. Paul world that shaped them.

A STORY OF BROTHERS, NOT JUST BOXERS

Strip away the ring lights and the record books, and The St. Paul Phantom is a story about what two brothers were willing to carry for each other. Mike stepped into the ring first, and Tommy followed not for the glory but because that is what you did for family. Behind every fight is a quieter one: a family holding on through poverty and prejudice, a mother’s faith, a brother’s loyalty, and the particular ache of loving someone enough to want more for them than you ever had for yourself.

Dr. Gibbons spent years opening boxes that had not been opened in generations: letters, photographs, and fragments of two lives that history had let go of. What he found was not just a boxing record. It was proof that his family had once loved fiercely, fought for each other, and believed in something bigger than themselves, and that belief is what carried the Gibbons name from a Frogtown tenement to Madison Square Garden and back home again.

The St. Paul Phantom asks a simple question with an answer that reaches far beyond the ring: what do we owe the people who came before us, and what happens when a family and a nation remembers.

Arriving during America’s 250th-anniversary year, The St. Paul Phantom explores themes that remain strikingly relevant today: immigration, race, class, masculinity, women’s rights, media power, celebrity, war, pandemic, faith and economic uncertainty.

EARLY PRAISE FOR THE ST. PAUL PHANTOM

“An ELECTRIFYING AND INSPIRING rendition of the American Dream.” — The U.S. Review of Books

★★★★½ — “An EPIC AMERICAN ODYSSEY laced with unforgettable characters, epic slugfests, and fascinating historical cameos.” — Self-Publishing Review

“GET IT! Lively, wonderfully vivid, truly engaging.” — Kirkus Reviews

Oscar-nominated The Fighter screenwriter-producer Paul Tamasy calls the book “the kind of true story Hollywood spends years looking for.”

MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES

Media opportunities are available now. Dr. Gibbons is available for:

• Television, radio, print, digital and podcast interviews
• Author profiles and book reviews
• Minnesota and St. Paul history features
• Boxing-history features
• Launch-week previews and event coverage
• In-studio and on-location interviews
• One-on-one interviews throughout his Twin Cities visit

During launch week, the Fight for Glory team will be headquartered at Celeste of St. Paul Hotel + Bar, 26 Exchange Street East, the historic former convent and music conservatory with deep significance to the Gibbons family.

BOOK INFORMATION

• Title: The St. Paul Phantom: The Gibbons Brothers’ Fight for Glory, Volume I
• Author: Dr. Gerard Gibbons
• Publisher: Fight for Glory Press
• Publication Date: September 15, 2026
• Twin Cities Homecoming & Book Launch: September 13–19, 2026
• Publication Celebration: Tuesday, September 15, 7:00–8:30 p.m., Celeste of St. Paul Hotel + Bar, St. Paul
• St. Paul Boxing History & Community Celebration: Friday, September 18, 5:00–8:00 p.m., Rice Street Old School Boxing Gym, St. Paul
• Formats: Hardcover, paperback, eBook, audiobook (audiobook out late September 2026)
• Website: FightForGloryStory.com
• Hardcover: amazon.com/dp/B0HFVKT2DV
• Paperback: amazon.com/dp/B0GWLXX1MX
• eBook: amazon.com/dp/B0H4NHD15B

MEDIA RESOURCES

Complete Media Kit — book, author bio, high-resolution photos, press materials & more:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/8ywl2rk50hkpx0i6ycx6p/ADhWFEsbpJTNeB-AK9iyYNQ?rlkey=fo2wz1fzdw1ih7nw50u67or6j&st=uw4qxyyx&dl=0

Dr. Gerard Gibbons on Camera — Interview Clip:
https://youtu.be/DDyyinjeFHc?si=hhbyVcenxarnWUVb

Fight for Glory Trilogy Trailer:
https://youtu.be/qeKC8hlcKjM?si=74PTkCiICOieFukL

MEDIA CONTACT

Todd Aaron Jensen
Media Contact | Fight for Glory
ToddAaronJensen@gmail.com
818-209-8975
FightForGloryStory.com

Dr. Gerard Gibbons will be in St. Paul and the Twin Cities September 13–19. Interview requests, review copies, photography, archival materials, and launch-week media opportunities are available now.

Todd Aaron Jensen

ToddAaronJensen@gmail.com