By John F McKenna (McJack): Joseph Louis was born in Lafayette, Alabama, the 7th of 8 children to a dirt poor sharecropper. When Joe was 12 years old his family moved to Detroit in search of opportunity. Joe became interested in boxing at a young age. He would use the money that his mother gave him for violin lessons to buy a locker at a local gym where fighters hung out. Joe quickly became fascinated with boxing and would soon launch his boxing career as an amateur. Louis would soon become an amateur fighter where he would win fifty of fifty-four fights, 43 by knockout.
Joe would draw the interest of businessmen from the black community John Roxborough and Julian Black. Roxborough would nurture Joe’s ambition to become a professional fighter by moving him in with him, getting him equipment to work out with and putting him on a decent diet. Roxborough would also take Joe to Chicago to meet Jack Blackburn a former light weight fighter who had trained two world champions. Jack well knew how difficult it was for a black fighter to succeed in boxing. In the aftermath of Jack Johnson’s reign as heavyweight champion, no African American would fight for the title for 22 years, from 1915 to 1937. Joe fit the mold of what his black management team of John Roxborough and Julian Black were looking for. A fighter who conducted himself with dignity both inside and outside of the ring and someone that was teachable. Louis would have a code of conduct that he was to follow. Part of the code of conduct for Joe was that he always speak well of his opponents. Never gloat over a fallen opponent. Never engage in a fixed fight. Always fight cleanly in the ring. Above all else Louis was never to be photographed with a white woman. Because of his temperament these rules were easy for Joe to follow.
Joe’s managers were persistent in enlisting Blackburn’s help and he finally gave in and began what would become one of the most famous fighter/trainer teams in boxing history. Jack took Louis’s natural abilities and expanded on them, teaching Joe how to deliver his punches in rapid combinations. To this day Louis is considered by most boxing historians to be close to perfect in technique in the way he delivered his punches. Joe was responsive to Blackburn’s teaching and training methods. Joe Louis and Jack Blackburn would develop almost a father and son relationship, both men having deep respect for one another. Jack taught Louis how to throw his punches without telegraphing them and how to fight from the inside as well as from long range. It was said of Louis that he could deliver a knockout punch from six inches. Attempting to clinch with Joe was futile, because of his heavy artillery at short range.
Blackburn also taught Louis how to cut off the ring and to use the famous Louis shuffle when stalking his opponents. One of the things that Blackburn emphasized to Joe was how important it was to knock all of his opponents out. Because he was black, he could not expect to win fights that went to the judges and the referee. In his first year as a pro 1934, Joe had 12 fights and won 10 by knockout. He rose quickly up the heavyweight ladder. In his 2nd year as a pro Joe fought former heavyweight champion Primo Carnera. Louis became an overnight sensation when he KO’d Carnera in the 6th round in Yankee Stadium on June 25, 1935 befoe 60,000 fans. There were political overtones to the Carnera vs Louis fight because Primo was from Italy and dictator Benito Mussolini was threatening to invade Ethiopia, one of the few countries in Africa with black leadership. It was around this time that Joe Louis’s nickname the “Brown Bomber” first appeared in print.
The nickname would stay with him for the rest of his long career. Joe was now a hero in black communities throughout America. After his victory over Carnera, Joe would continue his rapid climb up the heavyweight ladder. On September 24, 1935 he fought Max Baer before 84,000 fans at Yankee Stadium. Max had won the title from Carnera in June of 1934, only to lose it to Jimmy Braddock (the Cinderealla Man) one year later. A victory over Joe Louis would get Max another shot at the title. Max’s trainer was his good friend Jack Dempsey. Again Louis would totally dominate his opponent. At the end of the 3rd round Baer would tell Dempsey that because of his dazed condition he saw three Louis’s across the ring. Dempsey told Baer to “Hit the one in the middle!” There was one exchange in the 3rd round where these two renowned power punchers would engage in a fire fight that is saved on film for posterity (Joe Louis vs Max Baer – You Tube). When that fire fight was over, it was clear that Baer could not win. Louis took away Max’s will to fight and finally ended the one sided contest in the 4th round with a triple left hook which left Baer on the
Canvas unable or unwilling to get back up to face more punishment.
After his fight with Baer, Louis started believing his own press clippings to the extent that he started to lighten up in his training regimen, much to the chagrin of his trainer Jack Blackburn. “Chappie” as Joe affectionately referred to Blackburn noted that Louis had cut back on his training regimen. It was also during this period of time that Louis began his lifetime passion of playing golf, to the detriment of his training for the Schmeling fight. Max had studied films of Joe’s previous fights and he noticed that after Louis threw his left jab he would hold his left hand low, allowing the opportunity for an opponent to counter with a right hand lead. This was exactly what Schmeling did. He repeatedly countered Joe’s left jab with his powerful right hand, which was like the kick of a mule. 57 times during the match Schmeling would nail Louis with his right counter. In the 4th round Joe would visit the canvas for the first time in his career. After the 4th round knockdown, Joe would remember nothing for the rest of the fight. The savage beating continued until the 12th round when Max would finally KO his outclassed opponent. One of Louis’s friends would escort his mother out of the arena to save her from watching the brutal beating that her son was receiving. Louis’s defeat was felt particularly hard felt in the black community where Joe had already become a hero.
After losing to Schmeling it was back to the drawing board for Louis. He gave up playing golf while in training and devoted all his time to being a fighter. He was back in the ring 8 weeks after losing to Schmeling and won an impressive 3rd round KO over former heavyweight champ Jack Sharkey. Schmeling immediately started negotiating to fight Jimmy Braddock after his KO win over Louis in an attempt to become the first fighter in history to regain the heavyweight championship. Braddock’s manager Joe Gould however used the anti Nazi sentiment that existed in the United States at the time to deny Schmeling a shot at the title. Louis would get the nod and on June 1937 he would KO the “Cinderella Man” in the 8th round becoming at age 23 the youngest heavyweight champion in boxing history. Louis however repeatedly insisted that he would not consider himself the real champ until he defeated Schmeling.
The 2nd Louis vs Schmeling fight would take place on June 22, 1938 at Yankee Stadium with over 70,000 fans in attendance. The political importance of the fight cannot be overstated. Nazi Germany was on the move in Europe and Hitler was touting the supremacy of the Aryan race. President Roosevelt would summon Louis to the White House where he told Joe that America needed his muscles to defeat Germany. Hitler himself would place a call to Schmeling’s dressing room prior to the fight to offer encouragement to Max. The world viewed this fight as a contest between America and Nazism. In America millions turned their radios on to listen to the fight. For the first time in American history white people would root for a black athlete. This fight transcended boxing. People who knew nothing about boxing were glued to their radios in eager anticipation to the history that was about to unfold.
In Harlem and in other black neighborhoods across America, not a sound could be heard outside in the streets. It was a once in a lifetime event, even if you were just listening to the fight on the radio. No sporting event before or since has had that kind of impact on America. Referee Arthur Donavon would issue the following statement in his pre fight instructions: “I want to impress upon you men now, of the terrific responsibility that you have in the ring tonight.” The pressure on both fighters was enormous. When the bell rang for the start of hostilities, Schmeling would immediately see a different Joe Louis than the one he had encountered in his first fight (Louis vs Schmeling 2 – You Tube). Joe had corrected the one flaw in his fighting style, that of holding his left hand low after throwing a left jab. Louis would stun Schmeling almost immediately with two left jabs followed by a series of lefts and rights thrown from all angles.
At one point Schmeling turned away to avoid Louis’s murderous punches. Max would be hospitalized after the fight, having suffered several broken vertebrae in his back when he turned his back to Louis. At one point Schmeling’s corner threw in the towel to end hostilities. The referee promptly threw the towel out of the ring, but soon ended the most one sided heavyweight contest since the Dempsey vs Willard fight of 1919. The fight lasted just 2 minutes and 4 seconds. Bedlam erupted in Harlem and throughout black communities across America. Louis would become a national hero. In Germany the Nazi propaganda machine pulled the plug on the radio transmission as soon as it became evident that Schmeling was going to lose. With Louis’s victory over Scmeling, he had vindicated himself and became champion of all the people, not just African Americans.
“The Brown Bomber” would go on to become the most prolific of heavyweight champions. He said that he wanted to become a fighting champion and he meant it. This in stark contrast to some champions of today who claim they want to “clean up the heavyweight division” then do everything they can to milk their titles. Boxing fans were used to heavyweight e champions putting their title in cold storage for one, two and sometimes three years between title defenses and then taking on “soft” opposition. Joe Louis was different. He took on all comers. After a series of impressive KO’s Louis would face Arturo Godoy, a very tough customer, whose sole intent was not to win, but to last the distance and make Louis look bad. He succeeded on both counts. Fighting out of a deep crouch which made it almost impossible for Louis to hit him Arturo went the distance. Godoy came out of his crouch just long enough to plant a kiss on Joe’s forehead in the 14th round. When the fight was over Godoy danced around the ring ecstatic that he had lasted the distance with the great Joe Louis. After the fight Joe would go back to the into training to figure out along with his handlers how to combat the deep crouch that Godoy fought out of. In the return bout Louis would put on a boxing clinic on how to handle a fighter like Godoy.
Joe would rip Godoy with wicked left hooks, uppercuts and body shots on his way to a brutal 8 round TKO of Godoy (Joe Louis vs Arturo Godoy 2). Still photos of Godoy’s face after the fight show the savagery of Louis’s attack.
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