By John F. McKenna (McJack): Louis, because of his temperament, just like baseball great Jackie Robinson over a decade later, had no trouble living by the “Commandments” set out for him.
Joe’ early career was very successful as he quickly rose to the top of the heavyweight division. On his way towards a heavyweight title shot however Louis ran into the great German ex champion Max Schmeling. Herr Max (our Max) was deprived of his title in an extremely controversial loss to Jack Sharkey. Schmeling’s manager grabbed the mike immeditately after the fight and shouted the immotal words “We wuz robbed!” In reality Herr Max was robbed.
When Louis and Schmeling faced each other on June 19, 1936, Joe at 22 years old was still green and was used to his opponents falling down when he enteted the ring. Not so with Schmeling. Not only did Max not fall down he wound up knocking out Louis in the 12th round in a huge upset. There were real fears that Schmeling would go on to defeat heavyweight champion Jimmy Braddock (The Cinderella Man) and return to Germany with the heavyweight title. The feeling at the time was that Nazi leader Adolph Hitler would used propaganda to exploit the heavyweight championship and put it in cold storage. The world at the time was on the brink of World War II.
Braddock’s manager Joe Gould however came up with a deal in which Louis would get the title shot instead of Schmeling. It was a deal with the devil that Louis could not turn down. The deal guaranteed Braddock a 10% cut for all of Louis’s earnings for the next ten years. Not a bad deal for the soon to be ex champion considering Louis would hold the title for all of those ten years. Louis went on to knock Braddock out in the 8th round on June 22, 1937 to win the heavyweight title. He acknowledged however that he would not consider himself to be the heavyweight champion until he defeated Schmeliing.
Louis would have to wait another year for the return match with Schmeling. Louis – Shcmeling II would be the real “Fight of the Century”. The political rerurcussions for the loser would be tremendous. Hitler billed the fight as a test of the two political systems, Naziism vs Democracy. President Roosevelt himself invited Louis to the oval office in the White House to cheer him on. Roosevelt felt the muscles in Joe’s arms and told him he had to do his part for America. Louis got the message.