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JOE "THE BROWN BOMBER" LOUIS 
Joseph Louis Barrow was born on May 13, 1914 the son of a cotton picker and a home maker, close to LaFayette in Chambers County. His father, Munroe Barrow, died when Joseph was just four years old, and when he was seven, his mother, Lillie, remarried.
In 1924, the family moved from Alabama to Detroit where he began to learn the art of boxing at the Brewster Recreation Center. It is believed that while he was signing up for one of his early amateur fights, he did not have sufficient space to fill out his full name and simply entered the name "Joe Louis" in the space that had been provided. From then on, this is the name that he would use. In 1934, Louis won the National AAU Light-Heavyweight championship and turned professional just 3 months later. His amateur career ended with an impressive record of 50 wins (43 by knockout) and just four defeats. Joe Louis' first professional fight was against Jack Kracken on July 4, 1934, which he won by a first round KO. He went on to win each of his first 27 fights, 23 by knockout, including victories against former world heavyweight champions Primo Carnera and Max Baer. For his 28th fight, on June 19,1936, Louis was matched against another former champion, Max Schmeling, for the first time, and he would suffer the first loss of his career, a 12th round knockout. The defeat against Schmeling did not slow Louis' rise in the heavyweight ranks and a little over a year later on June 22, 1937, he became the first African-American champion since Jack Johnson when he dethroned James Braddock, knocking him out in the eighth round. After three successful defences of his title, Louis was once again scheduled to fight Max Schmeling on June 22, 1938. This time, however, with the world on the brink of war, the fight became much more than a fight for the heavyweight championship. Despite not being a Nazi, Schmeling was seen as representing everything that Hitler's Nazi Germany stood for, whereas Louis was seen as representing democracy and everything that the United States stood for. Both men were lauded by their nation's leaders, Louis was invited to the White House by Franklin D Roosevelt, whilst Schmeling was sent messages of support by Adolf Hitler, hailing him as a paragon of Teutonic manhood. The fight took place in Yankee Stadium in front of 70,000 people, and Louis inflicted his revenge quickly and efficiently. The  fight ended after just 124 seconds with the German having been knocked down three times.
After this fight, Louis went through what became known as the "bum of the month club". The idea was that he would take on a variety of fighters whether they were contenders or not. In 1939, he successfully defended his title four times, a feat which he repeated in 1940. In 1941 however, he fought nine times, including a memorable match against Light Heavyweight champion Billy Conn at the Polo Grounds in New York. After 12 rounds, Louis was trailing on the judges scorecards and looked to be heading for defeat when he knocked Conn out with just two seconds left in the 13th round. In 1942, Louis joined the Army. During the next 3 years, he fought around 100 exhibition matches in front of approximately 2 million servicemen. He returned to the ring in 1946, once again defeating Billy Conn, this time knocking him out in the eighth round. He would go on to defend his title a further three times, two of which were against "Jersey" Joe Walcott, before abdicating his world title in 1949. His championship reign is the longest of any heavyweight boxer, lasting almost 12 years, during which time, he defeated each of his 25 challengers, another record. Because of a need to clear back taxes, Louis returned to the ring in 1950. He lost to Ezzard Charles, and then he finally retired from boxing when he was knocked out in eight rounds by Rocky Marciano. He continued to fight as a pro-wrestler in order to clear his debts and later worked as a greeter at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. Joe Louis died of a heart attack on April 12, 1981 at the age of 66 and was buried in Arlington Cemetery at the request of President Ronald Reagan. Links To Other Joe Louis Internet Resources: Cyber Boxing Zone - Joe Louis. ESPN.com - 'Brown Bomber' was a hero to all. IBHOF - Joe Louis. Wikipedia - Joe Louis. SIGN UP TO OUR EMAIL NEWSLETTER If you would like us to keep you updated with changes and improvements to thatsalabama.com, please enter your email address here: If you would like to support thatsalabama.com with a donation via paypal, please click on this button: |
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