60 Fun Facts About Joe Louis

What was Joe Louis's famous nickname?

White sportswriters tried out several racist coinages before that one stuck.

What was the champion's full birth name?

Legend says he wrote his first two names so large on an amateur entry form that there was no room for the last.

In which state was Louis born in 1914?

He was the seventh of eight children of sharecroppers in Chambers County, and both his parents were children of former slaves.

To which city did Louis's family move in 1926, where he grew up and learned to box?

They fled the South after being shaken by a gang of Ku Klux Klan men, part of the Great Migration.

Louis is rumoured to have hidden his boxing gloves from his mother inside what?

His mother had wanted him to learn the violin.

Which car company employed Louis for a time at its River Rouge plant?

His brother also worked there, and the family lived in the Black Bottom neighbourhood.

What was Louis's final amateur record?

He lost his 1932 debut to future Olympian Johnny Miler.

How much did Louis earn for his professional debut, a first-round knockout of Jack Kracken on 4 July 1934?

He won all 12 of his fights that year, 10 by knockout.

Who was Louis's trainer, nicknamed Chappie?

He was hired by promoter Julian Black after Louis signed with bookmaker John Roxborough.

Louis's managers drafted Seven Commandments for his conduct. Which of these was one of them?

Others were never to gloat over a fallen opponent, never to engage in fixed fights, and to live and fight clean.

Whose flamboyant lifestyle as the first Black heavyweight champion cast a shadow that Louis's handlers worked to counter?

Biographer Gerald Astor wrote that Louis's early career was stalked by the specter of that champion.

Which giant Italian former champion, seen as a symbol of Mussolini's regime, did Louis knock out in six rounds in June 1935?

African Americans sympathetic to Ethiopia, then facing Italian invasion, saw it as a political victory.

What did Louis do earlier on the evening he knocked out Max Baer in September 1935?

He was reportedly eager to end the fight quickly, and did so in the fourth round.

Which promoter signed Louis to an exclusive three-year deal in 1935 and later ran his finances into ruin?

Louis's tax returns were always handled by Jacobs's personal accountant.

In which round did Schmeling knock Louis out at Yankee Stadium on 19 June 1936, Louis's first professional defeat?

He had spotted Louis's habit of dropping his left hand after a jab.

What new hobby distracted Louis from training before the first Schmeling fight?

Ed Sullivan had sparked his interest by giving an instructional book to Louis's wife.

Whom did Louis knock out in the eighth round on 22 June 1937 to win the world heavyweight title?

The champion, who had floored Louis in round one, was knocked out cold for the only time in his career.

In which city was the Braddock title fight held, to avoid interference from Madison Square Garden?

Braddock's manager extracted 10 percent of promoter Jacobs's profits for ten years to make the fight.

Which Harlem Renaissance writer recalled marching, cheering, yelling and crying at Louis's victories?

He wrote that no one else in the United States had ever had such an effect on Negro emotions.

Louis's first title defence, against Welsh boxer Tommy Farr, ended how?

The referee appeared to shake Farr's hand and the crowd thought Farr had won.

What did President Roosevelt tell Louis at the White House before the Schmeling rematch?

Louis later said the whole damned country was depending on him.

How long did the Louis-Schmeling rematch of 22 June 1938 last?

Schmeling was knocked down three times and threw only two punches before his corner threw in the towel.

How many punches did Schmeling manage to throw in the entire rematch?

He afterwards claimed the paralysing body blow he took was an illegal kidney punch.

What proportion of radio-equipped US households tuned in to the Louis-Schmeling rematch?

Announcers called it in English, German, Spanish and Portuguese to a crowd of 70,043 at Yankee Stadium.

What collective nickname was given to the opponents Louis beat in thirteen defences between January 1939 and May 1941?

Despite the label, five of the twelve were rated top-ten heavyweights by The Ring in the year they fought him.

Which two-ton challenger knocked Louis down with a left hook in June 1939 before being stopped in the fourth?

He was ranked the number two heavyweight in the world that year.

Which light heavyweight champion was ahead on two scorecards before Louis knocked him out with two seconds left in round 13 in June 1941?

Louis had deliberately weighed in under 200 pounds so the papers would not say he beat up a little guy.

Why was the planned 1942 rematch with the light heavyweight champion cancelled?

The father-in-law was Major League ballplayer Jimmy Greenfield Smith; by the time Conn healed, Pearl Harbor had happened.

Which famous line did Louis deliver when asked whether he would chase Conn if he ran backwards in their 1946 rematch?

Conn was knocked out in the eighth round of a fight that drew a disappointing 40,000.

What did Louis reply when an Army clerk asked his occupation at his 1942 induction?

The scene was staged for newsreel cameras the day after a charity bout for the Navy Relief Society.

What phrase from a 1942 relief-fund dinner became Louis's famous wartime recruitment slogan?

He also said: Lots of things wrong with America, but Hitler ain't going to fix them.

Which future baseball pioneer's Officer Candidate School application did Louis help push through at Fort Riley?

The two became personal friends, and Louis later helped get charges against Lieutenant Robinson dropped.

Which fellow boxer toured with Louis on his wartime exhibition circuit and wept in the dressing room after the Marciano fight?

Louis staged 96 exhibitions before two million soldiers.

Which decoration, rarely given to enlisted men, did Louis receive in September 1945 for his contribution to morale?

It qualified him for immediate release from the Army on 1 October 1945.

Which English football club was Louis reported to have signed for as a publicity stunt in 1944?

He never played, of course.

Which 33-year-old, a 10-to-1 underdog, knocked Louis down twice in December 1947 yet lost a booed split decision?

Louis knocked him out in the eleventh round of their 1948 rematch and then retired.

How many consecutive title defences did Louis make, a record for any weight class?

His reign of 11 years and 8 months, from 1937 to 1949, is also the longest in any division.

Louis announced his first retirement on which date?

Cab Calloway paid tribute that August with the song Ol' Joe Louis.

How much did the IRS say Louis owed in May 1950, forcing him back into the ring?

By the end of the 1950s the debt had grown past $1 million.

Who outpointed the 36-year-old Louis over 15 rounds in September 1950 to keep the title?

Charles had won the vacant title by beating Walcott in June 1949.

Who knocked Louis through the ropes and out of the ring in October 1951, ending his career?

Marciano called him the last guy on earth I want to fight, and apologised afterwards.

Of the more than $4.6 million Louis earned in the ring, roughly how much did he himself receive?

Most of it went to his handlers, and he was famously generous with what he got.

What did the IRS seize when Louis's mother died in 1953?

The top marginal tax rate of 90 percent meant his comeback purses could not even keep pace with interest.

To make money after boxing, Louis took up which other sport professionally in the 1950s?

His ribs were cracked by Cowboy Rocky Lee in 1956 and he lost his licence for a time.

Which Las Vegas hotel gave Louis a job greeting tourists in his later years?

An old Army friend, Ash Resnick, was an executive there.

In 1952 Louis played the San Diego Open, then billed as the first time an African American competed in an event of which body?

His celebrity pushed the PGA toward dropping a whites-only bylaw, though the clause was not formally removed until 1961.

Which mobster, disgusted at the government's treatment of Louis, once paid off a $50,000 tax lien against him?

His old rival Schmeling also gave him financial help in retirement.

Where was Louis buried in April 1981, after President Reagan waived the eligibility rules?

He died of cardiac arrest near Las Vegas hours after watching the Holmes-Berbick title fight.

Which NHL team played at Joe Louis Arena from 1979 to 2017?

The arena, nicknamed The Joe, cost $4 million to build.

Which Canadian football team took its name from Louis's nickname in 1936?

Winnipeg Tribune writer Vince Leah used the nickname for the club after a game.

The 1986 memorial to Louis by Robert Graham at Jefferson Avenue and Woodward depicts what?

It hangs from a pyramidal frame at Jefferson and Woodward and represents the power of his punch.

Louis was the first boxer honoured on a US postage stamp. In which year?

He had been approved for the Congressional Gold Medal in 1982.

How often did The Ring magazine name Louis Fighter of the Year?

The years were 1936, 1938, 1939 and 1941.

Sportswriter Jimmy Cannon famously said Louis was a credit to his race, and then specified which one?

He was answering someone who had used the phrase in its patronising sense.

How long did Joe Louis reign as world heavyweight champion, a record for any division?

He held the title from 1937 to 1949 and won 26 world heavyweight title fights against 21 different men.

Which Detroit bookmaker became Louis's first professional manager?

Roxborough warned him that Black fighters with white managers ended up burned-out and broke.

Who played Louis in the 1953 biopic The Joe Louis Story?

Wallace was a Golden Gloves fighter and Louis lookalike; the low-budget film intercut real fight footage.

In which year was Louis posthumously approved for the Congressional Gold Medal?

It is the highest award Congress can bestow on a civilian.

How much did Louis reportedly weigh at birth in 1914?

He was the seventh of eight children born to Munroe and Lillie Barrow in Chambers County, Alabama.

How many children did Louis have with his wife Marva Trotter?

Daughter Jacqueline was born in 1943 and son Joseph Louis Barrow Jr. in 1947; the couple divorced, remarried and divorced again.