Boxing

Jersey Joe Walcott; The Long, Long Journey

By B.R. Bearden

27.06 - They say the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. And to climb a mountain that first step is always up. It is the willingness to continue to trudge upward despite pain and fatigue, regardless of heartbreaks and failure, which can mark the difference between the contender and the champion. Yet for one Raymond Arnold Cream, better known by his ring name of Jersey Joe Walcott, the climb to the top didn't run straight up, but rather wound round and round the mountain.

Time and again he would come back from self-imposed retirement for another try at those slopes, which only get steeper with age, and time and again he would fall. Unlike Joe Louis, who was born the same year as Walcott and would reign 11 years at the top, Jersey Joe would spend 22 years on the journey.

Walcott's father died when he was 13 years old, effectively leaving him as the male head of the family. He quit school and took whatever jobs he could find to help his mother, an enormous task to demand of a child. Then one day he walked into Battling Mac's gym in Camden, New Jersey. It wasn't long before he was getting in the ring with the fighters who called the gym home. There was something special about the skinny kid and soon he was fighting for money.

His first pro bout came when he was 16 years old and he won his first 6 recorded fights before suffering a loss. During those early fights he decided he needed a catchier name than Arnold Cream. His father had been born in the British West Indies, and his father's favorite fighter was from the same region, a legendary fighter named Joe Walcott. So, in honor of his father's memory, Arnold decided to change his name to Joe Walcott. And to differentiate himself, he tacked on "Jersey".

Over the next several years Jersey Joe won most of his fights, though there were the occasional losses. He married and started a family, but providing for them wasn't easy. The color barrier was still in existence in many cases, leaving a young, gifted black fighter limited opportunities. Time and again he left boxing in search of work to feed his wife and kids. But it was a reality that the last ones hired when times were good were the black men and the first ones let go when times were bad were those same men. In the ring and out, Joe's race hindered his chance to advance. Still, he soldiered on, and it was said of Walcott that he outlasted the color line, an ageless fighter who transcended two eras of the sport.

Walcott's first great opportunity came about when he met the trainer Jack Blackburn. The veteran handler of fighters took a liking to Joe and began teaching him the tricks of the trade, and soon Walcott was racking up victories.

Then came a real break, a chance so sweet that only when looking back would it be apparent just how great the missed opportunity. Blackburn was contacted by a couple of numbers runners from the midwest, Julian Black of Chicago and John Roxborough of Detroit, and offered the job of training an amateur champion they had interest in. Blackburn agreed as long as they'd take Walcott into their stable of fighters.

Jack told Walcott he wanted him to come along to Chicago. It could be a big break for Jersey Joe; for if the other kid didn't pan out, they would be looking for someone else. "We're gonna take a trip to find out if you're the one," Blackburn told the excited fighter.

But fate stepped in, and the next day Joe was rushed to the hospital with typoid. It took most of a year for him to recover. Blackburn traveled to Chicago without him and was introduced to the young fighter the numbers men wanted developed. His name was Joe Louis.

"If I hadn't gotten sick and been able to meet that man in Chicago, who knows, I could have been the champion before Joe Louis," Walcott would later say.

He struggled on for a couple more years, fighting when he could, working at hard, low paying jobs when he couldn't. It seemed the only Walcott to gain fame in the ring would be the original.

Then a ray of light appeared in what was becoming a gloomy career. The rapidly rising Joe Louis was training to fight former champion Max Schmelling and needed sparring partners. Blackburn contacted Joe and offered him the job. Eager to seize the opportunity, Jersey Joe showed up in camp full of fire and ambition; too much of both. The very first round of his very first day as a sparring partner, Walcott dropped Louis with a left hook (or right cross, depending on the source). His stint as sparring partner began and ended in that round and the disheartened young man returned home.

By 1941 Louis was champion, the most popular champion since Jack Dempsey, but Walcott had missed four more opportunities. In the only four outtings he 'd had against Top Ten ranked fighters, Joe had lost each and every one; to Al Ettore in 1936, Tiger Jack Fox in 1937 and 1938, and to Abe Simon in 1940. Often his losses were the result of being on short call for fights, sometimes having only days to train for top fighters. In between he worked in the Camden shipyards or any other job he could find. How many unlisted fights he fought during those years to put food on the table no one will ever know.

From 1941 to 1945 Walcott fought only 3 times. He was living at the poverty level and boxing had failed to pull him out of the dregs. It appeared the sun had set on his career and there would be no more chances for the 31 year old fighter. But with the end of the war there was a dearth of heavyweights to fill out boxing cards. Local gambler and owner of a sports club, Felix Bocchicchio, heard of Walcott's plight and offered to manage him. At first Walcott refused, saying, "Fighting never got me nothin' before, and all I want now is a steady job so my wife and kids can eat regular. I'm over 30 and just plain tired of it all."

But Bocchicchio bought food for the Walcott family, put coal in the bin, and got Joe's boxing license renewed. Jersey Joe went on the comeback trail and in 1945 he had nine bouts, winning eight. More importantly, he beat three Top Ten ranked fighters; Joe Baski, Lee O. Murray, and Curtis Sheppard.

In 1946 he had an important win over Top Ten Jimmy Bivins and it wasn't long before the well-connected manager had Walcott fighting in Madison Square Garden in a main event against Lee Oma, a name fighter. Walcott took a 10 round decision, then lost to Joey Maxim and Elmer Ray in back-to-back bouts. But in January of 1947 he beat Maxim, then in April he beat Elmer
Ray, and in a third bout with Maxim, Joe won again.

From depression to Madison Square Garden, Walcott's star was rising. Joe Louis needed an opponent and promoter Mike Jacobs recalled how Walcott had dropped Louis during the sparring session eleven years before. He trotted out the story, played it up to the press, and it seemed the match might be at least mildly interesting. Of course, Louis would win, but maybe Walcott would give a better showing than the other "bums of the month". Or so the talk went.

So low was Walcott's stock compared to Louis's, however, that at first the match was scheduled only as an exhibition. But the New York State Athletic Commission declared that any fight over 6 rounds featuring the champion must be for the title. Even so, Walcott was a 1-10 underdog.

Yet in the first round, just as in training camp years before, Walcott suckered Louis into a right hand lead and dropped him with his "sneak" left hook. The crowd was on its feet in disbelief. To prove it wasn't just luck, Jersey Joe dropped Louis again in the fourth round. The champion's timing was thrown off by Walcott's confusing use of a shuffle, called the "Walcott Shuffle", which involved shifting his feet around so that first the left, then the right, were the lead, and pivoting his body to match, making it almost impossible to tell from which side the next punch would come.

Ahead on the cards, baffling Louis at will, Walcott then made a serious mistake. Rather than finishing the fight in the same dominant manner, Jersey Joe decided to coast the final rounds. It was the wrong tactic against so popular a champion. When the bell sounded at the end of the 15th round, everyone in the auditorium, including Louis, thought Walcott was the new champion. Joe Louis was so sure he had lost that he started to leave the ring in defeat while the crowd gave Walcott a booming ovation. But Louis' people kept him in the ring as the scores were read. Referee Ruby Goldstein had voted for Walcott, but the two judges, Frank Forbes and Marty Monroe, cast their votes to the Brown Bomber.

The crowd reacted in outrage, something Louis wasn't used to, but all Walcott could do was cry. It seemed his absolute last opportunity had passed him by. However, the nearness of the thing demanded a rematch, and when Walcott's left hook dropped Louis again, it seemed he had the situation well in hand this time around. By the 11th Louis's left eye was swollen almost shut while Walcott was unmarked. Then Walcott let Louis trap him along the ropes. There was a barrage of punches, the short, deadly kind for which Louis was so well known, and Jersey Joe went down. He was counted out with only 4 seconds remaining in the round. Two tries at the title and two failures and it appeared the aging Walcott had used up all his luck.

Then, to the surprise of almost everyone, Joe Louis announced his retirement. There would be an elimination fight between Ezzard Charles and Jersey Joe Walcott. Again Joe would get a chance to grab the golden ring. In a good fight against a great fighter, he lost a 15 round decision to Charles and announced his retirement. He was now 35 years old. However, Felix Bocchicchio wasn't as ready to give up on old Joe as Joe himself was, and they took a short vacation to talk over his future. Returning, they issued a press release stating that Jersey Joe had changed his mind and wouldn't retire. Instead, he went to Sweden and beat local favorite Ollie Tandberg. Wishing to quit a winner, Walcott again talked of retirement. But once more, Bocchicchio talked him back into the ring.

Joe produced an excellent third round KO of future Hall of Famer Harold Johnson, but as he had also defeated Harold's father, Phil Johnson, 14 years earlier, it made it more apparent just how long Jersey Joe had been at on the road without making it to the top.

Walcott then lost to Top Ten contender Rex Layne, and again to Ezzard Charles over 15 rounds and the stock options on one Jersey Joe Walcott could be had for pennies.

Yet the gods of boxing weren't finished yet with Joe. Ezzard Charles had defended his title against the tough Rex Layne and then against clever Joey Maxim, as well as a KO of Joe Kahut, and the men behind the champ were looking for a "safe" fight for his next outing. And what could be safer than old Joe Walcott, a man he'd already beaten twice? It was a miscalculation that cost Charles his title, for even though Walcott was now 37 years old, he seemed to be getting better with age.

In the seventh round, Joe's "sneak" left hook once again did him service and Ezzard Charles was knocked out, the victim of what Ezz called, "a sucker punch". Walcott had at last attained the title after a journey of almost a quarter century. In the rematch he held Charles to a 15 round decision and his manager announced that they would only defend the title once a year. Unfortunately, the first defense after Ezzard was a hungry young swarmer named Rocky Marciano. Unlike Walcott, the challenger's journey to the title shot had been straight and undeterred, battering down opponents both good and bad with equal disdain. He was undefeated, and even more, he had no concept of defeat. Still, Walcott held him in little regard, laughing at his crude, though effective, style and declaring, "If I can't beat this bum, take my name out of the record books."

Showing none of his age, and every intention of keeping the title, Walcott boxed and moved like a 28 year old fighter, rather than the 38 year old man he was. In the first round he dropped Marciano with the same unexpected left hook that had dropped Louis several times and knocked Ezzard Charles out. But Marciano was stronger than Charles and younger than Louis. He showed no effect from the punch and the two men gave the fans one of the greatest championship fights in the history of the heavyweight division. Jersey Joe was winning on all three score cards until the 13th round, when he stepped back to the ropes to try to sucker Marciano in. Joe shifted to his left and
began to throw a right hand at the incoming Marciano, but Marciano threw leather at the same time. Rocky's punch arrived first, a murderous right hand that exploded off the champion's jaw.

As one sportswriter at ringside said, "You could see his body quiver with the shock. His lips, cheeks, nose and eyes all seemed to shake loose and run together like blobs of wet mud. Then he sank slowly, painfully, pathetically. When he fluttered to the canvas, he had no more life than a rag doll."

Joe lost his title unconscious on the floor. In the rematch he would be knocked out in the first round and retire permanently from boxing. The crown had been his a mere 14 months of a 22 year career.

Few men ever journey so far and so long to hold a thing of value for such a short time, but perhaps in Walcott the journey was the thing. The opportunities missed, the odds seemingly against him at every turn, it was the persistence of Jersey Joe Walcott that made his short championship a destination worthy of the climb.

 

 


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