Bill Sykes' Newsletter
from America.
(March 2005)
An ex-Brit gives his views - (without
fear or favor) - of the American Scene
A short obituary
of a legendary sportsman.
The great
German boxer Max Schmeling died on Wednesday, the
second of February 2005, at the age of ninety-nine
years.
 Max
Schmeling was born in Klein-Luckow, near Hamburg, Germany,
on the 28th of September 1905 and participated in his
first professional fight in 1924, and won his first heavyweight
championship on the 11 th of June 1930, when he defeated
Jack Starkey before 80,00 boxing fans at Yankee Stadium
in New York.
Of course, his two most
well known fights were the battles he fought against
the renowned Joe Louis. The first encounter took place
in front of a crowd of 46,000 fans again at Yankee Stadium
in June of 1936 when the fight was stopped in the 12th
round as Joe Louis could no longer continue and he was
carried out of the arena on a stretcher to the dressing
room.
The second fight on the 22nd of June 1938 saw Joe Louis
slaughter Max  Schmeling,
who was counted out in the first round by referee Arthur
Donavan. Max Schmeling was taken to the Polyclinic in
Manhattan where it was found that he had two broken vertebrae.
This fight, had the largest radio audience of its time, and
incidentally although not really a boxing fan I remember still to this very
day the excitement that I experienced at the young age of twelve years by staying
up into the early hours of the morning to listen to the broadcast on British
radio.
Max Schmeling was later inducted into the German army
and trained as a paratrooper. He was injured when parachuting
into the Island of Crete in May of 1941, and reports
of his death appeared in many American newspapers.
Joe Louis and Max Schmeling met socially several times over the years prior
to the death of Joe Louis in 1981.
It may interest the readership to take a look at an article entitled, "Personal
story concerning Korea", which included an account of an heavyweight
exhibition boxing match that I attended in the suburbs of Hamburg in the
summer of 1948, or was it 1949, in which Max Schmeling fought Walter Neusel,
(The blonde bomber),
If you wish to read the recommended article, it can be found in the Mid-February
2003 edition of "View from America", which is published
on the www.huddersfield1.co.uk website.
We welcome feedback about any of the contents of these
newsletters. Please send all correspondence to bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
|
