Joe Louis Trivia

1. Like most heavyweight champions, Joe Louis had a nickname that described his fearless attitude in the ring. Joe Louis took on all comers, ducking no one. What was the most famous nickname that he was known by?

From Quiz The Great Joe Louis

Answer: Brown Bomber

Born Joe Louis Barrow in Lafayette, Alabama on May 13, 1914, Louis' mother had him take violin lessons as a child in the belief that a musician could earn good money, even when times were tough. It did not take Louis' mother long to realize that playing the violin was not his greatest talent.

From Quiz Joe Louis: "The Greatest Boxer"

Answer: Detroit, Michigan

Joseph Louis Barrow was born in La Fayette, Alabama. He grew up in Detroit, the seventh of eight children born to farmer parents. When Louis was two years old, his mother, Lillie, was told that his father, Monroe, had died in the Searcy State Hospital for the Colored Insane. This was not true. His father lived for twenty more years. Lillie remarried and migrated to the north, to Michigan. Louis was unprepared for school when he was twelve years old, and teachers put him in classes with much younger children. In his growing up years, he developed a stammer. His mother, trying to 'save' him, paid for violin lessons. Louis took this money to begin boxing as Joe Louis. Soon, his mother then began to support his boxing, believing it would give him a solid path in the future.

From Quiz All-Time Great: Joe Louis

Answer: The Brown Bomber

'Bomber' for his devastating punching power, 'Brown' because he was African American. Remember, this was in a time of open segregation.

From Quiz The Great Joe Louis

Answer: John Roxborough

John Roxborough served as his manager for most of Joe's professional career. Roxborough was born in Detroit, Michigan on February 21, 1892. One of the most important moves he made as manager, was the hiring of Jack Blackburn to coach Louis in the ring. Roxborough also was mindful of Louis' pubic image with white America and was very careful to not allow Joe to be seen drinking alcohol in public, and he forbade Joe from having any pictures of himself taken with white women.

From Quiz Joe Louis: "The Greatest Boxer"

Answer: ever have his picture taken with a white woman

Louis once was photographed with a white teenage girl for a high school newspaper in Michigan, but this did not cause trouble. Louis firmly refused to be seen in a picture with a watermelon; this action was his stand against racial stereotyping. Early on, working for Roxborough and Black, there were three other things Louis was not supposed to do: "gloat over a fallen opponent," "never engage in fixed fights" and "live and fight clean." (source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Louis) In general, Louis was taught early on to not show excess emotion, and he rarely showed emotion in public. Since he had developed a stammer as a young man, he was careful not to say too much in public either. Louis was married four times, twice to his first wife.

From Quiz All-Time Great: Joe Louis

Answer: Detroit, Michigan

Louis' mother lived in Detroit all her life. Louis got his first job in a Detroit ice company, and got his start boxing at the Detroit Athletic Club. He loved the Lions and thought of the city as his home.

From Quiz The Great Joe Louis

Answer: Max Schmeling

Schmeling was born in Brandenburg, Germany on September 28, 1905. His first professional fight took place on August, 2, 1924. He served as the European Light Heavyweight Champion from 1927-1928. He won the heavyweight title on June 12, 1930 against Jack Sharkey. Schmeling passed away on February 2, 2005.

From Quiz Joe Louis: "The Greatest Boxer"

Answer: heavyweight

Louis was heavyweight champion from 1937 to 1949. In the ring, he was renowned for his left jab and his sheer power. There are some seventeen weight classifications in professional boxing for males. Heavyweight boxers weigh over 200 pounds. There are also cruiserweight (or junior heavyweight) and light heavyweight classes.

From Quiz All-Time Great: Joe Louis

Answer: Three

The three losses were against Max Schmeling, Ezzard Charles, and Rocky Marciano.

From Quiz All-Time Great: Joe Louis

Answer: James Braddock

'The Cinderella Man' Braddock was one of the least impressive heavyweight champs, with a record of 45-23-4 (and a lot of those wins came against guys with zero previous experience). He was KOed by Louis in 8. It was his very first title defense. Ha ha!

From Quiz Joe Louis: "The Greatest Boxer"

Answer: James J. Braddock

This fight took place on June 22, 1937 at Comiskey Park, with over of fifty thousand fans in attendance. Although Braddock (also known as "Cinderella Man") knocked Louis down in the first round, Louis went on to win the fight in the eighth round. Braddock was taking medicine against arthritic pain during this fight and he became very affected by it. Louis later said of Braddock that "he was the most courageous fighter I have ever fought." Overall, Joe Louis was a trail-blazer who paved the way for black boxers to become world champions, since, previous to him, there had been a color barrier. Jack Johnson had been a champion, but his style had shocked many white audiences. Jack Johnson had actually been the first heavyweight boxing champion (1908-1915), but his fights became contentious and the scene of near riots. In a 1910 fight against James Jeffries, Jeffries said, "I am going into this fight for the sole purpose of proving that a white man is better than a Negro." (for more on Jeffries, see sports.jrank.org/collection/19/Boxing.html)

From Quiz All-Time Great: Joe Louis

Answer: Thirty-seven

He was KOed in 8. It was 1951. Louis had retired the heavyweight title two years previously, after holding it for twelve years. I think if Louis had been in his prime for this fight instead of nearing 40, he might well have tarnished Rocky's flawless record.

From Quiz Joe Louis: "The Greatest Boxer"

Answer: Gene Tunney

When Dempsey lost, he told his wife Estelle Taylor, "Honey, I forgot to duck," a quip U.S. President Ronald Reagan used with regard to the failed assassination attempt on him in 1981. Dempsey fought Tunney again almost a year after his defeat. Word has it that Al Capone offered to fix the rematch, but Dempsey would have nothing to do with it. Dempsey lost the rematch; many criticize what they call "the long count." Jack Dempsey was the heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926. Jack Dempsey and Joe Louis are regularly compared as two of the greatest boxers ever. Dempsey's boxing matches were tremendously lucrative and popular. He was an aggressive and powerful puncher--ranked at number 7 of the 'greatest punchers of all time" on "Ring Magazine's" list. Former heavyweight champion Jack Johnson said of the two, "Jack Dempsey was the better, stronger puncher on the attack, but Joe Louis could knock anybody's brains out that he caught coming in."

From Quiz All-Time Great: Joe Louis

Answer: One

It was a first-round TKO. Schmeling was unfairly portrayed as a Nazi and Louis was made to be a symbol of American toughness as WWII loomed. Symbolism aside, Louis sure avenged the earlier 12th-round KO loss, at that time his only loss.

From Quiz Joe Louis: "The Greatest Boxer"

Answer: Adolf Hitler

Noted author and member of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes, described Louis's overall effect during the Depression and in World War II in these terms: "Each time Joe Louis won a fight in those depression years, even before he became champion, thousands of colored Americans on relief or W.P.A., and poor, would throng out into the streets all across the land to march and cheer and yell and cry because of Joe's one-man triumphs. No one else in the United States has ever had such an effect on Negro emotions - or on mine. I marched and cheered and yelled and cried." (Source: Langston Hughes, (2002). Joseph McLaren. ed. 'Autobiography: The Collected Works of Langston Hughes,' Vol. 14. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press. at p. 307) Joe Louis traveled extensively and often faced overt racism. Once, a military policeman commanded Louis to move his seat to the rear of an Alabama Army camp bus depot. Louis is reported to have declared, "We ain't moving." The MP wanted to arrest him, but Louis persuasively argued his way out of imprisonment. Similarly, once it is said that Louis was forced to try bribery in order to convince a commanding officer to drop charges against him for hitting an officer who called him a "nigger."

From Quiz All-Time Great: Joe Louis

Answer: Sergeant

As a sergeant during World War II, Louis mostly fought exhibition matches to entertain the troops and raise funds. He ended up donating around {$100,000} to armed forces relief efforts.

From Quiz All-Time Great: Joe Louis

Answer: 25

Twenty-five defenses, so many that his opponents came to be called 'The Bum Of the Month' club. Twenty-one came by KO.

From Quiz Joe Louis: "The Greatest Boxer"

Answer: Jersey Joe Walcott

From January 1939 through May 1941, Louis defended his title thirteen times. He finished his career with a 68-3 record, which included a convincing 54 knockouts. After his fight with Walcott, he did not fight for two years. His winning years were apparently over. In 1950, he lost a debated decision to Ezzard Charles, who was his successor as world heavyweight champion, and Louis retired completely after Rocky Marciano knocked him out in 1951.

From Quiz All-Time Great: Joe Louis

Answer: Jersey Joe Walcott

His first title fight with Walcott was a split decision, but Louis' final title defense was a KO of Walcott in 11. The decision against Godoy was validated by a KO in 8 the same year.

From Quiz The Great Joe Louis

Answer: Wrestling

Most sports fans do not think of Joe Louis as a wrestler. One of his better known wresting matches was against Cowboy Rocky Lee. Ironically the referee for one of those fights was one of Joe's old opponents, Jersey Joe Walcott.

From Quiz Joe Louis: "The Greatest Boxer"

Answer: Internal Revenue Service

The IRS wanted some $1.25 million in unpaid taxes, interest, and assorted penalties from Louis. In order to attempt to repay this, he turned to professional wrestling for a time to help pay his debts. In 1970 Louis was committed for six months to a psychiatric institution in Colorado as a result of cocaine addiction and paranoia. When he got out of the institution, he became, among other activities, a celebrity 'greeter' of the public at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. Joe Louis's influence continues concretely in many ways, including the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit where the Detroit Red Wings play.

From Quiz All-Time Great: Joe Louis

Answer: 1981

He died of a heart attack April 12th, 1981. I hope you enjoyed this quiz on one of the best fighters to ever don gloves.

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