Olympic Moment 1936

[Spartacus]

 

[Spartacus]

 

[75th]

You ever see the movie Contact?

Thats when Hitler blast his speech into space, and those fuckers from Vega sent it back to us.

 

[Spartacus]

 

[Spartacus]

In his long life, Schmeling experienced fortunes of dramatic contrast. Born in 1905 during the days of the Kaiser, he went hungry during the "Turniptop Winter" of World War I. But he took up professional boxing in the 1920s and at the start of next decade he became world heavyweight champion.

By the time of his first fight with Louis at the Yankee Stadium in New York six years later, Schmeling was considered past his best and the Nazis tried to have the fight called off.
Louis was 22 and unbeaten, but complacent and out of condition. Even so, the world gasped when he was knocked out in the 12th round by Schmeling, who then carried Louis to his corner.

 

[Spartacus]

 

[Spartacus]

"Max Schmeling, a German, had knocked out Louis in the 12th round of a fight in 1936. The next year, Louis had won the heavyweight championship. Early in '38, the world teetered on the brink of World War II and the Louis-Schmeling rematch had become a metaphor of that coming war."

 

[Spartacus]

In the 1930s Schmeling was often seen with Hitler and other prominent Nazis. The Third Reich also persuaded Schmeling to help convince the US Olympic Committee not to boycott the 1936 Berlin Olympics, something that Schmeling later claimed was extreme naivete on his part. But Schmeling also resisted considerable pressure on him to join the Nazi party, which he never did. He also rejected demands that he drop his American manager, Joe Jacobs, who was Jewish. Schmeling refused, stating that he had to remain loyal to the man who had made it possible for him to become the world heavyweight champion.

By 1938 Joe Louis was anxious for a chance to redeem himself. On June 22 it took only 124 seconds for him to knock out the older Schmeling, who had also fallen out of shape. Poor Schmeling was hospitalized before he returned home to the Fatherland, only to be shunned by the Nazis and most German sports fans. It is a tribute to his character that he never held his defeat against Louis. In fact, in later years, when Schmeling was leading a prosperous life as the owner of the Coca-Cola franchise in Germany, and Louis was down and out, he visited the black boxer in Chicago and helped him financially.

 

[Spartacus]

Before Joe Louis' death in 1981, Schmeling and Louis saw each other about a dozen times. Were they really close friends, as the story goes? There can be no doubt that Schmeling was generous to his former opponent, helping him out financially after Louis' boxing career was over and he had been hounded by the IRS. At the time of his death, Louis was working as a casino greeter in Las Vegas (a fate he shared with Johnny "Tarzan" Weissmuller). In the PBS TV show "The American Experience," writer David Margolick makes this comment:


"It has become convenient to say that Joe Louis and Max Schmeling ended up as great friends. I don't think they were great friends. They barely knew each other. They spent only forty minutes together in the ring. History brought them together and in history they will always be together." - NEH/PBS

On February 2, 2005, Max Schmeling died, less than a year away from his expressed goal of living to be a hundred.

 

[the_alcatraz]

This reminds me of:

Bobby Fisher vs. the russia chess player

it was the highest paid chess game and sports event in history

 

[Spartacus]

This reminds me of:

Bobby Fisher vs. the russia chess player

it was the highest paid chess game and sports event in history

I believe it was boris spassky

I was a chess fiend in my youth

 

[Mr. dB]

Louis died in 1981; Schmeling, linked by history forever with his old nemesis, helped pay for the funeral.