June 22, 1938: Joe Louis, Heavyweight Champion of the World, steps into the ring at the original Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, under temporary lights -- The Stadium will not have permanent lights until 1946 -- in front of a crowd of 80,000 to fight former Heavyweight Champion Max Schmeling.
Born in Alabama as Joseph Louis Barrow, but trained to fight in Detroit, "the Brown Bomber" was the Motor City's 1st great fighter. By 1935, he was challenging men who had been Heavyweight Champion of the World, and winning. In 1936, he lost for the 1st time, to Schmeling.
But he recovered, won 6 more fights, and got a title shot against Champion Jim Braddock, knocking him out at Comiskey Park in Chicago on June 22, 1937. This completed an era in which the Detroit Tigers won back-to-back American League Pennants and a World Series, the Lions won an NFL Championship, and the Red Wings won back-to-back Stanley Cups. Detroit became the 1st city ever to call itself "the City of Champions," and they were right.
There were 5 men who were Heavyweight Champion in the 1930s before Louis, and he had beaten 4 of them: Braddock, Max Baer, Primo Carnera and Jack Sharkey. But he said he wouldn't consider himself the real champ until he beat Schmeling.
Schmeling had previously been rather popular in America. He looked a bit like 1920s Champion Jack Dempsey. Although he had a heavy accent, he spoke fluent English, and was accommodating to the American media. German-Americans were still the nation's largest ethnic group, far ahead of the Irish, the Italians, and all others. And while Germans were despised in America during World War I, that was no longer the case during Schmeling's title-hold, 1930 to 1932.
But at this point, Nazi Germany was holding Schmeling up as an example of "Aryan supremacy." Schmeling didn't like that. He wasn't a bigot. And, with his dark complexion, dark hair, and thick eyebrows, he looked more like one of the Jews that the Nazis hated than a blond, blue-eyed Aryan
Übermensch. Even when World War II came, and he was a paratrooper in the German army -- thus forcing him to swear an oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler -- he was never a member of the National Socialist Party.
That didn't matter: A message had to be sent to fascists all over the world: America wasn't going to accept anyone as their "masters." And a black man was ready to deliver that message. Going into the fight, President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with Louis, and told him he had to win for all America. And the day of the fight, Louis told a friend, "I'm afraid I'm going to kill Schmeling."
That didn't matter: A message had to be sent to fascists all over the world: America wasn't going to accept anyone as their "masters." And a black man was ready to deliver that message. Going into the fight, President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with Louis, and told him he had to win for all America. And the day of the fight, Louis told a friend, "I'm afraid I'm going to kill Schmeling."
He didn't kill Schmeling. But he sent the message: The fight lasted 2 minutes and 4 seconds. The film shows Schmeling screaming in pain at one point. Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, ordered the radio network broadcasting the fight throughout the Third Reich to stop broadcasting before Schmeling could be counted out.
Louis was now a hero to all America, white and black alike. He defended the Heavyweight Championship more times than anyone, 25. He held it continuously longer than anyone, 12 years. How he was treated after retiring as Champion is another story, as he was dogged by the taxman and ill health, dying in 1981. He was given a hero's burial at Arlington National Cemetery. Schmeling was one of his pallbearers.
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June 22, 1938 was a Wednesday. It was the off-season for the NFL, the NBA and the NHL. But there were Major League Baseball games scheduled for that day:
* The fight had been scheduled for Yankee Stadium because it was the biggest stadium in the biggest city, and the Yankees were on the road at the time. They were swept by the Cleveland Indians in a doubleheader at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Mel Harder outpitched Lefty Gomez, and the Indians won the 1st game 3-1. In the 2nd game, former Yankee Johnny Allen went the distance, beating Monte Pearson, and the Indians won 7-1.
* The New York Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-4 at the Polo Grounds.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Boston Bees, 4-2 at Braves Field in Boston. The Boston team's name had been changed after a terrible 1935 season, but the ballpark's hadn't been, although it was now nicknamed The Bee Hive. The team became the Braves again in 1941.
* The Detroit Tigers beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-3 at Briggs Stadium (later renamed Tiger Stadium) in Detroit.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Washington Senators, 16-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.
* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the St. Louis Browns, 7-1 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.
* And the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Chicago Cubs, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Pittsburgh Pirates were not scheduled.