Everyone knew who was heavyweight champion

[vito]

I just re-watched "Cinderella Man" with Russell Crowe. I had forgotten what a good film this is. And it made me think about when I was a kid, and even a young adult. In those days, i.e., the 1950's through the 1960's and even a bit beyond that, EVERYONE knew who the heavyweight boxing champion was. Most people, even those not particularly interested in sports, also knew some of the other weight division champions. Boxing, along with major league baseball and horse racing were the sports that pretty much all Americans were aware of. In those days you could ask most anyone at all what the name was of the horse than won the Kentucky Derby, and you could certainly ask who was the heavyweight champion. Names like Rocky Marciano, Joe Frazier, and later Larry Holmes, and especially Muhammed Ali were household names. Today I have no idea who the various champions are, and I'm not sure that actual boxing is still a thing since the more brutal sports of MMA and the like have become popular. I still remember getting to watch Rocky Mariano knock out Archie Moore in 1955. I was 12, and watched it with my Dad (who himself had been a welterweight professional fighter for 6 years well before I was born). Seems like that was centuries ago.

 

[Bob Wright]

Ah, indeed! Rocky Marciano, Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey, Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Marilyn Monroe, Bart Starr, Bob Feller, Lou Thesz, Hank Greenburg, Ted Williams, Whirlaway, Gallant Fox, Seabiscuit, Twenty Grand..... names that rolled off the tongue whenever men got together!

Bob Wright

 

[vito]

And maybe the greatest horse of all time, the gelding Kelso. Carmine Basillo vs Sugar Ray Robinson. Archie Moore versus ANYONE (until he got too old but kept fighting).

 

[bogus bill]

In the early fifty's we lived in a small village in Wi. I seen my first boxing match AND tv program. Hardly anyone I knew owned a tv yet. A old neighbor invited about six of us boys over to watch a match. Everyone was hollering loud. Cant recall who the boxers were but the old man (about 75) was yelling racial slurs at the black boxer big time!

 

[Fox Mike]

My dad and I had tickets to the second Marciano - Walcott fight but had to give them away because we couldn't get to Chicago. It was a good thing. We probably wouldn't have sat down before it would have been over.

 

[Jimbo357mag]

I wasn't born yet but I knew the names in my youth.
Seabiscuit vs. War Admiral a great video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVT2MPNCqgM

 

[sfhogman]

The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports, with of course the Gillette marching jingle!

 

[bogus bill]

Gillette sponsored the Friday night fights in the 1950`s, I recall one ad showing a tough drill instructor yelling at a recruit to " Get back in there and stand closer to his razor!".

 

[Ray Newman]

Vito: your post brought back memories! I don't recall the horses, even though Franklin Square (my hometown) was a few miles east of Belmont Race Track on the Hempstead Turnpike. Those were the days of the Yankees being a real baseball powerhouse. O'Malley was called "traitor" when he moved Brooklyn to LA. The Giants and Dodger teams and fans were rivals. Plus the NY Daily News ahd the Davy Crockett comic series!

My SWAG (Scientific Wild Arsed Guess) is that part of the reason for the widespread interest in sports back in the 1950's and into the part of the 1960's, was people really did have access to many things outside their daily lives. Radio still was big as it was on 24/7. TV was new and I remember the stations going off the air between 11 and 12 PM and coming back on about 6-7 AM. No computers or computer games to play. No cable TV with almost unlimited access to programs. A number of people did not have a car and most/the majority of families only had one car.

I also remember that many claimed the Lucky Strike cigarette ad slogan "LSMFT" (Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco) really meant "Lord Save me from Truman".

Thanks for taking me back!

 

[caryc]

Yep, I used to know who was the champ. These days, I really don't give a crap. I've got more things to worry about than to muddle up my mind with sports statistics.

With all the politics getting into sports, I don't care one bit about the over paid prima donas any more. They think they are such all important people but what I think of them I really can't say here. They make me sick :evil:

 

[Jeepnik]

The first sport I gave up on was Pro boxing. When they let Ali return to boxing they proved the sport was a disreputable as Ali.