YANKEE STADIUM
161ST STREET & RIVER AVENUE

TWENTIETH CENTURY SPORTING CLUB PRESENTS

WORLD'S HEAVYWEIGHT
CHAMPIONSHIP
JOE LOUIS vs
MAXSCHMELING
$20.00
Wednesday   Eve'g,    JUNE  22,    1938

 

Mezza Stand
EST. PRICE $17,3470
Federal Tax         1.74
State Tax           .9130

TWENTIETH CENTURY SPORTING CLUB,Inc.
Michael  S.  Jacobs
PROMOTER
 
 
 
   

Here is the full on-site ticket to the Joe Louis-Max Schmeling II heavyweight championship which took place at Yankee Stadium on June 22, 1938... This fight was the second meeting of the two and was rivaled only by the Johnson-Jeffries contest, 28 years prior, as far as a political and sociological standpoint in American sport history... A rare historical item!!

measures: 2.75 x 7.25"
condition: corners slightly rounded with minor abrasions, otherwise fine

sold

 
 


Joe Louis-Max Schmeling II
June 22, 1938
 

  
         The year was 1938. Europe was throbbing to the sound of goose-stepping boots and a demented paper-hanger's mad ravings. War was less than 15 months away and every arena was being used for propaganda purposes-even the sports arena.
       It all started in 1936. That year, the Berlin Olympics had been used as a forum to promote Aryan superiority. Then, on June 22, 1938, it spread to the boxing arena, where Hitler's pride, Max Schmeling, took on American Schwartzer, Joe Louis, for the heavyweight championship of the world.
       No other fight in boxing history had such political and sociological overtones-not even the Jack Johnson-Jim Jeffries fight 28 years before. The Schmeling-Louis fight had more at stake than boxing supremacy; the winner could boast to the world of his racial might.
       Louis and Schmeling had met two years before, on June 19, 1936, at Yankee Stadium, when Schmeling was the ex-heavyweight champion of the world and the undefeated Louis was the future heavyweight champion. Louis, the prohibitive favorite-with a record of 27 straight victories, 23 by knockout-began the fight by sticking his left in the black-browed German's face, winning rounds and closing Schmeling's left eye. But in round 4, eschewing his successful style, Louis changed from a jab to a left hook, and Schmeling, who claimed he had "seed something" in films of Louis' previous fights, proceeded to cross his straight right inside of Louis' hooks. One of Schmeling's overhand rights caught Louis on the head and drove him to the canvas. "The Brown Bomber" arose shakily at the count of two, but was obviously in trouble; he was so dazed he didn't even hear the bell for the end of the round. From that point on, it was only a matter of time until the end, which finally-and mercifully-came at 2:29 of the twelfth round when Schmeling clubbed Louis with two more overhand rights.
       Suddenly, the supposedly invincible Louis was, in the words of the New York World-Telegram, just an "ordinary boxer." And "Unser Max" was the toast of the totalitarian world. Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels, the dreaded head of the Nazi propaganda machine, called Schmeling's wife to tell her the news, and offered his, and Der Fuehrer's, heartiest congratulations.
       Now, two years later-and one year to the day after he had won the heavyweight championship of the world by knocking out Jim Braddock in eight rounds-Louis entered the ring at Yankee Stadium to defend his title for the fourth time. This time he was to fight against the only man who had ever beaten him, Max Schmeling.
       With the betting crowd in Louis' corner, favoring him at 9-5, and Der Fuehrer in Schmeling's corner (Hitler called him personally before he left the dressing room), the two combatants came to the middle of the ring for the final instructions from referee Arthur Donovan. That would be the last time the outcome was in doubt.
       Almost as soon as the bell for round 1 sounded, the champion was across the ring, swarming all over his former conqueror. As the crowd of 75,000 howled, Louis whipped a left hook to the German's chin and then rained rights and lefts to the body of the helpless challenger, sending him to his knees before the fight was 30 seconds old.
       Louis drove Schmeling to the canvas three more times, with a vicious body attack. Schmeling staggered to his unsteady feet twice. The third time a towel fluttered in and Arthur Donovan called a finish to the fight at just 2:04 of the first round.
       Even before the final knockdown, heavy-lidded Germans, gathered by their shortwave radio sets at three in the morning, had begun to turn them off and return to staring glumly into their half-empty beer steins. In black ghettos throughout America, celebrations were taking place, honoring the man who had brought honor to his people-and to America.		  
 


Bert Randolph Sugar-The Great Fights