Sports as metaphor
Joe Louis, the “Brown Bomber,” the pride of Black Americans, versus Max Schmeling, the pride of Nazi Germany.
Their rivalry for the heavyweight boxing title during the late 1930s captivated sports fans across the globe.
And the men became proxies for rival nations.
Their first fight took place in Yankee Stadium in June 1936.
The match pitted the hero of an oppressed people in democratic America against an exemplar of government-enforced white supremacy.
And it happened at a time when, everywhere, the seeds of war were taking root.
Two days before the match, Hitler had appointed SS commander Heinrich Himmler, the architect of the Holocaust, as the Chief of the German Police.
Fascist Italy had invaded Ethiopia.
And both Germany and Italy were aiding the fascist leader of Spain, General Francisco Franco, in the Spanish Civil War.
The Louis-Schmeling fight drew a radio audience of 57 million.
And Schmeling won it with a knockout in the twelfth round of a fifteen-round match.
His victory earned him Hitler’s praise.
Hitler sent Schmeling’s wife, a Czech movie star, a personal note and a bouquet of flowers.
The note said, “For the wonderful victory of your husband, our greatest German boxer, I must congratulate you with all my heart.”
For Hitler, Schmeling’s win was an Aryan triumph.
The fighters staged a rematch in 1938 which drew seventy thousand people, including Hollywood movie stars and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, to the stands of Yankee Stadium.
One hundred million people across the globe listened to the fight on the radio.
But it was a short match.
Louis scored a knockout in the first round after a little more than two minutes.
And it put Schmeling in the hospital for ten days.
Schmeling was no longer a Nazi star.
He got drafted and served for two years as a paratrooper in the Luftwaffe.
Joe Louis’s wartime service was a whole lot better.
The US War Department placed his image on a recruitment poster.
And he toured overseas military bases, putting on exhibition matches for two million troops.
Years later, Louis and Schmeling became lifelong friends.
They had so much in common.
Both had spent lifetimes striving for greatness; and, for a while, each had achieved it.
Their bond was stronger than politics.
That’s the power of sports.
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I’ll see you tomorrow.
— Brenda
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