Ezzard Charles : a boxing life

232 Pages·2015·19.588 MB·English

by  Charles, Ezzard, Dettloff, William

Ezzard Charles
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Ezzard Charles
A Boxing Life
William Dettloff
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Dettloff, William.
Ezzard Charles : a boxing life / William Dettloff.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7864-9743-0 (softcover : acid free paper) ♾
ISBN 978-1-4766-1947-7 (ebook)
1. Charles, Ezzard, 1921–1975 2. Boxers (Sports)—
United States—Biography. I. Title.
GV1132.A44D47 2015 796.83092—dc23 [B] 2015014215
BRITISHLIBRARYCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE
© 2015 William Dettloff. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
On the cover: Ezzard Charles poses wearing heavyweight world
title belt circa 1950 (photograph courtesy of Lou Manfra)
Printed in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
To Kim
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Preface 1
Introduction 3
1. Snooks 5
2. No Cheap Ambition 16
3. Jake 26
4. The Garden 34
5. Baroudi 48
6. The Price 57
7. Going Heavy 64
8. Hey, Aren’t You Ezzard Charles? 77
9. Joe 91
10. Unforgivable 108
11. What They Came For 126
12. A Good Race Horse 144
13. Rocky 166
14. How Much Is Enough? 185
15. The Flood 195
Chapter Notes 205
Bibliography 214
Index 217
vii
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Acknowledgments
There are many people without whose support this work wouldn’t have come to be, not
the least of whom is Nigel Collins, the former longtime e ditor-i n-chief of Ringmaga-
zine. Besides giving me a voice and doing his best to fashion me into a passable writer over
my career at The Ring, Nigel gave me full access to the entire Ringarchive for the purposes
of researching this work, even as my association with the magazine was ending. His guid-
ance and support were invaluable.
I owe a great debt to my parents, William and Priscilla Dettloff, and to my parents-
in-law, Salvatore and Jean Minetta, all gone too soon. I must thank Ray and Marilyn Dowd,
who opened their home to me many years ago and encouraged my writing at every turn.
My gratitute also to Steve Farhood, whose crisp, fun writing style informed my earliest
exposure to sports journalism and whose prose I strove to emulate when, by some wonderful
accident of the universe, I started writing for him.
My sister, Mary D ettloff-R eilly, also has my deep gratitude for her steady and unyield-
ing support over the book’s long development. Whether I needed inspiration or an educated
opinion on a dubious turn of phrase, she was there, always willing to inspire, to guide, and
to help. I am not convinced it would have been written if not for her.
Two people who were close to Ezzard Charles took the time to speak with me and
provided information I couldn’t possibly have gotten anywhere else: Richard Christmas,
who was Charles’ boyhood friend and later his personal secretary, and Ezzard Charles II,
who came along when his father was just about done fighting but who shared valuable
insights nonetheless. I will always regret that the book was not done in time for Mr. Christ-
mas to read it; he died in December 2013, about a year after our last conversation.
I am happy and thankful to have gotten the photos included within, contributed by J.
Russell Peltz, Craig Hamilton and Lou Manfra, gentlemen and scholars each, as well as
great friends of the fight game.
It should go without saying that it is the characters themselves and not the writers
that make any story interesting; and if this one is interesting it is because of the wonderful
and awful characters who inhabited Ezzard Charles’ world. So it is the forgotten kings and
their kind who have my profound gratitude: the great Black Murderer’s Row, the journey-
men pugs, the champions and the gangsters, the nameless sparring partners and bucket-
carriers and late- night card- players who provided the backdrop to Charles’ life. It is the
Cotton Club and Toots Shor’s and Dempsey’s and the ladies and the c heap-s eat b oo-b irds.
They’re all gone now, or will be soon, just as we will be. I can only hope that this work con-
veys to the reader just a hint of what it was like when they lived and breathed.
I would be remiss if I didn’t use this space to thank my agent, Richard Henshaw, and
ix