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LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) - Joe Louis,
"the Brown Bomber" whose 12-year
reign as world heavyweight champion
placed him among history's greatest
fighters and made him a symbol for gen-
erations, died Sunday of cardiac arrest.
He was 66.
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"He was in a cardiac arrest state
when
he arrived," said nursing supervisor
Shirley Brown at Desert Springs Hospi-
tal. "They did everything they could to
revive him." She said Louis died at 10:05
a.m., PST, less than 12 hours after he
had sat at ringside at the Caesar Palace
Sports Pavilion to watch Larry Holmes
retain his heavyweight crown.
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"He had been ill for quite some
time.
He had been hospitalized before. He had
had a stroke and different things," said
Brown, adding that Louis' wife, Martha,
and some immediate family members
were with him when he died.
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He lost only three of 71 fights, the
first
to Max Schmeling of Germany in 1936.
Schmeling was an unwilling pawn of
Adolph Hitler, held aloft as a symbol of
so-called Aryan supremacy. When they
fought again two years later - Louis
was the champion by then - it was more
than two men in the ring. It was America
vs. Germany, Democracy vs. Nazism.
Louis won on a murderous first-round
knockout.
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On Sunday, when the tributes began
pouring in, one of them came from
Schmeling, now 75 and living in Ham-
burg, West Germany.
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"Joe was a boxing genius," he
said.
"In his time he was a symbol for the
black American people."
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Jersey Joe Walcott, who lost two
title
fights to Louis, tearfully called him "a
great American. He was a great cham-
pion in every walk of life. The man has
been a great inspiration in so many ways
to so many people."
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Called the Brown Bomber for his
punch and string of knockout victories,
Louis was just 23 when he won the title
by knocking out 31-year-old James J.
Braddock in the eighth round at Chicago
in 1937.
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He had a 35-1 record, including
31
knockouts at the time he first won the
heavyweight title.
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In 17 years as a boxer - almost
four
years of that time was spent in the army
during World War II - he earned nearly
$5 million. He had little to show for it
when he was through and was in con-
stant difficulty with the government on
income taxes.
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When he retired for the first time,
on
March 1, 1949, he told reporters: "I'm
glad to retire. It takes a load off my
mind. I could see that I couldn't fight
any more and rather than lose the title
in the ring, I decided to quit."
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But 27 months later he came out
of
retirement with a pressing need for
money, an urge to fight again and confi-
dence that he could beat reigning cham-
pion Ezzard Charles.
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He met Charles on Sept. 27, 1950,
and
was soundly beaten in a 15-round bout.
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"I'll never fight again," he said
through swollen lips.
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But just two months later he was
back
in action with a string of victories.
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His career in the ring finally
came
to an end when he met Rocky Marciano
in Oct. 26, 1951, at the age of 37. Mar-
ciano 28, knocked him out in the eighth
round.
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In 71 fights as a professional after
he
graduated from the Golden Gloves in
Detroit, the Brown Bomber scored 54
knockouts in posting a 68-3 record.
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Louis confined to a wheelchair
since
heart surgery in 1977, attended the Larry
Holmes-Trevor Berbick heavyweight
title fight Saturday night at Ceasars Pa-
lace. On April 6 he had been feted by
some 1,500 people at a salute in his honor
attended by former boxing greats.
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Louis defended his title a record
25
times before retiring.
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But he was a legend long before
then.
His deadly punching combinations and
ability to finish off an opponent who was
in trouble made him one of the great
fighters.
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Louis remained extremely popular
even after he left the ring following an
unseccessful comeback in 1950-51.
Money and psychiatric problems failed
to dim the glory he achieved as a fighter.
Not even a fling at being a proessional
wrestler could detract from his accom-
plishments. He was always the champ,
and a man of pride.
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When asked why he turned to the
car-
nival world of professional wrestling - a
move dictated by massive tax indebted-
ness - Louis remarked: "It's an honest
living and it's better than stealing."
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Louis fought a record 26
championship
bouts, 25 of them defenses, without a
loss and many of those fights will be dis-
cussed as long as people talk about box-
ing, especially his rematch with Max
Schmeling and his first fight with Billy
Conn.
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Louis was born Joseph Louis
Barrow
May 13, 1914, in Lafayette, Ala. He was
raised in a Detroit ghetto and became a
professional fighter in 1934. His career
was spectacular from the start.
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He won his first 28 fights before
being
knocked out by Schmeling, a former
world heavyweight champion from Ger-
many, in the 12th round June 19, 1936,
but he didn't forget the loss to Schmeling.
After knocking out Braddock in Chicago
in 1937, Louis said: "I won't be champion
until I get that Schmeling."
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On June 22, 1938, in Yankee
Stadium,
Louis got him.
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"He tried a right to my head but
it
went around me," Louis said, recalling
the fight many years later. "I left-jabbed
him mean and brought his guard low.
I drove a right to the jaw with all I had.
I put my body into it. It threw him on
the ropes and his knees buckled. I caught
him coming off the ropes and ripped
one into his belly. He screamed like a
stuck pig."
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Schmeling crashed to the floor
three
times before referee Arthur Donovan
stopped it at 2:04 of the first round. The
United States rejoiced. Adolf Hitler was
in power at the time.
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"Billy Conn was the best man I
ever
fought," Louis once said.
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His first fight with the
Pittsburgh
Irishman, the formwer light heavyweight
champion, took place in New York's
Polo Grounds June 18, 1941. It has be-
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