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By JOE REICHLER
_
NEW YORK, Oct. 27 A.P. - Tears
flowed openly and unashamedly
in Joe Louis' dressing room - but
not from Joe.
_
There wasn't a dry eye - except
those of the former great heavy-
weight champion. His were bright
and clear.
_
Middleweight Champion Ray
Robinson sobbed softly. Ex-heavy-
weight champion Ezzard Charles
blinked and blinked. Others in the
sweaty room. some of them veter-
an newspapermen, had large
lumps in their throats. The only
lumps Louis had were on his
cheeks and forehead.
_
They realized it was the end
of an era. Louis' glorious and his-
tory-making ring days were over.
_
Everybody hated to see it end
that way - Louis sprawled out, flat
on his back on the ring apron, his
legs tangled around the ropes -
knocked out by Rocky Marciano,
a rough, tough, hard-punching kid
out of Brockton, Mass.
_
Rocky was just a kid, who three
years ago was digging ditches,
working in a shoe factory, wash-
ing dishes - never dreaming that
one day he would be fighting
against the great Joe Louis, let
alone knocking him out.
_
Secretly, however, those in the
hot steaming room listening to the
balding, 37-year-old gladiator
mumble replies last night to
countless questions, were glad Joe
had lost.
_
Maybe now, they reasoned,
Louis would see the light. Maybe
now, they hoped, Joe would real-
ize he is but a shell of his former
self. Maybe now he would decide
once and for all to quit before he
suffered serious injury.
_
"Please, Joe, quit," they were
thinking. "Say it is so."
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But Louis, his face bloated, his
lips and nose puffed, his left hand
swollen and in pain, his legs and
body weary, would not say. Al-
ways truthful and to the point
with his answers, Joe parried this
question.
_
"I'd rather not say now," he
muttered in a voice that was bare-
ly auduble. "I'll let you know
Monday in the IBC office."
_
"I don't want to make a hasty
decision," he added. "I had an ex-
hibition tour planned (to Tokyo
and Korea). It all depends upon
whether the people will still want
me to go through with it."
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"Maybe they won't want me
now," he said as an afterthought.
_
Louis had nothing but praise for
Marciano, the first to score a kayo
over him since Max Schemling
flattened him on June 19, 1935.
_
"He's a good, strong fighter, a
stiff puncher and hard to hit,"
said Joe. "He knocked me out
with a right hand, but it was his
left that set me up. That one did
the trick."
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Marciano's dressing room re-
sembled a madhouse, but Rocky
shared little of the wild exulta-
tion. He was naturally elated with
the most important triumph of his
life, but he looked soberly about
as he spoke of Louis.
_
"I feel sorry for Joe," he said
seriously. "I'm glad I won, but I
feel sorry I had to do it to him."
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Marciano grinned for photogra-
phers and hugged Charley Gold-
man, his pudgy little trainer. But
his elation seemed entirely syn-
thetic. It was as if his heart wasn't
in it. He also seemed downheart-
ed .
_
"I knew I was going to catch
him with a left hook," he explain-
ed. "He was dropping his right."
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Rocky took some punishment,
too, and he showed it. His nose
was bleeding badly and there
were cuts over and under both
his eyes.
_
"Joe's left jabs," he explained.
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"What surprised me was that
Joe didn't have much of a right.
They told me he had lost some of
his power, but I didn't expect
nothing. That's what his right
hand was - nothing."
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Louis accepted his defeat calm-
ly, too calmly, his well wishers
thought.
_
"It's no use crying," he said
philosophically. "The better man
won. That's all."
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"I'm not too disappointed. I
only hope everybody feels the
way I do about it. I'm not looking
for sympathy from anybody. I
have no alibis. I hurt my hand in
my last fight (against Jimmy Biv-
ins last August), but it didn't
bother me much tonight. I wasn't
hurt much. I was just tired.
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Louis gave a hint he might re-
tire when he said:
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"Well, I guess everything hap-
pens for the best. I guess I am just
too old."
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Please, Joe, say it is so.
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