Everyone has a limited time in this world, but their influence on other people is important. Joe Louis (Joseph Louis Barrow) was one of those individuals who had a significant influence on the boxing world.
Quick Facts of Joe Louis
| Full name | Joseph Louis Barrow |
| Nickname | Brown Bomber |
| Birthdate | May 13, 1914 |
| Birthplace | Chambers County, Alabama, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Ethnicity | African-American |
| Religion | Catholic |
| Zodiac Sign | Taurus |
| Age | 66 years old (during his death) |
| Father’s name | Munroe Barrow |
| Mother’s name | Lillie Barrow |
| Sibling | Seven |
| Sibling Name | Alvanius Barrow DeLeon Barrow Vunice Barrow Eulalia Barrow Susie Barrow Lonnie Barrow Emmarell Barrow |
| High School |
Bronson Trade School
|
| College | Not Mentioned |
| Marital status | Married |
| Wife’s Name | Martha Jefferson |
| Ex-Wife | Marva Trotter Rose Morgan |
| Children | One son and daughter |
| Children’s Name | Jacqueline Barrow Joseph Louis Barrow Jr. |
| Weight | In Kilograms – 92 kg |
| Height | In Centimetres – 188cm In Feet and Inches – 6 ft 2 in |
| Eye Color | Unknown |
| Hair Color | Unknown |
| Profession | Heavyweights Boxer |
| Stance | Orthodox |
| Total fights | 69 |
| Total wins | 66 |
| Wins by KO | 52 |
| Losses | 3 |
| Medals | Golden Gloves (1934) Chicago Golden Gloves (1934) US National Championships (1934) |
| Death | April 12, 1914 |
| Death place | Paradise, Nevada, U.S. |
| Last Update | September, 2022 |
Joe Louis competed as an American professional boxer from 1934 to 1951. Louis is regarded as one of the greatest and most important boxers of all time and was given the nickname “Brown Bomer.”
How much was the net worth and earnings of Joe Louis ?
Despite earning $5 million, Louis’s financial situation was a complete mess. The same may be said of his great generosity toward family, friends, strangers, and every black cause.
He even paid Detroit back for the money it had given his family during the Great Depression. Another problem was that Louis made a number of bad financial decisions, including buying several unsuccessful businesses and putting his trust in people who misled him.
Joe Louis, the IRS, took the most financial blow. Louis owed $500,000 in back taxes, and the total after extra fines was more than $1.2 million. Poor accounting, an absurdly high tax rate of nearly 90%, and the excessive expense of living contributed to Louis’ collapse.
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Joe Louis: Childhood and Early Years
On May 13, 1914, Joseph Louis Barrow was born in a cabin outside Lafayette, Alabama.
Louis was the eighth child born to Munroe and Lillie (Reese) Barrow. He was born weighing 11 pounds (5 kg).
Additionally, his parents were both sharecroppers and rent farmers who were descended from former slaves.
While Lillie was half African American and half European, Munroe was part Cherokee and also had some European ancestry.
Louis’ formative years were marked by financial difficulties. However, his struggles propelled him to the prominence and success he attained.
Louis and his siblings shared a bed three or four to a bed after their father was committed to an asylum when Louis was just two years old. Similar to how his education was insufficient, he eventually started to stutter.
Louis’ mother later wed Pat Brooks, a local builder, in 1920 after hearing reports that Munroe Barrow had passed away while in the hospital (in truth, Munroe Barrow survived until 1938, unaware of his son’s notoriety).
The family relocated to Detroit from the north shortly after Lillie Barrow’s second marriage to widower Patrick Brooks.
Louis Brooks studied cabinet making at the Bronson Trade School, but after losing his job at Ford, he was obliged to take up odd jobs.
Lillie enrolled Louis in violin lessons when he started hanging around with a neighborhood gang in order to keep him safe.
Louis, on the other hand, started boxing training at Brewster Recreation Center with the money from the violin after learning about it from a friend.
Amateur Career of Joe Louis
Early in 1932, Joe had his stage debut at the age of 17. Louis, who was known as “Joe Louis” for the remainder of his boxing career, is said to have scrawled his name so huge before the fight that there was no room for his last name.
Similar to this, Louis defeated Joe Biskey to win the 1933 Detroit-area Golden Gloves Novice Division championship in the light heavyweight division.
He lost, nevertheless, at the Chicago Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions.
The next year, he defeated Max Bauer in the Chicago Tournament of Champions and took first place in the light heavyweight division in the Golden Gloves Open Division.
In April 1934, Louis won the light heavyweight United States Amateur Champion National AAU competition in St. Louis, Missouri, as a follow-up to his success in Chicago.
In addition, he had a 50-4 record and 43 knockouts towards the end of his amateur career.
Loss and Professional Beginnings
As a professional boxer in 1934, Louis made an early impression, destroying opponents with his lethal combinations and potent jab.
The teenage fighter earned $370,000 after defeating former heavyweight champions Primo Carnera and Max Baer at the year’s end in 1935.
He did not, however, put much effort into his preparation for his first fight against German former heavyweight champion Max Schmeling.
On June 19, 1936, Schmeling defeated Louis via knockout in the 12th round, handing him his first defeat as a professional.
Louise Defeated Braddock’s Heavyweight Title
On June 22, 1937, Louis was given the chance to challenge James J. Braddock for the heavyweight title.
Despite Braddock’s renown for toughness, his younger, stronger opponent defeated him after taking Louis to the ground early.
In order to win the heavyweight championship, the “Brown Bomber” repeatedly hit Braddock in the middle rounds before finishing him off in the eighth.
Rematch with Schmeling
On June 22, 1938, Louis was permitted to face Schmeling once more.
Adolph Hitler hailed Schmeling as an example of Aryan domination, raising the stakes and giving the fight more overtly nationalistic and racial overtones.
Louis became a hero to both black and white Americans after he eliminated his German opponent in the first round.
Billy Conn Fight
When Louis met Billy Conn, the light heavyweight champion and a well-known challenger, his streak of low-profile opponents came to an end.
On June 18, 1941, the fight took place at the Polo Grounds in front of 54,487 spectators.
Similar to that, many people considered the fight to be one of the best heavyweight boxing matches of all time.
A rematch with Conn was set for late 1942 after the bout ignited an immediate rivalry in Louis’ career that hadn’t existed since the Schmeling period.
The rematch had to be cancelled because Conn broke his hand during a well-publicized altercation with his father-in-law, Major League Baseball player Jimmy “Greenfield” Smith.
Later, as Conn was prepared for the rematch, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor took place.
Heavyweight Champion
Because of his unmatched dominance—virtually all 25 of his successful championship defenses were knockout victories—Louis was one of the most well-known athletes in the world. Louis proved by winning that he was a kind, even giving, victor.
He received accolades for his contributions to the nation’s war effort, including his 1942 enlistment in the US Army and his gift of prize money to military relief organizations.
After a remarkable 11 years and 8 months as heavyweight champion, Louis announced his resignation on March 1, 1949.
Loss to Marciano
Despite having financial issues, Louis returned to the ring in September 1950 to take on the newly crowned heavyweight champion Ezzard Charles, losing a 15-round decision.
He cobbled together a recent winning streak against a slew of inferior opponents, but he was no match for Rocky Marciano, the front-runner.
With a 68-3 record and 54 knockouts following their battle on October 26, 1951, which ended horribly in the eighth round TKO, Louis officially announced his retirement.
Film and Television
Louis played a boxer who resembled him in many respects in the 1938 racing movie Spirit of Youth. Louis also starred in two short films and six full-length features.
He made a cameo appearance on You Bet Your Life in 1955.
Similar to this, he made an appearance in Michael Curtiz’s 1943 full-length movie This Is the Army, which starred Ronald Reagan and featured Irving Berlin and Kate Smith singing “God Bless America.”
The Joe Louis Story, a 1953 movie on Louis’ life directed by Robert Gordon, also depicts the athlete’s life and career.
In the Hollywood movie, Coley Wallace, a Golden Gloves boxer and Louis clone, took the lead role.
The movie also had a low production value and money, intercutting scenes from Louis’s actual fights slowly and having bad audio sync.
Joe Louis Career after the retirement
Louis experienced turbulent years after he left the ring. Although he was still well-liked by the public, his financial situation was never stable because of unpaid taxes.
He briefly competed in professional wrestling in the middle of the 1950s before transitioning to refereeing matches in both boxing and wrestling.
The former champion was able to work as a greeter at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and regain some financial stability when the IRS ultimately forgave his debt.
As he got older, Louis experienced a number of health problems. He was finally brought to mental therapy in 1970 after developing a cocaine addiction.
Sadly, he used a wheelchair after having heart surgery in 1977.
Golf professionals of Joe Louis
Another one of Louis’s passions was golf, and he was a well-known personality in the game. Having been introduced to the sport before to the 1936 debut of Schmeling, he had been a longtime enthusiast.
Louis became the first African American to play on the PGA Tour when he was asked to participate as an amateur on a sponsor’s exemption in the San Diego Open in 1952.
Early black professional golfers that Louis provided financial support to were Ted Rhodes, Bill Spiller, James Black, Howard Wheeler, Clyde Martin, and Charlie Sifford.
Similar to this, he had a big hand in creating The First Tee, a charity that teaches underprivileged kids how to play golf.
Joe Louis Barrow, Jr., his son, is now in command of the business.
Joe Louis: Personal Life and Relationships
Daughter Jacqueline was born in 1943, and son Joseph Louis Barrow Jr. was born in 1947; both were born to Louis and his wife Marva Trotter.
They did, however, divorce in March 1945, remarry a year later, and then divorce once more in February 1949.
Later, on Christmas Day in 1955, Louis wed Rose Morgan, a well-known businesswoman from Harlem; their union ended in divorce in 1958.
Louis’ final union, to Los Angeles attorney Martha Jefferson, began on St. Patrick’s Day 1959 and lasted until his passing.
Joseph Louis Barrow Jr., Janet Louis Barrow, and John Louis Barrow were their three other children. The younger brother of Joe Louis Barrow, Joe Louis Barrow Jr., is a boxer who resides in New York City.
The Death of A Legend
Drug usage ruined Louis’ last few years. In 1969, after tripping on a street in New York City, he was rushed to the hospital. Although the “physical collapse” was first blamed for the catastrophe, underlying problems quickly became apparent.
He was admitted to the Colorado Psychiatric Hospital and the Veterans Administration Hospital in 1970 for paranoid by his wife, Martha, and son, Joe Louis Barrow Jr.
Later in the decade, Louis’s health deteriorated as a result of cardiac issues and strokes. After having surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm in 1977, he eventually needed a POV/scooter to go around.
Only hours after his final public appearance, which was to see the Larry Holmes-Trevor Berbick Heavyweight Championship battle, Louis passed away from a heart attack in Desert Springs Hospital outside of Las Vegas on April 12, 1981.
On April 21, 1981, President Ronald Reagan waived the requirements for interment at Arlington National Cemetery, and Joe was laid to rest there with full military honors.
Similarly, Max Schmeling, a friend and former foe who also served as a pallbearer, contributed financially to his burial.
Questions and Answers (FAQs)
What role did Joe Louis play in World War Two?
Louis became much more of a hero since all Americans were fighting together.
Louis won the match and gave $89,092 to the Navy Relief Society after joining in the US Army. In the military, Louis was referred to as Private Barrow. He progressed to the rank of Staff Sergeant before being released from service in 1945.
How did Joe Louis affect the African-American community?
Louis’ triumph over Schmeling paved the way for future civil rights activists even though it did not end racial discrimination in America.
Jackie Robinson’s decision to break down the color barrier in Major League Baseball was made easier by the triumph.
