If Rocky Marciano were alive, he would have celebrated his 90th birthday yesterday. Marciano died in a small airplane crash near Newton, Iowa on August 31, 1969 and although the former boxing great has been dead for a long time he is fondly remembered by many fans including Twin Cities public relations professional and fight fan Dennis McGrath.
One day back in 1969 McGrath was having lunch at a place called the Front Page in downtown Minneapolis when he saw a guy that looked like Marciano. McGrath recognized a man with the retired heavyweight champion, a local fighter named Joe Schmolze who he knew.
“What the hell is he (Marciano) doing in Minneapolis?” McGrath wondered.
The retired Champ was in town on business, representing a union involved with an insurance company. “I told Joe it would be great to meet Rocky,” McGrath recalled.
Marciano graciously introduced himself, as if McGrath didn’t know who the legendary fighter was. “He says, ‘Hi, I am Rocky Marciano.’ I am shaking the hand of the guy that knocked out Joe Louis.”
A few months later Marciano, who was born on September 1, 1923, was dead, just a day before his 46th birthday. Ironically, about the same time Schmolze was killed in a car accident in Columbia Heights.
While Schmolze’s death was news locally, the passing of the Rock shook the nation. “This is the saddest news I ever heard,” Louis said.
That quote is from the 2002 book The Rock of His Times by Russell Sullivan. His Marciano biography is the story about one of America’s most beloved heroes during the 1950s and 1960s, a time when boxing was near the top of the entertainment charts in this country.
When you were the heavyweight champ, the nation was watching. With Marciano people liked what they saw — fans, sportswriters and even guys the Rock hurt in the ring including the incomparable Louis who to this day is considered by some historians to be the greatest heavyweight ever.
Louis was African-American while Marciano was Italian-American, but regardless of race other fighters and those associated with the sport liked Marciano. “The nicest guy (Marciano) you ever wanted to meet,” Angelo Dundee said in Sullivan’s book. “A gentleman.”
For years Dundee was Muhammad Ali’s trainer. Dundee ranks Marciano among the 10 best heavyweights of all time, according to Sullivan who also quotes writer Jimmy Breslin as saying, “I don’t know who was better.”
During a pro career that started in 1948 and ended in 1956, Marciano compiled a 49-0 record with 43 knockouts. From 1952-1956 he was the undisputed champion of the world and retired as the only undefeated and untied heavyweight champ ever.
In the early part of 1969 Marciano filmed a fake fight with Ali who was then only 27 years old. Marciano, 45, got in shape and wore a toupee for the filming. The two men worked out in the ring while cameras recorded their movements and blows. The purpose was to make a film for commercial profit but neither Marciano nor Ali knew at the time who a computer would judge the winner.
What fight fans ultimately saw when the “Super Fight” movie was released in 1970 was Marciano winning with a 13th round TKO. It was the Rock’s “last fight” and even in a film he remained undefeated. A disappointed Ali is said to have suggested the computer was from Alabama.
Marciano was a blood and guts fighter. He was a slugger, not a fancy boxer, and he often looked awkward in his movements. Only 5-11 and well under 200 pounds, Marciano didn’t have a long reach or more size than opponents but he hit with devastating power and was capable of even killing another man. He could weather a blow from foes like few others and was only knocked down twice in his career.
The Champ had something else, too. Incredible determination to succeed. A Depression era baby, a young Marciano wanted success and when he washed out as a pro baseball player he knew boxing was his last ticket to earning wealth in athletics.
Marciano’s will to succeed was evident in how hard and effectively he trained. Sullivan writes that supposedly even voluptuous movie star Jayne Mansfield couldn’t distract the Champ during training for one of his fights. “What is he, crazy?” Mansfield reportedly asked. “He didn’t want anything to do with me.”
After retiring from boxing, Marciano kept busy with business affairs including speeches. He didn’t want to lose his place among the famous and he also wanted to make sure the kid who grew up so poor in Brockton, Massachusetts always had plenty of cash.
Sullivan said it’s believed there are still places around the country that Marciano hid his money. It was a hunger for money, recognition and helping friends that had Marciano on the move after his boxing career ended. He often travelled by private airplane and was trying to fly from Chicago to Des Moines when he and two passengers were killed in 1969.
“Rocky lived life lately like it was the 15th round and he was behind on points,” Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray wrote only days after Marciano’s death. “Every time I saw him of late he was on the dead run.”
For Dennis McGrath and others who met Marciano, they are now just grateful to have known him.
Happy birthday, Champ.