Charles M. Aulino

I wonder how many Americans are aware that Wladimir Klitschko is scheduled fight Ruslan Chagaev for the Heavyweight Championship on June 20, 2009. Their bout will occur just two days before the 71st anniversary of what became known as “the fight of the century.”

In 1938, every American knew the names of Max Schmeling and Joe Louis. Their vastly different paths crossed at Yankee Stadium on June 22 of that year. The Louis family had fled from Alabama to Detroit to escape threats from the Ku Klux Klan. Schmeling had grown up in Post WWI Germany. Both were drawn to the boxing ring by a primal need for physical competition. Both were beloved by legions of fans for qualities they shared: sportsmanship, fearlessness, skill, strength and determination. Their only previous match occurred on June 19, 1936. In that meeting, a flaw in the defenses of the boxer known as “the Brown Bomber” facilitated a Schmeling triumph.

During the 24 months between fights, world events were ominous. Alliances between Germany, Italy and Japan presaged the coming war. Germany, whose war planes had devastated Guernica, annexed Austria and was threatening Czechoslovakia. Merely a source of dismay over its belligerence before the first Schmeling-Louis match, Germany had since become an international pariah. Unwittingly, the German pugilist was cast in the role of Champion of the Nazis. Meanwhile, at a White House meeting, President Franklin Roosevelt told Louis that America needed muscles like his to beat Germany. The fight of the century lasted only 124 seconds, with Louis emerging as victor by a knock-out. In his book “Dreams from my Father,” President Obama recalls a moving conversation in which his barber compared the excitement over Louis’ success with what followed the victory of Harold Washington as first black mayor of Chicago.

Both fighters served in their countries’ armies during the Second World War. Louis fought numerous exhibition bouts, serving primarily in a public-relations role. Meanwhile, as punishment for his loss, the Nazis made Schmeling a paratrooper, and he was nearly killed during the invasion of Crete. They might have done worse had they known Schmeling hid two frightened Jewish boys in his apartment on Kristallnacht.

After the war, Louis returned to the ring, holding on to his title until March 1949, for a total of 11 years and 14 months, longer than any other Champion before or since. By then, his life of reckless spending and his insurmountable tax debt had taken their toll. He was reduced to play the role of “Greeter” at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas near the end of his life, and when he died broke, Schmeling helped pay for the funeral.

Schmeling faced a grim future at the end of the war until he was sought out by a former NY State Boxing Commissioner, who had been a mentor early in the young German’s career. After the war, James Farley was in charge of international expansion for Coca Cola. The German franchise made Schmeling a fortune that was widely shared through philanthropy.

In the contest between Klitschko and Chagaev, may the better man win. And on the occasion of their match, let’s remember the fight of the century and the two great men who took part in it.