Frank Thomas

Notable Sports Figures
Awards and Accomplishments
1930 Won first professional fight, knocking out Cowboy Wallace on
September 9
1945 Won fights against top 10 contenders Joe Baski, Lee Murray,
Curtis Sheppard
1946 Won fights against Jimmy Bivins and Lee Oma but lost to Joey
Maxim and Elmer Ray
1951 Won heavyweight title against Ezzard Charles, July 18
1951 Edward J. Neil Trophy for Fighter of the Year
1952 Successfully defends title against Charles on June 5
1969 Inducted into the Ring Hall of Fame
1990 Inducted into International Boxing Hall of Fame
his nine bouts in 1945, three of them against top ten
fighters Joe Baski, Lee Murray, and Curtis Sheppard.
The following year he beat top ten contender Jimmy
Bivins, following which Bocchicchio lined up a fight
for Walcott with another leading contender, Lee Oma,
in Madison Square Garden. Walcott took the match in
a ten-round decision. Later that year he experienced
something of a setback, losing to Joey Maxim and
Elmer Ray in back-to-back bouts. But Walcott bounced
back in 1947, beating Maxim in January, Ray in April,
and Maxim again in June.
Walcott Almost Upsets Joe Louis
Prominent boxing promoter Mike (“Uncle Mike”) Jacobs
in late 1947 set up what was supposed to be a tenround
charity exhibition match between World
Heavyweight Champion Joe Louis and Walcott. It
turned into a title match after the New York State Athletic
Commission ruled that any match of more than six
rounds with Louis had to be for the title. Odds makers
gave Walcott little chance against the Brown Bomber.
Before a sold-out crowd of 18,000, Walcott suckered
Louis with a right-hand lead and then dropped him with
a left hook in the very first round. Spectators were incredulous,
applauding wildly for the plucky Walcott.
Walcott wasn’t through. In the fourth round, Louis, confused
by the “Walcott Shuffle,” which involved shifting
the feet around so that first the left and then the right
were the lead, and pivoting the body to match, was
dropped again by the challenger.
Perhaps sensing that he was comfortably ahead on
points, Walcott took it easy on Louis in the final rounds
of the fight. Nevertheless, boxing fans, as well as Louis,
were all convinced Walcott had cinched the fight. Referee
Ruby Goldstein agreed, observing, “Walcott punched
his ears off.” But the two judges—Frank Forbes and
Marty Monroe—gave the fight to Louis.
Years later, Walcott recalled: “After the fight, Joe put
his arm around me and whispered in my ear, ‘I’m sorry.’
I looked across the ring, and I could tell that Louis
thought he had lost the fight. In fact, he wanted to leave
the ring, but his handlers held him back.”
Related Biography: Boxer Ezzard Charles
The following year, on June 25, Louis and Walcott
met once again, although this time Louis was clearly the
dominant force, knocking out Walcott in the 11th round.
Shortly after winning his rematch with Walcott, Louis
announced his retirement from the ring. The retirement
of Joe Louis after just over eleven years as heavyweight
champ set the stage for a match between Walcott and
Ezzard Charles for the now-vacant World Boxing Association
heavyweight title. The two faced off on June 22,
1949. Walcott lost a 15-round decision to Charles and
promptly announced his retirement. Manager Bocchicchio
had other ideas for Walcott, who was now 35. The
two took a short vacation together, after which they issued
a press release announcing that Walcott had
changed his mind and would continue his boxing career.
Walcott won a match in Sweden against Ollie Tandberg
and once again hinted at retirement. Again, Bocchicchio
persuaded him to continue boxing.
Wins First Four Matches of 1950
Walcott
Ezzard Charles won the National Boxing Association heavyweight
crown in a fifteen-round decision over Jersey Joe Walcott on June 22,
1949. But two years later, on July 18, 1951, Walcott turned the tables on
Charles, knocking him out to take the heavyweight title for himself. The following
year, Charles failed in an attempt to recapture the title from Walcott,
who lost it barely three months later to Rocky Marciano.
He was born Ezzard Mack Charles on July 7, 1921, in Lawrenceville,
Georgia. After a brilliant amateur boxing career, Charles turned pro in 1940
and went on to win twenty consecutive fights in the first eighteen months of
the decade. He temporarily left boxing in 1943 to enlist in the U.S. Army.
Charles eventually moved up in weight class and became the heavyweight
champion from 1949 until 1951. His attempts to recapture the title, first
from Walcott and later from Marciano, all ended in failure.
Charles retired from boxing in the late 1950s. In 1966 he was stricken
with Lou Gehrig’s disease that before long confined him to a wheelchair.
Charles died on May 28, 1975.
In 1950 Walcott won his first four matches of the
year, only to lose to Rex Layne on November 24. He
also lost his first rematch with Charles on March 7,
1951. But on July 18, 1951, Walcott made boxing history
when he knocked out Charles in the seventh round to
become the oldest boxer ever to win the world heavyweight
title. In 1952, Walcott fought a series of exhibition
bouts with Jackie Burke before squaring off against
Charles once again on June 5. Walcott successfully defended
his title, winning a fifteen-round decision over
Charles. Just over three months later, however, Rocky
Marciano knocked out Walcott in the 13th round to take
the heavyweight title. In a rematch with Marciano on
May 15, 1953, Walcott was knocked out in the first
round. Just after his second defeat by Marciano, Walcott
announced his retirement from boxing.
Walcott continued to live in the Camden area after
leaving boxing. Shortly after retiring from the ring, he
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