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Jersey Joe Walcott - Wins First Four Matches Of 1950

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.

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

Related Biography: Boxer Ezzard Charles

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.

Walcott continued to live in the Camden area after leaving boxing. Shortly after retiring from the ring, he took a job as a parole officer for juvenile offenders. He later had a brief stint as a boxing referee, officiating at the second match between Cassius Clay (before changing his name to Muhammad Ali) and Sonny Liston. He was widely criticized for his handling of the match. In the early 1980s, Walcott was appointed chairman of the New Jersey State Athletic Commission. During the course of his time on the commission, charges surfaced that Walcott had accepted bribes from undercover agents.

Walcott died at the age of 80 on February 25, 1994, in Camden, N.J. In one of his last public appearances, Walcott traveled across the Delaware River to Philadelphia in 1992 to attend the first outdoor professional boxing show since the 1950s. Speaking haltingly to the assembled crowd, Walcott said, "I tried to be a champion for everybody. I did my best. I tried to make a way for our young people." The deafening applause was proof that in the minds of the spectators anyway Walcott had succeeded.

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