Jack Blackburn & Charley Goldman, Trainers of Champions

by B. R. Bearden

12.07 - There's an old saying which goes, "Those who can, do, those who can't, teach". There is some support for such an idea, but in boxing it works either way and both ways. Angello Dundee wasn't a former boxer and neither were Ray Arcell, Gil Clancy, or Cus D'Amato. But Emmanuel Steward had a fine amateur career and won the National Golden Gloves title in 1963. Lou Duva was a New Jersey Diamond Gloves Champion, and Eddie Futch was a Detroit Golden Gloves Champion. And Jack Blackburn and Charley Goldman had extensive professional careers. Whether they had boxing careers of their own, or spent hundreds of hours with boxers, the great trainers have always been able to develop great fighters. The part these trainers have played in the successes of the All Time Greats, though, is often overlooked by the casual fan, though it's as vital as the effort of the fighter.

The trainers of Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano were both former fighters who had more total bouts, and ring experience, than either of their legendary champions combined. Jack Blackburn guided Louis to the top, and Charley Goldman did the same for Marciano. It can be fairly speculated that Louis and Marciano might not have been the dominant champions they were if not for their trainers. The collision between an end-of-his-career Louis and emerging legend Marciano was also a collision of these two great trainers. Blackburn was gone by the time The Brown Bomber stepped into the ring with The Brockton Blockbuster, but his ghost was there. It's a shame the two fighters couldn't have met prime-to-prime, with their immortal trainers at hand. Such a match-up has been talked about for 50 years, and might well be the most wished for fantasy match-up in the history of boxing. Seldom do the boxing scribes bring the trainers into this hypothetical match-up, yet it might be the men outside the ring who would have made the difference; for both fighters entered their careers with flaws. Marciano's were more obvious due to his brawling style, but each had chinks in their armor that only a trainer could love; and correct.

First let's look at Jack Blackburn. What made him so capable of turning a talented, but not yet great, fighter into the greatest of all heavyweight champions? Of course Louis brought a tremendous amount to the table, but would it have been enough without Blackburn? A look at the career of Jersey Joe Walcott, a talented contemporary of Louis, and for too brief a time handled by Blackburn, gives a clue to how it might have gone for Louis. Without the influence of the respected Blackburn, without his connections going back to his days as a fighter, and his knowledge of how to move a boxer along, Louis might have fought the back roads of boxing as Walcott did, what Archie Moore called "the chitlin' circuit".

Blackburn entered the world of boxing by stepping into the ring with gloves on his hands. He fought from 1901 until 1923 as a lightweight. Officially he had 162 bouts, but unofficially the number runs much higher (Blackburn said 385). In a time when boxing was illegal in most places, many a fight went unrecorded. But those that are recorded read like a who's who of the great fighters of the first couple of decades of the 20th century. Blackburn fought Joe Gans 3 times, Sam Langford 5 times, Joe Grim 3 times, Mike Donovan 2 times, Mike "Twin" Sullivan, Sailor Burke, Philadelphia Jack O' Brien, Gunboat Smith, and Harry Greb. In 1909 Blackburn killed three people,including his wife, during an argument and was sentenced to 10-15 years in prison. He was released on good behavior just short of 5 years later and continued his boxing career but his great days were behind him.

Of his 162 official matches, he won 48 (32 KOs), lost 10, and drew 10. The rest fit into that gray area of the "no-decision". When his boxing career ended, Jack turned his hand to training other fighters. He trained Sammy Mandell, who became lightweight champion in 1926 and Bud Taylor, bantam weight champion in 1927. It was his proven success which would lead to his selection to train another champion-to-be, a young, gifted amateur named Joe Louis.

Blackburn didn't discover Louis. The future champion was spotted while still an amateur by a couple of numbers runners, Julian Black of Chicago and John Roxborough of Detriot. They contacted Blackburn, who was training Jersey Joe Walcott at the time, and asked him to take over the training of their "find". Blackburn insisted on taking Walcott along, but Jersey Joe came down with typhoid and spent most of a year recovering. By then, Walcott wasn't even in the picture and Jack concentrated all his efforts on young Louis. He could see the obvious potential of the smooth, quick handed fighter, though he doubted the chances of a black man fighting again for the heavyweight crown after the bitter era of Jack Johnson. But Louis wasn't Johnson; he was soft spoken, polite, and held his ego in check. Joe and Jack became fast friends for the duration of their lives, affectionately calling each other "Chappie".

Later, out of loyalty to his earlier prospect, Jack offered Jersey Joe a job as a sparring partner to tune Louis up for his first Schmelling bout. But in the first round of sparring, Walcott dropped Louis with a single punch and was dismissed from the camp. It was an omen of things to come that Blackburn should have heeded. Walcott had found the flaw that Schmelling would also find.

When 22 year old Joe Louis met 31 year old Max Schmelling, the odds favored the younger man. But Schmelling had said to reporters, "I see something" after watching Louis both live and on film. What Max saw was Louis's habit of dropping his left shoulder when throwing a left jab. It was a fatal flaw against a fighter as seasoned and intelligent as the German. In their first meeting, Max surprised Louis, and the world, by repeatedly throwing his right hand over Louis's left, catching the younger fighter flush on the jaw. Blackburn realized what Schmellig was doing, but there was no time to correct Louis in the middle of a tough fight. Only his heart and amazing recuperative ability kept Louis around until the 11th round, but nobody could take those right hands forever. When Louis was counted out, it seemed the end for the young man. But Blackburn didn't see it that way and challenged the dispirited Louis to either quit- or try harder. With a fixation of purpose that wouldn't be denied, Blackburn rebuilt the Brown Bomber.

The loss to Schmelling earned Louis the label "mechanical fighter" and everyone thought he was a flash in the pan. A fighter who can't adapt, who keeps repeating the same mistake, isn't going to last. Or so the wisdom of the time ran. Even Jack Dempsey called Joe mechanical and predicted a repeat victory for Schmelling.

When the rematch came about, despite Louis's string of victories following the defeat, there were still many doubters. After all, even though he'd taken the title from Jimmy Braddock, he was a young man of 23 while The Cinderella Man was an old 32. And even so, Jimmy dropped Louis in the first round with a right hand; just as Max Schmelling had done. In the eyes of the skeptics, it appeared he hadn't learned much.

But Blackburn had been at work, knock down to the contrary, and Jimmy couldn't repeat the feat as Schmelling had; Louis had learned to adapt. Jack had warned Joe about Braddock, who he respected, "This is one cat you ain't gonna scare, Chappie. Jim Braddock ain't gonna quit, either. You're gonna have to knock him out." He knew Braddock had more than the fans gave him credit for, and he'd trained Joe with the expectation of a hard fight. It paid off, and the carriage turned into a pumpkin in the 8th round for the Cinderella Man.

In the Schmelling rematch, it was evident Blackburn had been at work. It was the experience of the trainer, passed on to his fighter, that avoided a replay of the first match. Louis was on Max immediately, none of that feeling out from the prior fight, and the German never made it out of the first round. Louis was avenged and the doubters subdued.

In his first fight with light heavyweight Billy Conn, Louis was frustrated by the speed of the smaller man. But Joe was a patient fighter, and Blackburn wasn't ranting in his corner for him to get the guy. Jack was a patient man, too, willing to let Joe trade off rounds on points for a price to be named in the later rounds. When Billy made the mistake of trying to knock Louis out, that price was paid in full. Louis took him out as suddenly, and viciously, as a striking leopard in the 13th. Nobody could finish a man quicker than Joe.

Louis never completely shored up his defensive barriers and would always be vulnerable to a sudden knockdown punch. Two Ton Tony Galento would do it, Jersey Joe Walcott would do it, and in the end, Rocky Marciano would do it. But the knowledge and guidance of Jack Blackburn would always help Joe through the setbacks. Jack died in 1942, leaving Louis to fight his final 9 years on the stored up wisdom of their time together.

In his last fight, against the younger, hungrier Rock Marciano, Joe must have felt the presence of his old trainer. Taking a beating, finding his reflexes badly slowed, Louis was heard to say as he returned to his corner after the 7th round, "He's hurting me, Chappie, he's hurting me." In spirit Jack Blackburn stood by Joe till the very end.

Charley Goldman fought from 1904 until 1914 and much of the following on his ring career comes from the book "Corner Men". During that time, he had 137 documented bouts, but he put the actual numbers somewhere between 300-400. Many were in private fight clubs or hidden locations when boxing wasn't always legal, or were called "exhibitions" in order to circumvent the laws. He was 16 years old when he fought his first pro fight, a 42 round, 3 hour bout against Eddie Gardner. As Goldman said in the book "Corner Men", "I was sixteen when I went them forty-two rounds and at the end somebody shouted 'Here comes the cops.' Everybody took off, including the promoter with the money. I think he tipped off the cops." During his career he often fought the same fighters many times, some 60 times against George Kitson. As Goldman said, "George and I got so used to each other that we could fight all night with nobody getting hurt."

In 1912 he fought Johnny Coulon for the bantamweight title. The fight was declared a no-decision. He never won a title, ending with an official record of 36-6-11 and 84 no-decisions.

In 1914 he hung up the gloves, put on his derby (a stylistic emulation of his idol Terrible Terry McGovern, bantam and featherweight champ) , and became a trainer. He trained Al McCoy, who would win the middleweight crown, and Johnny Risko, who in 1928 beat Jack Sharkey. He also worked with lightweight champion Lou Ambers, welterweight Marty Servo, and featherweight Joey Archibald, all fighters managed by Al Weill, an influential figure in New York boxing.

In 1948, while Goldman was training fighters for Weill, a short, stocky fighter from Brockton, Massachusetts came into the gym, looking for a manager. His name was Rocco Marchegiano. To the critical eye of the diminutive Goldman, the kid was too short to be successful as a heavyweight at 5' 10 ½", too old at 24 to be beginning a boxing career, and too clumsy to have any success as a fighter. But, since he'd come so far just for a tryout, they put him in with a heavyweight they had on hand who needed a little workout. The experienced fighter made the kid from Brockton look even worse than expected, which was no small feat in itself. The kid lunged, he failed to block with anything but his face, balance seemed to be a concept he didn't understand at all, and it appeared his best bet was some other field besides boxing. As legend has it, Weil told Marciano's friend Allie Columbo, "He ain't got nothing" and was turning away when one of the kid's wild overhand rights landed on the veteran heavyweight. The bigger man was stunned, and Goldman said, "Hold on. He can hit."

Speaking with Rocky after the workout, Goldman was blunt, "If you did anything right, I didn't see it."

But it was the belief of Goldman that if a heavyweight had a punch he could suffer through a shortage of the other aspects that make a good fighter. "It 's the short cut to the money," Charley said. And Marciano could punch. Unlike Blackburn, who had a diamond in the rough when he was handed young
Joe Louis, Goldman found himself with a hunk of granite in the rough. In the beginning, Goldman told Rocky, "I'll do my best to bring ya along. But I want you should know, you ain't any too young, and you got an awful lot to learn, kid."

But as Goldman said, "There's one serious mistake some trainers make. They try to change a boy's style. It doesn't pay to meddle around with a natural style. If a kid is inclined to be a boxer, don't try to make a slugger out of him. And vice versa. You can improve on what he has, but don't change it. I've seen many a great prospect ruined because somebody tried to make him something he wasn't cut out to be.

"The great thing about this kid is he's got leverage," Goldman said in an interview during his days as Marciano's trainer. "He had leverage from the start, and when you teach a fellow like that, you have to go slow, because you might change the way he stands or the way he moves, and spoil his hitting. Everything new you show him, you have to ask him, 'Does it feel natural? Can you hit from there?' "

To keep Marciano from spreading his legs too far apart and losing his balance when he threw a punch, Charley tied a piece of rope between his feet. When he threw off balance, he fell down. And he learned.

To make him throw straighter punches, he put towels under Rocky's arms. When he threw wide, the towels fell to the floor. And he learned.

To get him out of the habit of being a one-handed fighter, Goldman tied his right hand behind him and made him throw nothing but the left, over and over. The jab, the hook, the upper cut. And he learned.

Patiently, persistently, Charley Goldman polished his hunk of granite till it shown. Fight after fight, Marciano was beating guys with more experience, who were better boxers, who had all the physical advantages over him. What he didn't know to beat a man's style, Goldman told him in the corner. And Marciano listened-always. Al Braverman said, "Goldman was very, very, meticulous, very, very quite, very, very soft spoken- but firm. Marciano would look right dead in his eyes- which is the right thing to do. Then you know you're getting through."

It was Marciano's willingness to learn, to spend hours punching a bag just to perfect a single type of punch, that endeared him to Goldman. He was a trainer's dream; full of desire, willing to work as hard as required, never, ever breaking a training rule. Angelo Dundee, a protégé of Goldman, recalled
how enthusiastic Charlie was when he told him one day, "I've got him punching with power onna way up! Nobody else I got can do that!"

In the second fight with Roland LaStarza, Marciano was frustrated by his opponent's style. Roland was a top notch boxer, he knew how to follow a point grabbing combination with a clinch, how to twist out of the corner, slide along the ropes, pick off punches with his gloves. Nat Fleischer, founder and editor of The Ring, called him the best defensive fighter of the era. He was slick.

Unable to get past his defenses, watching the rounds slip away, Marciano returned to his corner visibly baffled. Charley had a saying that went, "Never play a guy at his own game, nobody makes up a game in order to get beat at it." Rocky was losing at LaStarza's game. So Goldman changed the rules, telling Marciano, "If he won't drop his hands, bang his arms. Bang 'em till he drops 'em."

Rocky did exactly as told, abandoning his attempts to punch around Roland's defense, he instead punched the arms. For three rounds he beat LaStarza's arms till he could barely lift them. Then he knocked him through the ropes. Roland beat the count, but seconds later the referee stopped the fight as Marciano zeroed in on his head and had him out on his feet. LaStarza would have surgery on both arms because of chipped bones and ruptured blood vessels. It was a testament to Marciano's power, but it also showed the shrewd mind of Goldman. He knew how hard Rocky hit, he knew his hands were solid enough to endure punching the opponent's arms and elbows without inflicting self-injury, and he devised the strategy on the spot.

After Rocky knocked out Joe Louis, setting him up with a double left hook and finishing the job with a right hand, Louis asked him, "Were you ever a southpaw, Marciano? They didn't tell me about your left hook." It was a punch painstakingly added to Rocky's arsenal by Goldman.

In Marciano's last fight, against the great Archie Moore, all of Charley's skillful teaching came to light. By far one of the greatest fighters in boxing history, Archie knew how to block, how to feint, how to slip punches, yet Marciano feinted him. He would start a right hand, then suddenly throw the left. He fainted with a hook- then threw it for real and landed. Afterwards Moore expressed surprise at how well Marciano could box. It was a tribute as much to Charley Goldman as to the fighter himself.

It can be argued that Joe Louis would have made it to the top without Blackburn, and that somebody else might have done the same for Rocky Marciano. Maybe. Talent and dedication, desire and the willingness to sacrifice, can do wonders for a young fighter. But a skillful trainer can greatly enlarge the chance of wearing a championship belt. Jack Blackburn and Charley Goldman were two of the best.