Walcott, Jersey Joe

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Walcott, Jersey Joe

January 13, 1914
February 25, 1994

Boxer Jersey Joe Walcott was born Arnold Raymond Cream and raised in Merchantville, near Camden, New Jersey, one of twelve children of Ella and Joseph Cream. His father, an immigrant from Barbados, died when Arnold was fourteen. To help support the family, the boy began working in a soup factory and did odd jobs. He also began to train as a boxer. In 1930 he started his professional career as a lightweight. Soon after, he took the name "Jersey Joe Walcott" in honor of Joe Walcott, a well-known Barbadian welterweight champion.

Walcott fought, largely in obscurity, for fifteen years before becoming a championship contender. In 1933, after growing into the light-heavyweight class, Walcott knocked out Al King to become the light-heavyweight champion of South Jersey. In 1936, in a heavyweight bout at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York, Walcott attracted significant attention for the first time by knocking out Larry LaPage in three rounds. Unable to support himself and his family on his small boxing earnings, he worked in a number of manual labor jobs, fighting only sporadically.

In 1945, after a two-year stint working at the Camden shipyards, Walcott returned once more to boxing. Over the following two years, he won eleven of fourteen fights, including seven by knockouts. On December 5, 1947, he fought a heavyweight bout against champion Joe Louis. Although he knocked Louis down twice, he lost in a split decision. Many commentators felt that Walcott had defeated the champion, and he appealed the ruling unsuccessfully to the New York Athletic Commission. On June 25, 1948, he and Louis fought again. Although Walcott floored Louis, Louis knocked him out in the eleventh round.

The following year, Louis retired, and Walcott signed to box Ezzard Charles for the championship. On June 22, 1949, Charles beat Walcott in a fifteen-round decision for the title, then defeated him again in March 1951. Undaunted, Walcott signed to face Charles a third time. On July 18, 1951, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Walcott knocked Charles out in the seventh round, thus becoming the oldest man to that time to hold the heavyweight title. On June 15, 1952, Walcott successfully defended his title in a rematch with Charles. However, on September 23, 1952, Walcott fought Rocky Marciano, who knocked him out to take the heavyweight championship. Walcott met Marciano in a rematch on May 15, 1953, but was knocked out in the first round. He retired after the fight.

After retiring, Walcott worked as a fight referee and acted in the 1956 film The Harder They Fall. In 1972 he became sheriff of Camden County, New Jersey, and in 1975 he was made chair of the New Jersey State Athletic Commission. Following his retirement in 1984, he spent his time working with children for the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs. A longtime diabetic, he died in Camden in 1994 of complications resulting from the disease.

See also Boxing; Louis, Joe