Lords of the Ring: The Triumph and Tragedy of College Boxing's Greatest Team
Lords of the Ring: The Triumph and Tragedy of College Boxing's Greatest Team
by Doug Moe
University of Wisconsin Press, 2005 Cloth: 978-0-299-20420-4 | eISBN: 978-0-299-20423-5 | Paper: 978-0-299-20424-2 Library of Congress Classification GV1125.M64 2004 Dewey Decimal Classification 796.830977583
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Lords of the Ring revives the exciting era—now largely forgotten—when college boxing attracted huge crowds and flashy headlines, outdrawing the professional bouts. On the same night in 1940 when Joe Louis defended his heavyweight crown before 11,000 fans in New York's Madison Square Garden, collegiate boxers battled before 15,000 fans in Madison . . . Wisconsin.
Under legendary and beloved coach John Walsh, the most successful coach in the history of American collegiate boxing, University of Wisconsin boxers won eight NCAA team championships and thirty-eight individual titles from 1933 to 1960. Badger boxers included heroes like Woody Swancutt, who later helped initiate the Strategic Air Command, and rogues like Sidney Korshak, later the most feared mob attorney in the United States. A young fighter from Louisville named Cassius Clay also boxed in the Wisconsin Field House during this dazzling era.
But in April 1960, collegiate boxing was forever changed when Charlie Mohr— Wisconsin’s finest and most popular boxer, an Olympic team prospect—slipped into a coma after an NCAA tournament bout in Madison. Suddenly, not just Mohr’s life but the entire sport of college boxing was in peril. It was to be the last NCAA boxing tournament ever held. Lords of the Ring tells the whole extraordinary story of boxing at the University of Wisconsin, based on dozens of interviews and extensive examination of newspaper microfilm, boxing records and memorabilia.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Doug Moe is a daily columnist for the Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin. He is the author of The World of Mike Royko, which was a Chicago Tribune Choice Selection of the Year and is also published by the University of Wisconsin Press.
REVIEWS
"Doug Moe, the inimitable chronicler of Madison, has written a wonderful book that brings back to life those last bittersweet days of collegiate boxing. As a native Madisonian who grew up in the shadows of the UW Field House, and who witnessed the match that ended Charlie Mohr's life, I was amazed by Moe's research and grateful that here, finally, is the true, unvarnished story."—David Maraniss, author of They Marched into Sunlight
"A story of exhilaration and heartbreak. Reading Lords of the Ring was a nostalgia trip for me, and it probably reads like a Greek tragedy for the book's leading characters from Wisconsin's glory days of boxing."—Tom Butler, retired sportswriter and columnist, Wisconsin State Journal
"Although we know how the story will end, Doug Moe manages to create a sense of unfolding mystery. . . . He's a master."—Marshall J. Cook, author of Baseball's Good Guys
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
List of Illustrations
Chapter 1: April 9, 1960
Chapter 2: Walsh
Chapter 3: Glory Days
Chapter 4: The Forties
Chapter 5: The Fifties
Chapter 6: Twilight
Chapter 7: Knocked Out
Chapter 8: Brothers
Acknowledgments
Photo Credits
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