Arnold Cream was born January 31, 1914 in Pennsauken, New Jersey. His father was an immigrant from the Caribbean island of St. Thomas who died when Arnold was fifteen years-old. As the eldest of twelve children, Arnold then quit school to work in a soup factory to help his mother support the family.
Rocco Marchegiano was born September 1, 1923 in Brockton, Massachusetts. Both his parents were immigrants from Italy. Rocco attended Brockton High School until the tenth grade. Later, he worked as a ditch digger, a railroad layer and a shoemaker.
At sixteen years of age, Arnold started his career as a professional boxer. He adopted the name Joe Walcott who had been a boxing champion in Barbados and added Jersey in honor of his home state to become Jersey Joe Walcott.
In 1943, Rocco was drafted into the U.S. Army. Stationed in Wales (U.K.), he helped transport supplies across the English Channel to Normandy (France) after the D Day (June 6, 1944) invasion. Rocco was discharged from the Army in 1946.
For the first fifteen years of his boxing career, Jersey Joe Walcott was forgettable. However, that changed near the end of the WWII when he started beating top contenders. On December 5, 1947, Jersey Joe fought Joe Louis for the heavyweight championship, being the oldest man to do so. Despite knocking Louis down twice, Jersey Joe lost a controversial split decision. In a rematch on June 5, 1948, Louis knocked him out.
In 1947, Rocco pursued his dream of being a professional baseball player. He was in Fayetteville, North Carolina for three weeks as a member of a Chicago Cubs minor league team. However, Rocco's career as a catcher was short lived. He returned to Brockton and started training as a boxer.
On June 22, 1949, Jersey Joe lost a unanimous decision to Ezzard Charles in a fight to determine a new heavyweight champion after Joe Louis retired. On March 5, 1951, they fought again with the same result. However, four months later, Jersey Joe, in his fifth try, became the oldest man to win the heavyweight championship when he knocked out Charles.
On July 12, 1948, Rocco started his professional boxing career. He knocked out his first sixteen opponents. After a ring announcer had difficulty pronouncing his name, Rocco took the professional name Rocky Marciano. Beginning in 1950, he started defeating top contenders such as Carmine Vingo, Roland La Starza and Rex Layne. On October 27, 1951, Rocky knocked out ex-champion Joe Louis.
Less than a year later, Rocky Marciano would fight Jersey Joe Walcott for the heavyweight championship of the world.
...and how did that turn out?
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