Jersey Joe Walcott

Pro team(s)

Professional Boxing

Hall of Fame

⭐ International Boxing Hall of Fame

Arnold Raymond Cream was born on January 31, 1914, in Merchantville, New Jersey — a small borough just outside Camden — and took the ring name "Jersey Joe Walcott" in tribute to a former welterweight champion he admired. He left school at 13 after his father's death to support his family, working in shipyards and Campbell Soup factories in Camden while pursuing boxing. His early career was a study in discouragement: he lost early fights, went years between bouts during lean times, and was twice knocked down by the great Joe Louis — in 1947 and 1948 — in fights that many observers felt he had won or come extraordinarily close to winning. He lost twice to Ezzard Charles in 1949 and 1951. The boxing world had written him off. Then, on July 18, 1951, in Pittsburgh, at the age of 37 — the oldest man to that point ever to win the heavyweight title — Walcott unleashed a short left hook in the seventh round that knocked out Ezzard Charles and made him the heavyweight champion of the world. It was one of the greatest underdog moments in boxing history. He defended the title successfully before losing to Rocky Marciano in 1952 in a controversial fight in which he was ahead on all cards when Marciano's right-hand counter found him in the 13th round — the photograph of that punch is one of boxing's most reproduced images. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990, and later became a boxing referee, officiating the famous Muhammad Ali vs. Sonny Liston rematch in 1965. He died February 25, 1994. Born and raised in Merchantville, New Jersey.