James J Braddock

Thanks for the article on Teresa Strasser's love/hate relationship with boxing ("A Real Lightweight," June 9). That's a very interesting conundrum she is in. I was sad to read, however, her plans to avoid the film "Cinderella Man." I was never a fan of the sport but found myself absolutely riveted and inspired by the story of boxer James J. Braddock. Strasser states how much she admires fighters that exhibit the qualities of "tenacity, ferocity and gumption." Braddock had those qualities in spades along with dignity, grace and a deep love for his family.

He walks into the coffee shop and heads turn. He's that type--the type who looks as if he must be famous, or else was famous once. No one walks that way, frowns that way, unless he has some inside knowledge of fame. He wears billowy black sweatpants, a red windbreaker, a sleeveless black muscle shirt and Uggs. Not your typical outfit for Lake Tahoe in late fall--nor for a 69-year-old man anywhere in any season. But he makes few concessions to age. Against age he'll never stop punching.

He walks into the coffee shop and heads turn. He's that type--the type who looks as if he must be famous, or else was famous once. No one walks that way, frowns that way, unless he has some inside knowledge of fame. He wears billowy black sweatpants, a red windbreaker, a sleeveless black muscle shirt and Uggs. Not your typical outfit for Lake Tahoe in late fall--nor for a 69-year-old man anywhere in any season. But he makes few concessions to age. Against age he'll never stop punching.

Thanks for the article on Teresa Strasser's love/hate relationship with boxing ("A Real Lightweight," June 9). That's a very interesting conundrum she is in. I was sad to read, however, her plans to avoid the film "Cinderella Man." I was never a fan of the sport but found myself absolutely riveted and inspired by the story of boxer James J. Braddock. Strasser states how much she admires fighters that exhibit the qualities of "tenacity, ferocity and gumption." Braddock had those qualities in spades along with dignity, grace and a deep love for his family.

When Natie Brown clenches his 81-year-old fists and snakes a hook through the air, the car wash where he works becomes his boxing ring. "You don't throw a left hook," Brown said. "A lot of people, that's a mistake they make. They think you throw a left hook." Instead, he shows how he once drove his square, huge fists into the bodies of future champions Joe Louis and Max Baer. He emphasizes his whole weight, not just his arm, was behind the punch.

Cinderella Man James J. Braddock, Max Baer, and the Greatest Upset in Boxing History Jeremy Schaap Houghton Mifflin: 288 pp., $24 * On June 13 it will have been 70 years since James J. Braddock surprised everyone when he defeated Max Baer and won the richest prize in sports, boxing's heavyweight championship. Braddock, who entered the ring as a 10-to-1 underdog, immediately became known as boxing's "Cinderella Man." He remains so today, 31 years after his death.

Joe Louis Barrow Jr., in conducting interviews for a biography about his father, Joe Louis, talked to a Jew who'd been in a German concentration camp during World War II. "We knew Germany couldn't win, because we knew Joe Louis had beaten Max Schmeling," the man told Barrow. "It gave us hope." Such were the kinds of forces that were brought to bear in a Yankee Stadium boxing ring 61 years ago. It was Louis-Schmeling II, and it had everything: * Revenge.

Sixty years ago today, a highly promoted matchup of two NFL superstars, Ernie Nevers and Red Grange, turned into "The Ernie Nevers Show." There is no shortage of great days by running backs in NFL history, but no one has topped what Nevers achieved when his Chicago Cardinals met Grange's Chicago Bears at Comiskey Park. He scored 40 points, not only still the NFL one-game record but the oldest NFL one-game record on the books. Nevers scored 20 points in each half.

It wasn't a great fight and neither participant could be called a great fighter. But the fact that it was James J. Braddock who won the world's heavyweight championship on this date remains one of the most inspiring stories of 20th century American sports. One year before the fight, Braddock was a down-and-out soldier of the Great Depression, a stevedore, unable to find work, heavily in debt, trudging the streets of Jersey City, N.J. He was 29, seeking out small menial labor jobs.

Cinderella Man James J. Braddock, Max Baer, and the Greatest Upset in Boxing History Jeremy Schaap Houghton Mifflin: 288 pp., $24 * On June 13 it will have been 70 years since James J. Braddock surprised everyone when he defeated Max Baer and won the richest prize in sports, boxing's heavyweight championship. Braddock, who entered the ring as a 10-to-1 underdog, immediately became known as boxing's "Cinderella Man." He remains so today, 31 years after his death.

When Natie Brown clenches his 81-year-old fists and snakes a hook through the air, the car wash where he works becomes his boxing ring. "You don't throw a left hook," Brown said. "A lot of people, that's a mistake they make. They think you throw a left hook." Instead, he shows how he once drove his square, huge fists into the bodies of future champions Joe Louis and Max Baer. He emphasizes his whole weight, not just his arm, was behind the punch.

Al Hostak, a former middleweight champion whose pugilistic skills earned him the nickname "The Savage Slav" and landed him a spot on Ring magazine's 2003 list of boxing's 100 all-time greatest punchers, has died. He was 90. Hostak died Sunday at Evergreen Hospice in Kirkland, Wash., of complications from a stroke suffered two weeks ago, his son Phil said. A high school dropout who made his boxing debut in 1932 when he was 16, Hostak won the National Boxing Assn.

A first impression of 86-year-old Ray Arcel, his white hair thinning, eyes sparkling, bearing erect, is that of a man who has soaked up knowledge along the way. But the area of his expertise might not be as readily apparent. Ray Arcel knows about the Sweet Science, as few men do, and has spent most of a lifetime imparting that knowledge to fighters who didn't have the tools to make it as well as those who did. Wednesday, the teacher in the school of hard knocks will be honored by Gov. Mario M.