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The Fight | Image Gallery

Boxers of the Golden Age

Americans loved boxing in the 1920s and '30s. Every immigrant neighborhood had its champion, and boxing was a flag of racial or ethnic pride. According to writer Jack Newfield, "rivalries [were] built on ethnic tension, and you could get ten thousand people for a fight between two neighborhood heroes."

Harry E. Winkler, correspondent for The Ring magazine from 1939 to 1953, collected thousands of boxing images from this Golden Age. Browse a gallery of portraits from the Harry E. Winkler Photograph Collection at the University of Notre Dame, and meet some of America's storied boxers.

  • Max Baer was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1909 and grew up in Colorado and California, working on his father's cattle ranches. Armed with a devastating right hand, he beat Max Schmeling in 1933 before defeating Primo "The Ambling Alp" Carnera in 1934 for the world heavyweight title. Baer had German and Scottish blood, but the press identified him as a Jew by the Star of David he wore on his boxing shorts.

    Career Record
    Won: 72, KOs: 53
    Lost: 12
    Draw: 0

     Credit: Harry E. Winkler Photographic Collection, University Libraries of Notre Dame

  • Theodore "Tiger" Flowers began fighting while working in a Philadelphia shipyard in 1918. He became the first African American world middleweight champion when he defeated Harry Greb at Madison Square Garden in February 1926.

    Career Record
    Won: 115, KOs: 53
    Lost: 14
    Draw: 6

     Credit: Harry E. Winkler Photographic Collection, University Libraries of Notre Dame

  • Italian American boxer Tony Canzoneri took up the sport as a teenager in New Orleans. His family moved to Brooklyn in 1923 and he began his professional boxing career two years later, at the age of 16. He won world titles in the featherweight division, the lightweight division, and the junior welterweight division.

    Career Record
    Won: 141, KOs: 44
    Lost: 24
    Draw: 10

     Credit: Harry E. Winkler Photographic Collection, University Libraries of Notre Dame

  • Speedy Dado was born Diosdado Posadas in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. He fought exclusively on the West coast of the U.S. and was one of many good Filipino fighters of the era. Dado briefly held the California bantamweight championship in 1931.

    Career Record
    Won: 83, KOs: 34
    Lost: 42
    Draw: 14

     Credit: Harry E. Winkler Photographic Collection, University Libraries of Notre Dame

  • Born in Ohio, Leo Lomski moved with his family to Aberdeen, Washington. His father was a Polish Jew and the Lomskis were the only Jews in town. Leo went to work as a lumberjack and started fighting in logging camps, where he became known as the "Aberdeen Assassin" for his aggressive style.

    Career Record
    Won: 100, KOs: 39
    Lost: 27
    Draw: 15

     Credit: Harry E. Winkler Photographic Collection, University Libraries of Notre Dame

  • Sammy Mandell was born Samuel Mandella in Rockford, Illinois. He began his professional boxing career in 1920, at age sixteen. Mandell, an Albanian American, was called the "Rockford Sheik."

    Career Record
    Won: 147, KOs: 33
    Lost: 26
    Draw: 13

     Credit: Harry E. Winkler Photographic Collection, University Libraries of Notre Dame

  • Jimmy McLarnin was born in Ireland and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia. He began his professional boxing career in Canada in 1923 and moved to California the following year. He won the world title as a welterweight in 1933, but lost it to Barney Ross on his first defense.

    Career Record
    Won: 62, KOs: 20
    Lost : 11
    Draw: 3

     Credit: Harry E. Winkler Photographic Collection, University Libraries of Notre Dame

  • Alfonso Teofilo Brown was born in Panama and worked for the United States Shipping Board. He began boxing after watching matches between American soldiers. Brown was discovered by fight manager Dave Lumiansky and moved to New York, where he defeated Vidal Gregorio for the world bantamweight title in 1929.

    Career Record
    Won: 123, KOs: 55
    Lost : 18
    Draw: 10

     Credit: Harry E. Winkler Photographic Collection, University Libraries of Notre Dame

  • Jack Sharkey was born in Binghamton, New York, the son of Lithuanian immigrants. He began fighting in the U.S. Navy and afterward started his professional career in Boston. Sharkey became the American heavyweight champion in 1929 and defeated Max Schmeling in 1932 to win the world heavyweight championship.

    Career Record
    Won: 38, KOs: 14
    Lost : 13
    Draw: 3

     Credit: Harry E. Winkler Photographic Collection, University Libraries of Notre Dame

  • Jackie Fields was born Jacob Finkelstein in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up in a tough Jewish neighborhood; "being in the ghetto," he famously said, "you had to fight." Fields began his amateur boxing career in Los Angeles in the early 1920s. At age 16, he won the featherweight gold medal at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. He turned pro later that year.

    Career Record
    Won: 74, KOs: 30
    Lost : 9
    Draw: 3

     Credit: Harry E. Winkler Photographic Collection, University Libraries of Notre Dame

  • Umio Gen was born Ha-Nan Hyun in Cheju, Korea and grew up in Japan. He began his pro career as a teenager, winning the Japanese bantamweight title before coming to America in 1937. In the States, Gen fought mostly on the West coast before returning to Asia in 1939.

    Career Record
    Won: 22, KOs: 4
    Lost : 22
    Draw: 13

     Credit: Harry E. Winkler Photographic Collection, University Libraries of Notre Dame

  • Alberto "Baby" Arizmendi was born in Torreon, in the Mexican state of Coahuila. He began boxing as a pro in the late 1920s. Arizmendi won the New York State featherweight title in 1934 and the Mexican world featherweight title in 1935.

    Career Record
    Won: 71, KOs: 13
    Lost : 26
    Draw: 13

     Credit: Harry E. Winkler Photographic Collection, University Libraries of Notre Dame
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