More Than A Game - The Fight

Professor Anthony King reports on one of the most famous matches in boxing history, the rematch in 1938 at Yankee Stadium in New York, between the Brown Bomber, Joe Louis of the United States and Max Schmeling of Germany. Two years earlier in 1936, in the same stadium , Schmeling , to everyone's astonishment, had knocked out Louis in the 12th round. For Adolf Hitler and his propaganda chief, Josef Goebbels, it was a triumph of white over black. By 1938, the rematch had taken on even greater value, for the Germans, for the Jews, and for black and white Americans. On the night of the fight, millions of people around the world, many with little previous interest in boxing, were glued to their radios. In the U.S. , 64 per cent of all Americans who owned a radio, tuned in. The match lasted less than a round, Schmeling was sensationally knocked out. But after the war, it was Schmeling who prospered. He helped Louis financially and was a pallbearer at the Brown Bomber's funeral.