There are now two statues commemorating Joe Louis in his adopted hometown of Detroit, Michigan – though this will be the first to feature his full likeness.
From 1986 until now, the only statue of Louis in the city was solely of the heavyweight champion’s arm and fist, a 24-foot-long monument stationed near Detroit’s riverfront at the intersection of Jefferson and Woodward avenues.
Nearly 40 years later, on October 7, the city government commemorated a new statue of Louis – though holding a golf club rather than wearing boxing gloves.
“Louis is widely considered one of the greatest boxers of all time, a man who broke racial barriers, a national hero. But Louis also broke racial barriers in golf,” the Detroit city government wrote in a press release a year ago, when the project was first announced.
“Louis began playing golf in 1935 and became a major supporter of the United Golf Association (UGA), the African American organization that conducted tournaments nationwide. And as an amateur golfer, he was the first African American to play in a PGA-sanctioned event.”
The statue sits on a newly opened section of the Joe Louis Greenway, a bicycling and walking trail that now has six miles available of what will ultimately be a 30-mile route.
“He had a love affair with golf,” said Louis’ daughter, Joyce Barrow-Henderson. “If you asked Mr. [Jack] Blackburn, my dad’s trainer, he would probably tell you that golf is the reason that he lost that first fight to [Max] Schmeling, because he fell in love with golf and spent a little bit too much time on the greens.
Other cities also have statues dedicated to Louis – in fighting form – including Lafayette, Alabama (where he lived until the age of 12); and Las Vegas, Nevada, at the Caesars Palace hotel and casino.
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.