Joe Louis Did As Much For Boxing Outside the Ring

[dagosd2000]

I see where they're going to do a documentary on the life of Don Rickles on HBO. I never cared for him much. I always thought his routine was insulting,not that funny.

There's clips of him at different venues making fun of President Reagan and his wife,Johnny Carson,Dean Martin,guys with their wives,anybody in the room that's breathing. A starlett says,"Everyone in Hollywood wants to be shit on by Don Rickles" I guess that's show biz.

I remember a while back he's part of a benefit put on by Frank Sinatra. Well he's working his way around the room doing his bit. I really think he likes insulting people. You can see he's getting himself into a frenzy.
At one of the tables is Joe Louis. This is when Joe is pretty sick and he's in a wheelchair. Well Rickles spots him and he's licking his chops. He gets out a few words and you can tell he's going to make fun of Joe's intellect. Just then the band starts playing and Rickles has this dumbfounded look on his face and says "I guess I'm done". Sinatra,to his credit,saw what was going to happen ,and queud up the band. Joe was off limits.

No one in all of sports did more to bring people together who might not have understood each other than Joe Louis. When he started coming up and won the title he took a lot of racial cheap shots. His people told him how to behave but they didn't have to. He was always polite,modest and helping some one out.

Here's an interesting story. Joe's folks were sharecroppers in the South before they came North. When the Great Depression hit Joe remembered that the old couple that owned the farm were nice to his parents. Joe sent the old couple money so their farm wouldn't go under.

When WW II started there was a big rally in Madison Square Garden of celebrities making speeches before they went off to war. Well you know the story. Everyone is making patriotic speeches and then it's Joe's turn. He walks up to the microphone and says in that modest Joe Louis voice in all honesty "We're going to win because God's on our side". I'd like to see Don Rickles top that.