Zach Clayton

Name: Zach Clayton
Birth Name: Zachary M. Clayton
Hometown: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Birthplace: Gloucester County, Virginia, USA
Died: 1997-11-19 (Age:80)
Judge: Record
Referee: Record

Zach Clayton Gallery

Notes

• Zach Clayton is the former Pennsylvania State Athletic Commissioner. But what is unusual about Clayton is that in 1949 he became the first black man to receive a referee’s license with the state of Pennsylvania.

• The following year he also became the first of his race to referee a world heavyweight title. That fight took place on June 6, 1952, in Philadelphia, between Jersey Joe Walcott and Ezzard Charles.

• Clayton refereed many of former Heavyweight Champion and 1964 Olympic Gold Medalist Joe Frazier‘s fights, aswell as the Rumble in the Jungle in 1974 in Kinshasa, Zaire.

• In the early 1940s, Mr. Clayton played professional baseball in the Negro League alongside Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, and his high school teammate, Roy Campanella.

Death

• He died of complications of a stroke at his home in Philadelphia's Mount Airy section.