Jimmy Sherrer
Name: Jimmy Sherrer
Birth Name: James Paul Sherrer
Hometown: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Birthplace: Memphis, Tennessee, USA
Died: 2003-09-03 (Age:79)
Height: 178cm
Pro Boxer: Record
- Manager Lew Sangor
JIMMY SHERRER
By Pete Ehrmann
In the history of professional boxing in Milwaukee, Jimmy Sherrer stood out as one of the most skilled practitioners of the Sweet Science, and even more so as a boxer with the kind of character and decency not usually associated with such a rough and checkered sport.
That he even stood at all, much less became, in the late 1940s, a contender for the welterweight championship of the world, is a testament to the determination of the man who passed away August 3 at age 79, an active and accomplished lifetime after doctors predicted that if he even lived to adolescence he would never get out of a wheelchair.
Thanks to a condition known as tuberculosis of the spine, Sherrer spent much of his early boyhood at Children's Hospital, where numerous surgeries failed to get him back on his feet. That changed the day Sherrer visited the Urban League boxing gym for the first time.
Presiding over that cramped domain on N. 11th and W. Vine Sts., where Milwaukee's best amateur boxers were developed from 1937-59, was Baby Joe Gans, an even greater wizard at nurturing and inspiring young boys than he was as The Ring magazine's "Negro lightweight champion" in 1931.
Gans convinced the handicapped youngster to exercise his body as much as he was able. The exercise did what medical science couldn't, and in 1941, after Sherrer won the state Diamond Belt amateur boxing title at 118-pounds, he gave the trophy to the doctor who said he'd never walk again "and thanked God for Baby Joe Gans."
The Lincoln High School student added several more amateur titles before Sherrer had his first of 70 professional bouts on May 5, 1944, knocking out Steve Paul in one round.
Sherrer quickly became a favorite here and in Chicago, not only because of his natural boxing skills and punching power, but also the million-dollar smile that advertised his winning personality.
Before Sherrer made his main-event debut in Milwaukee at Borchert Field, beating Billy Parsons on August 1, 1945, the Milwaukee Sentinel's Stoney McGlynn called him "the kid who came back almost from the grave" a clean living, young American Negro, Jimmy is not only a credit to his race, but to the fight game and young America as well."
When Tommy Lemmon, a hot-headed Irishman and Sherrer's chief local rival, loudly boasted that he would win their July 29, 1946 fight at the Auditorium, like his idol and role model, heavyweight champion Joe Louis, Sherrer simply held up a fist and said, "I'll do my talking with this." In the fight, Lemmon went out in the first round.
While Sherrer beat many well-known welterweights and middleweights of his era, one of his most impressive performances isn't in the record book. In 1945, manager Lou Sangor took him to Chicago to work out with the man considered by most boxing historians the greatest pound-for-pound boxer in ring history.
Sherrer and Sugar Ray Robinson boxed together for four days, and the Sentinel reported that "those who saw the drills say Jimmy did all right for himself; that even Sugar had to step on the gas to keep abreast of Jimmy."
Fate tripped the Milwaukee fighter up on the threshold of the big time. Fighting Jerome Frazier in Chicago as a tune-up for a proposed 147-pound title elimination match with top contender Tommy Bell, Sherrer floored Frazier three times in the opening round. Today, three knockdowns in a single round by one fighter would automatically end the match on a technical knockout. But that rule didn't exist then, and Frazier came back and tore open Sherrer's bottom lip to win by a late round TKO.
Although he remained a headliner for several more years, Sherrer wasn't the same fighter. He retired in 1951 with a record of 48-19-3.
Though declining health in his final years put him back in the wheelchair he'd amazingly set aside as a youngster, Sherrer continued what he called his "roadwork" by frequently inching his way on tiptoe around the block of the Marian Franciscan Center on the city's northwest side.
"That's what I miss about boxing," he said. "The sacrifice."
"He was my personal hero and the inspiration of so many that grew up knowing him," said former Milwaukee resident LeRoy Allen Jr., who followed his favorite boxer into the Golden Gloves and pros.
"Boxing was lucky to have him, Milwaukee was lucky to have him, and the world today sure could use more like him."