Lou Nova

Name: Lou Nova
Alias: Alameda Assassin
Birth Name: Jay Louis Nova
Hometown: Oakland, California, USA
Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, USA
Died: 1991-09-29 (Age:78)
Stance: Orthodox
Height: 188cm
Reach: 191cm
Pro Boxer: Record
Amateur Boxer: Record

Manager: Ray Carlen
Lou Nova Gallery

Lou Nova graduated from Alameda High School (Oakland, CA) in June 1931. At Alameda he played football, baseball and set a record hurling the javelin in track and field.

As an amateur boxer, starting in February 1933, he had a reported 13-2 record. He was the 1935 United States Amateur Heavyweight Champions National AAU Heavyweight Champion.

Based on comments made by his then trainer Ray Arcel, the dean of corner men, Nova was a gullible young man who got his boxing career side-tracked by the teachings of a phony California mystic named "Oom the Omnipotent." Nova had turned to yoga and developed the notion that he had a "Cosmic Punch."

But the real turning point was likely the horrific mauling he took in the Tony Galento fight. Two months after the fight Nova was admitted into Woodland Clinic where he was diagnosed with staphylococcal sepsis (blood poisoning), which the medical staff insisted had been in his system for some time. Dropping some 30 pounds during his convalescence, and the subsequent time to build himself up, once again kept Nova out of the ring for a year.

After his boxing career, he went on to appear in the movies and on television.

At time of his death, Nova had cancer and a heart ailment.

• Birth year from SSDI.
• IMDb credits
• Several sources including some contemporary ones list Nova as being over 6'3" tall but the official tale of the tape for his fight with Joe Louis listed Lou as 6' 2".
• "Lou Nova’s New Career" (Ringside Dec. 1955): [1]