Billy Conn
Encyclopedia
William David Conn better known as Billy Conn, was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Light-Heavyweight boxing champion famed for his fights with Joe Louis
Joe Louis
Joseph Louis Barrow , better known as Joe Louis, was the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949. He is considered to be one of the greatest heavyweights of all time...

. He had a professional boxing record of 63 wins, 11 losses and 1 draw, with 14 wins by knockout. His nickname, throughout most of his career, was "The Pittsburgh Kid".

Early career

Conn debuted as a professional boxer on June 28, 1934, losing to Dick Woodard by a decision in four rounds. His first win came almost a month later, on July 20, against Johnny Lewis
Johnny Lewis
Jonathan Kendrick "Johnny" Lewis , also credited as Johnny K. Lewis, is an American actor.-Life and career:Lewis began making television appearances while in his late teens with guest starring roles in American Dreams , Boston Public , and The Guardian , among others...

, via a knockout
Knockout
A knockout is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, Karate and others sports involving striking...

 in round three.

Conn built a record of 47 wins, 9 losses and 1 draw (tie), with 7 knockout wins, before challenging for the world's Light-Heavyweight title. Along the way, he beat former or future world champions Fritzie Zivic
Fritzie Zivic
Fritzie Zivic , born as Ferdinand Henry John Zivcich , was an American boxer.-Biography:...

, Solly Krieger
Solly Krieger
Solly Krieger was an American middleweight boxer who fought from 1928-41.-Boxing career:A Golden Gloves amateur champion, Krieger turned professional in 1928....

 and Fred Apostoli
Fred Apostoli
Alfredo "Fred" Apostoli was a rugged, accomplished body punching middleweight, who was recognized as the world champion when he defeated Marcel Thil on September 23, 1937. He was elected to The Ring's Boxing Hall of Fame...

, as well as Teddy Yarosz
Teddy Yarosz
Teddy Yarosz was an American athlete in boxing. He held the world middleweight boxing championship during 1934-1935.-Personal life:Yarosz was born in Monaca, Pennsylvania. His brother Tommy Yarosz also became a boxer....

 and Young Corbett III
Young Corbett III
Young Corbett III was the world Welterweight boxing champion. He was born Raffaele Capabianca Giordano and began boxing in 1919 as Young Corbett III while still a 14-year-old "newsboy."...

.

On July 13, 1939, he met world Light-Heavyweight champion Melio Bettina
Melio Bettina
Melio Bettina was a professional boxer.-Amateur career:Bettina won the 1935 Intercity Golden Gloves at light-heavyweight by decision over Tony Zale.-Pro career:...

 in New York, outpointing him in 15 rounds and winning the world's Light-Heavyweight championship. Conn defended his title against Bettina, and twice against another world Light-Heavyweight champion, Gus Lesnevich
Gus Lesnevich
Gustav George Lesnevich was an American boxer. Lesnevich was born and raised in Cliffside Park, New Jersey....

, each of those three bouts resulting in 15 round decision wins for Conn. Conn also beat former world Middleweight champion Al McCoy
Al McCoy (boxer)
Al McCoy was a boxing world middleweight champion from 1914 to 1917. McCoy’s professional record: 157 bouts — won 99 , lost 40, no-decisions 18.-Biography:...

, and heavyweights Bob Pastor, Lee Savold
Lee Savold
Lee Savold was a heavyweight boxer who held the British and European version of the World Heavyweight championship between 1950 and 1951 and was a leading contender in the forties and early fifties....

, Gunnar Barlund and Buddy Knox in non-title bouts during his run as world Light-Heavyweight champion.

Personal life

Billy married Mary Louise Smith, a member of the Smith family also from Pittsburgh. They have famous pictures of them at the famous vacation spot Ocean City, New Jersey. Billy did not get along with the former MLB champion Greenfield Jimmie Smith, who was Mary's father. A famous fight broke out between them in Jimmy Smith's Squirrel Hill home on Beechwood Boulevard. Billy Conn punched his father-in-law in the head and broke his hand. As a result of the injury, the fight with Joe Louis was postponed. Frank Deford wrote colorfully about the famous kitchen brawl in his Sports Illustrated story "The Boxer and the Blond"

Joe Louis Era

In May 1941, Conn gave up his world Light-Heavyweight title to challenge world Heavyweight champion Joe Louis
Joe Louis
Joseph Louis Barrow , better known as Joe Louis, was the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949. He is considered to be one of the greatest heavyweights of all time...

. Conn attempted to become the first world Light-Heavyweight champion in boxing history to win the world's Heavyweight championship when he and Louis met on June 18 of that year, and incredibly, to do so without going up in weight. The fight became part of boxing's lore because Conn held a secure lead on the scorecards leading to round 13. According to many experts and fans who watched the fight, Conn was outmaneuvering Louis up to that point. In a move that Conn would regret for the rest of his life, he tried to go for the knockout in round 13, and instead wound up losing the fight by knockout in that same round himself.
Ten minutes after the fight, Conn told reporters, "I lost my head and a million bucks,". When asked by a reporter why he went for the knockout, Conn replied famously, "What's the use of being Irish if you can't be thick (i.e. stupid)?" Later he would joke with Louis, "Why couldn't you let me hold the title for a year or so?", to which the Brown Bomber responded, "You had the title for twelve rounds and you couldn't hold on to it."

In 1942, Conn beat Tony Zale
Tony Zale
Anthony Florian Zaleski was an American boxer. Zale was born and raised in Gary, Indiana, a steel town, which gave him his nickname, "Man of Steel." In addition, he had the reputation of being able to take fearsome punishment and still rally to win, reinforcing that nickname...

 and had an exhibition with Louis. World War II was at one of its most important moments, however, and both Conn and Louis were called to serve in the Army. Conn went to war and was away from the ring until 1946.

By then, the public was clamoring for a rematch between him and the still world Heavyweight champion Louis. This happened, and on June 19, 1946, Conn returned into the ring, straight into a world Heavyweight championship bout. Before that fight, it was suggested to Louis that Conn might outpoint him because of his hand and foot speed. In a line that would be long-remembered, Louis replied: "He can run, but he can't hide." The fight, at Yankee Stadium, was the first televised
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 world Heavyweight championship bout ever, and 146,000 people watched it on TV, also setting a record for the most seen world Heavyweight bout in history. Most people who saw it agreed that both Conn and Louis' abilities had eroded with their time spent serving in the armed forces, but Louis was able to retain the crown by a knockout in round eight. Conn's career was basically over after this fight, but he still fought two more fights, winning both by knockout in round nine. On December 10, 1948, he and Louis met inside a ring for the last time, this time for a public exhibition in Chicago. Conn would never climb into a ring as a fighter again.

Retirement

Retiring from the ring as a boxer did not mean retiring as a public figure for Conn.
Conn, who appeared in a 1941 movie called "The Pittsburgh Kid," maintained his boxing skills into his later years. He stepped into the middle of a robbery at a Pittsburgh convenience store in 1990 after the robber punched the store manager. Conn took a swing at the robber and ended up on the floor of the store, scuffling with him. "You always go with your best punch—straight left," Conn told television station WTAE afterward. "I think I interrupted his plans." The robber managed to get away, but not before Conn pulled off his coat, which contained his name and address, making the arrest an easy one. His wife said jumping into the fray was typical of her husband. "My instinct was to get help," she said at the time. "Billy's instinct was to fight."

Conn was a great friend of Pittsburgh Steelers
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team currently belongs to the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Founded in , the Steelers are the oldest franchise in the AFC...

 owner Art Rooney
Art Rooney
Arthur Joseph "Art" Rooney, Sr. , often referred to as "The Chief", was the founding owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers American football franchise in the National Football League.-Family history:...

.

As he became an older citizen, he participated in a number of documentaries for HBO
Home Box Office
HBO, short for Home Box Office, is an American premium cable television network, owned by Time Warner. , HBO's programming reaches 28.2 million subscribers in the United States, making it the second largest premium network in America . In addition to its U.S...

, and he was frequently seen at boxing-related activities until his death in 1993, at the age of 75.

In 1995, Conn's picture appeared on the cover of British pop singer Morrissey's single "Boxers." The photo was taken from an issue of Ring magazine.

Conn is now a member, along with Louis and Zivic, of the International Boxing Hall of Fame
International Boxing Hall of Fame
The modern International Boxing Hall of Fame is located in Canastota, New York, United States, within driving distance from the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown and the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta...

 in Canastota, New York
Canastota, New York
Canastota is a village located inside the Town of Lenox in Madison County, New York, United States. The population was 4,425 at the 2000 census.The Village of Canastota is in the south part of the Town of Lenox.- History :...

.

Trivia

  • Billy Conn was mentioned in the 2006 Hollywood movie, 'Black Dahlia
    The Black Dahlia (film)
    The Black Dahlia is a 2006 neo noir crime film directed by Brian De Palma. It is based on the novel of the same name by James Ellroy, writer of L.A. Confidential and starred Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Aaron Eckhart and Hilary Swank. The story is based on the murder of Elizabeth Short...

    ', in reference to the fighting capability of Josh Hartnett
    Josh Hartnett
    Joshua Daniel "Josh" Hartnett is an American actor and aspiring producer. He first came to audiences' attention in 1997 as "Michael Fitzgerald" in the television series Cracker. He made his feature film debut in 1998, co-starring with Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later for Miramax...

     who played boxer, Ofcr. Dwight 'Bucky' Bleichert.
  • A portion of North Craig Street in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh is named Billy Conn Boulevard.
  • Billy Conn is also mentioned in the classic movie "On the Waterfront". In the famous scene in the back of the cab - "I could have been a contender", Rod Steiger (playing Marlon Brando's brother) reflects on Brando's character Terry's early promise as a boxer with the words "You could have been another Billy Conn".
  • Billy Conn is also mentioned in the 1967 Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau classic comedy movie "Fortune Cookie".In the apartment scene where Jack Lemmon asks Boom Boom (Ron Rich) "Where'd you learn that? Don't tell me,your father was a Pullman porter",for which Boom Boom replies "He was a fighter, light heavyweight.Once went rounds with Billy Conn".
  • London-based band The BibleCode Sundays
    The BibleCode Sundays
    The BibleCode Sundays are a London-based celtic rock band. Their music is a lively mixture of traditional Irish folk music and contemporary rock music-History:...

     released an EP
    Extended play
    An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

     of four songs in 2011 titled 'The Pittsburgh kid'. The title track is a tribute to Billy Conn

External links


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