Joe Louis (AKA The Brown Bomber) was knocked to the canvas by a woman boxer on June 10th, 1950. The unlikely occurrence happened during an exhibition match to raise funds to send American athletes to the 1952 Olympic games in Helsinki. The former heavyweight champion had retired from competition in 1949 but agreed to the fund raiser if they held it in his home town, Lafayette, Alabama. His opponent, a German emigrant named Eva Schmeling, came to this country as a war bride in 1946. When the bell rang she burst from her corner and ran full tilt at Louis (who was hiking up his shorts) and struck the champ a devastating blow on the left side of the head. He went down for the count of two. Louis's handler was so startled by the attack (as was everyone else) that he threw in the towel. As Louis was quickly hustled from the high school gym, Eva was claiming revenge for Louis's defeat of Max Schmeling, who turned out to be her 2nd cousin. It was decided by the news media (almost exclusively male in 1950) that little would be gained by publicizing the encounter and the incident was quickly buried and received no press. Louis was so mortified by the episode that he flew to Los Angeles and never visited Alabama again.

researched by your pal E.Z.Smith