Rocky Marciano

I envision a hero as a person who has many achievements and has always tried hard and never given up. Rocky Marciano is that kind of hero. From his accomplishments in sports he was also the only undefeated champion in any weight class there has ever been. To define Rocky Marciano's career, one only needs to know: 49-0. That is it. Forty-nine fights, forty-nine wins.

When Rocky was fifteen, he entered Brockton High School and made the football team. Legend has it that center Rocky once intercepted a pass and ran 60 yards with the ball to score a touchdown. He also made the school's baseball team as a catcher, but was told he was slow and was moved to right field. Shortly after, Rocky joined a church league, violating a school rule that players could not join other teams. Cut from his school's team, Rocky felt frustrated and started cutting class and later on, dropped out completely.

Rocky had been urged by a teacher to attend a vocational center in Brockton, and realized he had few working skills. Rocky found work as a chute man on delivery trucks for the Brockton Ice and Coal Company. Later Rocky's father was able to get him a shoe salesman job. When Rocky was 20, he was called up by the US Army to serve in England. However, the war was drawing to an end, and Rocky was flown back to the States. While awaiting discharge from the army, Rocky decided to take part in an amateur boxing competition, where he represented the Army and won. Upon being given a month's furlough from the Army, Rocky went back home and bragged about his newly found talent to his family and friends. It was his uncle who told him about a boxer who was looking for an opponent, and that maybe Rocky fitted the bill. The boxer was Henry Lester, a Golden Gloves champion. Rocky did not seem to care that his opponent was an award-winning amateur and took on Lester. Rocky was lucky it wasn't an official bout because, according to people present, he was on his way to defeat when he hit Lester in the groin and was disqualified. Rocky was so embarrassed by this fight and the newspapers' accounts of it, that when he went back to the military facilities, he started concentrating solely on his boxing training.

On March 17, 1947, Rocky finally stepped into the ring as a professional competitor for the first time. That night, he beat Lee Epperson by a knockout in three rounds. He won all his first sixteen bouts by knockout, all but one before the fourth round, and nine before the first round was over. On May 23, 1949, Don Mogard became the first boxer to last the distance with The Rock, but Rocky won by decision. In 1950, Rocky decisioned Roland LaStarza, also an unbeaten heavyweight prospect would be his last defeat inside a boxing ring. LaStarza is just one of three men to have gone the distance with Marciano. A year later, Rocky knocked out former heavyweight champion Joe Louis, who was 37. That bout led to a title fight against 38-year-old champion Jersey Joe Walcott. Jersey Joe Walcott, who lost his title to Marciano, said "He was a man of courage inside the ring. Outside, he was kind and gentle." Marciano overcame a first-round knockdown to win the title on a 13th-round knockout in 1952. "What would be better than walking down any street in any city and knowing you're a champion?" he once asked. The rematch lasted one round, as Marciano scored the 11th first-round stoppage of his career. Then came former world Heavyweight champion Ezzard Charles, who Marciano beat by a decision in their first bout. After having his nose broken in round five of the rematch, Marciano retained the title with an eighth-round knockout win. Then Marciano met British and European champion Don Cocknell, beaten in nine, and in his last bout, Marciano got up off the canvas in round two to retain his title by a knockout in nine against the equally-legendary former Light-Heavyweight champion of the world, Archie Moore.

Marciano managed his money well after his retirement, and he lived a comfortable life the rest of his days. He hosted a weekly boxing show on TV, and lived in a mansion. Rumors that one of his trainers, Al Weill, had connections to the mafia surfaced later and, according to the rumors, Rocky hated the fact Weill 'was connected'.

Later, Rocky Marciano got his pilot's license, and in 1969, while flying home from a business meeting, his plane developed engine trouble and crashed, killing him. He was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Cemetery in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.