BARNEY ROSS

 

BARNEY ROSS 

Barney Ross, born Dov-Ber Rosofsky, was a boxer who held THREE boxing world championship titles at the same time between 1933 and 1938, most likely the first fighter to hold three world titles at the same time. 

When Ross was a child his father was murdered, his mother had a nervous breakdown, and he and his siblings were placed in orphanages.  At first Ross ran with gangs in the neighborhood where he lived as he grew up, running money for Al Capone with another kid his age named Jack Ruby.  When he discovered boxing in his teens, Ross channeled his rage into a championship boxing career. He wore a mezuzah on his belt when fighting, and entered the ring to the song My Yiddishe Momma by Sophie Tucker (if you haven't heard it, you aren't missing much). Over the course of his boxing career he was never KO'd in over three hundred fights. 

When WWII started, as a celebrity he was offered a cushy state-side job in the Amry. Other fighters like Jack Dempsey did just that.  Ross turned that down and joined the Marines where he was sent to the Pacific theater and fought in the epic battle for Guadalcanal (Ross was sent into combat after decking a superior officer who made an antisemitic slur in Ross's presence. The one Jewish officer on the court martial panel knew who Ross was was able to save him from being imprisoned by arguing on his behalf. Instead of prison the panel sent Ross into battle, which was just fine with him.)   

On the night of November 19, 1942, Ross's squad was ambushed while on patrol. He volunteered to remain with four wounded comrades, knowing that capture by the Japanese would surely result in them all being executed- most likely by being beheaded. During the night Ross held off repeated charges to overrun his position, was incessantly shelled (his helmet was later found to have been dented by over thirty pieces of shrapnel), and sustained several wounds. But he held his position and saved two of his buddies while whispering prayers in Hebrew throughout the night. He carried one Marine who weighed 230 pounds to safety despite weighing only 140 pounds himself and being sick with malaria. For his heroism he won the silver star-the military's third highest honor. After recovering from his wounds Ross returned to battle five more times before the war ended. 

During his treatment and recovery Ross was given multiple doses of morphine and became hooked on the drug. On returning to the United States he turned to heroin and his life unraveled. He learned his wife was divorcing him from reading about it in the news. With nowhere else to turn, and there being no rehab facilities in the 1940's other than a unit at a federal prison in Kentucky known as The Federal Narcotics Farm, Ross arranged a volutary surrender. On the day he turned himself in a headline in a newspaper read "Barney Ross Gives Up." 

Far from it. After surviving a brutal detox Ross was released and set about rebuilding his life. His wife and he remarried. He toured the country, speaking honestly about his addiction to heroin and morphine, and testified before congress about the need for drug rehab facilities at a time when such a phrase was unknown. 

Ross went on to spend his life helping veterans, speaking about the dangers of drug addiction, stayed close to boxing, and never forget his roots, testifying on behalf of his childhood friend Jack Ruby when Ruby became infamous for killing John Kennedy's assassin Lee Oswald. During the emergence of Israel Ross helped smuggle weapons to the Irgun along with his former Jewish gangster associates Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel. 

Barney Ross denied January 18, 1967. He was one tough American, and a hero in every sense of the word.  In 2007 ESPN ranked Ross as the 22nd greatest boxer of all time. Ring magazine ranked Ross as the 3rd greatest welterweight and 4th greatest light welterweight fighter of all time. 

How tough was Ross? In his mid 50's Ross walked into a restaurant where a man was impersonating heavyweight boxer Jackie "Kid" Berg. People impersonating sports celebrities had become a thing at the time, with the impersonators collecting appearance fees and money for autographs.  Ross was still around his lightweight fighting weight and approached the 200-pound impersonator.  "So you're Kid Berg huh?" Ross asked him When the impersonator assured him that he was, Ross decked him with one right hand. "If you wuz Kid Berg" Ross snarled, "you coulda taken that punch." 

Then he walked away.