“I was not much of a boxing fan at the time. I had gone to a couple of small fights, but seeing a heavyweight championship fight was a whole different experience.

I was given two tickets by a client, Julian Black, who served as Joe’s business adviser and manager. I went with my father. We sat in the tenth row ringside.

“My most vivid memory of the fight was tobacco smoke. Comiskey Park smelled like tobacco. It seemed like everybody was smoking.

“I knew Joe only perfunctorily at the time. Joe was not a great conversationalist, and when we first met, we only talked about people we both knew in Detroit.

“I was, of course, rooting for Joe because I knew him and because I was friends with his friends. Almost all African Americans were rooting for Joe, although we had a lot of respect for Braddock.

“In the first round, Joe was open to punches. He was knocked down by Braddock, but Joe came back. Braddock was tough, taking punch after punch, but Joe came on, round after round, and kept at the champion.

“It was most exciting to be at the bout, but in a perverse way. The crowds, the smell, the feelings. All this was new to me, and I remember my emotions got the better of me. That was a unique experience; I seldom got caught up in events. I think we all got caught up in the fight.

“I remember walking to our house on the South Side after the fight. Our house was at 45th Street and Michigan Avenue, so we didn’t have a long way to go from Comiskey Park. I recall that the whole South Side erupted. All the radios were blasting news of the fight, and there was bedlam and celebration everywhere. It was confusing, just a melange.

“Joe Louis later became a client of mine. Before that, I helped oversee Joe’s status during World War II, while i was working for the secretary of war. I considered myself a close friend of Joe after the war. We never talked about the Braddock fight, or about any fight. He seldom talked much about boxing at all. In fact, when he came home from a bout, he would always say to his wife, ‘Look Marva, another lucky fight.’ That was Joe.”

— Truman K. Gibson Jr., former president of the Illinois Boxing Club

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