Summa cum Laude

Five years ago coffee-colored Joe Louis was an obscure Detroit factory hand. He could read slowly, write a little, say "Yas'm." Last week 25-year-old Joe Louis, now able to write a check for $1,000,000, returned to Detroit to show his fellow townsmen how his education had progressed since he became heavyweight champion of the world.

To watch him defend his title in a 20-round bout against smart, nimble Bob Pastor, onetime New York University footballer with a fair-to-middling boxing record, 34,000 fight fans poured into Detroit's Briggs Stadium, paid up to $27.50 a seat. They saw what they expected to see. Fleet-footed Pastor--whose only claim to the challenger's role was the fact that he once lasted ten rounds against Louis--did the turkey trot, Lindy hop, chasse and Suzi-Q to keep out of the champion's waltzing range. Fleet-fisted Louis toppled the challenger every time he caught up: four times in the first round, once in the second and finally in the eleventh flush on the chin for a fare-thee-well.

Because Pastor lasted ten rounds (and in the eighth actually peppered Louis with punches) many fight fans belittled the Negro's talents. Said Pastor's manager, James Joy Johnston: "It took Louis 21 rounds to knock out Pastor--ten in New York and eleven in Detroit." But the majority of fair-minded fans, aware that Louis had set up such a high pugilistic standard that for him anything short of a one-round knockout was a big black demerit, applauded his prowess. In 43 professional fights--since the night in 1934 when he got $50 for knocking out one Jack Kracken--the Brown Bomber has been defeated only once (by Max Schmeling), has knocked out all but seven of his opponents, including five onetime world's champions (Braddock, Camera, Baer, Sharkey, Schmeling), has successfully defended his title eight times in the past two years. This record gives Joe Louis a fisticuffer's summa cum laude.

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