THE SURVIVOR
If somebody does something wrong to you, you retaliate in a civilized way,” said Jimmy. “You don’t use your fists; you get a pen and paper and let the jury decide. I have never really retired. If somebody needed some help, I would try to help them.” “My dad showed me how to knock somebody out,” said James Jr. “He also taught me how to sue somebody. Good to know in the building business.”
Before I left, I asked Jimmy if he still shadowboxed. Most retired boxers do. Once boxing gets in your blood, there’s an inexorable urge to let your hands fly. “I do sometimes,” said Clark, a sly look on his face. “I do some shadowboxing.” On Sunday, October 12, 2025, the spotlight will shine on Jimmy Clark for the first time in a long time when he is inducted into the Pennsylvania Boxing
Hall of Fame (PBHOF) at the annual awards banquet. Clark is being honored for his amateur and professional career. He’s also representing his 14 doomed teammates who perished in Poland and never had an opportunity to fulfill their dreams. But as George Eliot wrote, “Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them.” Let’s hope Clark’s induction into the PBHOF jogs a few memories.
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LETHAL LANDINGS There has never been a plane crash in which so
Notable victories came against former NBA middleweight champion Solly Krieger and Johnny Colan, and in his final fight he knocked out lethal-punching Tommy Gomez in the second round. As it did for many boxers, World War II impeded Tucker’s career. He joined the Navy as an air cadet based in Florida. In September 1943, he died in a plane crash at the airfield. He was 25 at the time. When Jake LaMotta stopped Algeria-born Frenchman Marcel Cerdan to win the middleweight championship in June 1949, Cerdan probably didn’t understand the extent of The Raging Bull’s anything-goes style. In the first round, LaMotta threw Cerdan to the canvas with what historian Bert Sugar called “as pretty a
many boxers died as the 1980 catastrophe in Poland. Surprisingly, very few boxers have died in aviation accidents, but here are a few that did – two famous, two not so much. They are listed in chronological order: Heavyweight “Napoleon” Jack Dorval was born in Pennsylvania and fought out of Boston. He was tall, skilled and fast, attributes that landed him on the cover of the July 1928 issue of The Ring. There was only one problem:
He had extremely brittle bones and by 1930 had already broken his hands three times. One of Dorval’s best performances was a 10-round decision over “Two Ton” Tony Galento on May 22, 1931. The Galento fight was one in an eight-bout winning streak that earned Dorval a match with high-ranking contender Ernie Schaaf. It was a close, savage fight, with Schaaf winning a split decision. Dorval was gutted when Schaaf refused to give him a rematch, and after a win and a loss in his next two bouts, “Napoleon” Jack retired at the age of 28 with a record of 21-6-4 (14 KOs). Friends convinced Dorval to make a
hip roll as ever seen in a wrestling bout.” Cerdan injured his left shoulder when he fell, making him virtually a one-handed fighter. He struggled on the best he could until the end of the ninth round, but Marcel didn’t answer the bell for the 10th. A rematch was scheduled for December 2, 1949, and on the evening of October 26, Cerdan boarded an Air France Constellation for a flight to New York. Early the next morning, the plane dropped out of radio contact. The plane was supposed to land on the island of Santa Maria in the Azores, but instead it plowed into Algarvia
Rocky Marciano as heavyweight champ.
comeback, and he agreed. On August 2, 1936, he arranged for pilot Frank McDowell to take him on a short flight in an open-cockpit biplane. As they approached the airport near Kersey, Pennsylvania, the plane hit an air pocket that sent it spiraling down, nose first into a potato field, killing 32-year- old Dorval. McDowell escaped with minor injuries. New Yorker Tommy Tucker turned pro as a light heavyweight but frequently fought as a heavyweight. He had a prolonged stint as a preliminary fighter and, despite having just two losses in his first 44 bouts, it wasn’t until August 15, 1939, that he had his first 10-rounder, winning a decision against Yancey Henry.
Peak on the island of Sao Miguel, 90 miles north of Santa Maria. All 48 people aboard were killed. It was theorized that rain, fog and lowering clouds confused the pilot into thinking Sao Miguel was Santa Maria. The day before undefeated former heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano’s 46th birthday, he boarded a single-engine Cessna for a flight from Chicago to Des Moines, Iowa, where a party was going to be held in his honor. The plane was supposed to land at Newtown Airport but crashed into a wooded area about two miles from the airport the evening of August 31,1969. The pilot, Marciano and another passenger died upon impact.
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