August 17, 1938: Several boxers have won World Championships in more than one weight class, especially with the division of the governing bodies, and the addition of "super" and "light" (or "junior") weight classes. But in the golden era of boxing, there were only 8 weight classes: Heavyweight, Light Heavyweight, Middleweight, Welterweight, Lightweight, Featherweight, Bantamweight and Flyweight.
Henry Armstrong won 3 of them -- and held them all at the same time.
Henry Jackson Jr. was born on December 12, 1912 in Columbus, Mississippi. His father moved the family to St. Louis, and it was there that Henry Jr. learned how to box. He took the name Henry Armstrong, and turned pro in 1931. In 1937, he went 27-0, with 26 of those wins coming by knockout. The Ring magazine (a.k.a. "The Bible of Boxing") named him Fighter of the Year.
On October 29, 1937, he knocked Petey Sarron out at the old Madison Square Garden, winning the Featherweight Championships sanctioned by the National Boxing Association (NBA) and The Ring. The New York State Athletic Commission recognized the Featherweight title as being vacant, and announced it would award it to the winner of this fight. They recognized Armstrong as Champion. This made him the undisputed Featherweight Champion of the World. That's one.
On May 31, 1938, "Homicide Hank" moved up not one, but two weight classes. Barney Ross had been the Welterweight Champion of the World since 1935, and had been Lightweight Champion before that. Armstrong and Ross fought at The Garden. It was brutal, with Armstrong pounding away. But Ross had never been knocked out, and refused to go down, showing more courage than sense. He lasted all 15 rounds, but Armstrong won a unanimous decision. It would be his last fight. So Armstrong was now the Welterweight Champion of the World. That's two.
And there was a weight class in between: The Lightweight Championship. In his very next fight, on August 17, 1938, he fought Lou Ambers, who had been Champion for the last 2 years. Again, the fight was at The Garden. This time, it was a split decision, but Armstrong won it. That's three.
So he was Featherweight Champion from October 29, 1937 to September 12, 1938; he was Welterweight Champion from May 31, 1938 to October 4, 1940; and he was Lightweight Champion from August 17, 1938 to August 22, 1939. In other words, from August 17 to September 12, 1938, 26 days, he held 37.5 percent of boxing's World Championships: 3 out of the 8 weight classes then recognized.
So how did he lose the titles? Officially, he didn't lose the Featherweight title: He realized that he was unlikely to ever again make the 126-pound weight limit, and gave the title up. On August 22, 1939, he gave Ambers a rematch for the Lightweight title at Yankee Stadium, and Ambers won a unanimous decision.
On October 4, 1940, he went into The Garden to defend the Welterweight title against Fritzie Zivic (Ferdinand Henry John Zivcich), and lost a unanimous decision. He only had one more title fight, 3 months later, also at The Garden, a rematch with Zivic, who knocked him out in the 12th round. So while he once held 3 titles, it wasn't quite 3 years in total that he held any title.
Armstrong continued to fight until 1945, finishing with a record of 151 wins, 22 losses and 10 draws. He returned to St. Louis, was ordained as a Baptist minister, and helped run the Herbert Hoover Boys Club, which was built on the site of Sportsman's Park, St. Louis' former ballpark. He died on October 22, 1988, at the age of 75.
In 1987, he was a charter inductee into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. In 1995, he was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame. In 2007, The Ring named Armstrong Number 2 on its list of the greatest fighters, pound-for-pound, of the last 80 years, ahead of Muhammad Ali at 3 and Joe Louis at 4, and behind only Sugar Ray Robinson. That same year, ESPN ranked him Number 3 on their list of the 50 greatest boxers, behind Robinson at 1 and Ali at 2.
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August 17, 1938 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played:
* The New York Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers, 4-2 at the Polo Grounds. Mel Ott went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.
* The Boston Red Sox swept a doubleheader from the Philadelphia Athletics, 4-3 and 5-0 at Fenway Park. Against his former team, Jimmie Foxx went 3-for-7 with a home run, a walk and 2 RBIs. Joe Heving pitched a 7-hit shutout in the 2nd game.
* The Boston Bees -- as the Braves were known from 1936 to 1940 -- beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-0 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. Ira Hutchinson was working on a 6-hit shutout for the Bees, when the game was called due to rain in the bottom of the 8th inning.
* The St. Louis Browns beat the Cleveland Indians, 10-7 at League Park in Cleveland.
* The Detroit Tigers swept a doubleheader from the Chicago White Sox, 4-3 and 3-2 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. (It was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.) Hank Greenberg went 0-for-8, which didn't help in his quest to break the single-season home run record. He finished with 58, 2 behind Babe Ruth's record.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Cubs, 8-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-3 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Johnny Rizzo singled Lloyd Waner home with the winning run in the top of the 10th inning.
* And the New York Yankees and the Washington Senators were rained out at Griffith Stadium in Washington. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader the next day. The Yankees won the opener, 6-5. Lou Gehrig doubled Joe DiMaggio home with the winning run in the top of the 11th inning. The Senators won the nightcap, 6-3.
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