Joseph Elsby Martin Sr., (February 1, 1916 – September 14, 1996) was an American
boxing
Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...
coach who trained two world
heavyweight
Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling.
Boxing Professional
Boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 3 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation, the Wo ...
champions,
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, a ...
and
Jimmy Ellis Jimmy Ellis may refer to:
* Jimmy Ellis (boxer) (1940–2014), American boxer
* Jimmy "Orion" Ellis (1945–1998), American singer
* Jimmy "Preacher" Ellis (born 1935), American musician
* Jimmy Ellis (1938–2012), lead singer of The Trammps
* Ji ...
, as well as several national
Golden Gloves
The Golden Gloves is the name given to annual competitions for amateur boxing in the United States, where they are awarded a belt and a ring. And the title of nations champion is awarded. The Golden Gloves is a term used to refer to the Nation ...
champions.
Early life
Joe Martin was born January 16, 1916, in
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
, the son of Joe and Minerva "Sancia" (Shaw) Martin. Both of his parents died before he reached his first birthday, so he was raised by his mother's sister, his Aunt Emma and his uncle Clarence Neal who moved to
Pueblo, Colorado
Pueblo () is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality that is the county seat and the List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous municipality of Pueblo County, Colorado, Pueblo County, Colorado ...
and later moved to
Alhambra, Phoenix
Alhambra is an urban village of Phoenix, Arizona.
Location
Alhambra encompasses an area south of Northern Avenue, west of 7th Street, east of 43rd Avenue, and north of Grand Avenue or the Grand Canal.
History
The community's name was chose ...
, Arizona. On March 4, 1941, he married Christine Fentress, and they had one child, Joe Jr., who himself became a national Golden Gloves champion.
Boxing coach and police officer
He came to
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
, in 1937 and joined the
Louisville Police Department, serving until his retirement in 1974. In 1938, he became a boxing coach at the Columbia Gym in Louisville (now the student center of
Spalding University
Spalding University is a private Catholic university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is affiliated with the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth.
History
Spalding University traces its origins to Nazareth Academy, one of the oldest educational instituti ...
),
where, in 1954, he began coaching Cassius Clay, who later became a three-time world heavyweight champion under the name of
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, a ...
. Several news stories quote Ali crediting Martin with having shown him how to "fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee." While coaching at the Columbia Gym, Martin also trained world heavyweight champion
Jimmy Ellis Jimmy Ellis may refer to:
* Jimmy Ellis (boxer) (1940–2014), American boxer
* Jimmy "Orion" Ellis (1945–1998), American singer
* Jimmy "Preacher" Ellis (born 1935), American musician
* Jimmy Ellis (1938–2012), lead singer of The Trammps
* Ji ...
as well as eleven National Golden Gloves champions.
Martin, himself a white man, was an early leader in Louisville's civil rights movement. At the time the future Muhammad Ali began training there, Columbia Gym was racially integrated, unlike other Louisville boxing gyms of that period.
[
]
Muhammad Ali's first coach
In 1954, a twelve-year-old then known as Cassius Clay approached Martin to report that his bicycle had been stolen and told Martin that he wanted to "whup" the thief. Martin offered to teach him how to box and guided his career for the next six years. As a 1960 Olympic coach, Martin accompanied the champion to the Olympic Games in Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, when Ali won a gold medal. In the 1950s and 1960s, Martin helped produce a weekly television show on WAVE-TV called ''Tomorrow's Champions
''Tomorrow's Champions'' was a local television program in Louisville, Kentucky, which featured bouts between local amateur boxers. It aired on NBC affiliate WAVE
In physics, mathematics, and related fields, a wave is a propagating dynamic dis ...
'', which was broadcast for twelve years. After winning the gold medal
A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture.
Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...
, Ali began his professional career but maintained contact with Martin until his death. In the 1970s, Martin appeared on a nationally televised episode of " This Is Your Life," when Ali was the featured guest
Retirement and death
After retirement, Martin started a business as an auctioneer
An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...
and twice ran unsuccessfully for Sheriff
A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...
of Jefferson County, Kentucky
Jefferson County is located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 782,969. It is the most populous county in the commonwealth (with more than twice the population of second ranked ...
. He fell ill in the late summer of 1996 and died in Louisville on September 14. He was buried in Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Leitchfield, Kentucky
Leitchfield is the county seat of Grayson County, Kentucky, United States. Leitchfield is a home rule-class city with a population of 6,404 as of the 2020 census.
History
The town was named for Major David Leitch, an aide to Gen. George Washing ...
.
See also
*List of people from the Louisville metropolitan area
This is a list of people from the Louisville metropolitan area which consists of the Kentucky county of Jefferson and the Indiana counties of Clark and Floyd in the United States. Included are notable people who were either born or raised ther ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Joe E.
1916 births
1996 deaths
American boxing trainers
Louisville Metro Police Department officers
Sportspeople from Colorado
Sportspeople from Louisville, Kentucky