Moe 'Montgomery' Hart Herscovitch (27 October 1897 – 22 July 1969) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

middleweight Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above and up to . Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have be ...

and

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like Muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify the ...

boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: * Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing *Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom * Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe ee ...

who competed in the early 1920s. He was also a prominent

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player in

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Early life

Born in either Romania or Canada (sources differ) to Jewish parents, Vetra 'William' and Anna Herscovitch, he emigrated with his family to Montréal, Canada. He anglicised his given name to 'Montgomery,' but was known to everyone as 'Moe.' Although short in stature at 5' 6", he was incredibly athletic. He played football with the

Montreal Football Club The Montreal Football Club was a Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec that played in the Quebec Rugby Football Union from 1883 to 1906 and in the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union from 1907 to 1915. The club was a founding member of ...

of the Inter-Provincial Rugby Union until 1915 when it was disbanded due to the increasing hostilities of World War I.

Service in WWI

Eager to do his part in WWI, Herscovitch joined the 66th Battery, Canadian Expeditionary Forces. A gunner, while posted overseas he took up the sport of boxing, winning a number of competitions, including the Aldershot welterweight division. When he returned from the War in 1919, he played with Montreal's successor rugby team which won the division championships that year, but he also continued to box. He was selected for Canada's 1920 Olympic boxing team and assigned to its middleweight division. At Antwerp that August, he won a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

, only losing to Briton

Harry Mallin Henry William Mallin (1 June 1892 – 8 November 1969) was an English middleweight amateur boxer. He came originally from Hackney Wick, his younger brother was the Olympic boxer Fred Mallin. He lived in Dartmouth Park, North London and was ...

in the semi-final. He married Celia Goldblatt at Temple Beth Jhuda in Montreal on 18 December 1921.

1920 Summer Olympics

Herscovitch competed in the

1920 Summer Olympics The 1920 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1920; nl, Olympische Zomerspelen van 1920; german: Olympische Sommerspiele 1920), officially known as the Games of the VII Olympiad (french: Jeux de la VIIe olympiade; nl, Spelen van ...

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, where he won the

in the men's middleweight event.

Professional boxing career

Herscovitch turned professional early the next year, and defeated Olympic gold medallist

Bert Schneider Berton "Bert" Jerome Schneider (May 5, 1933December 12, 2011) was an American film and television producer. He was responsible for several topical films of the late 1960s and early 1970s, including the road film ''Easy Rider'' (1969), directed ...

on 18 May 1921. He spent the next few years fighting in Canada and

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, putting together an inconsistent record. He beat Art Prud'homme in 8 November 1922 in a seventh-round knockout. He suffered losses as well, including his fight against world titleholder Mickey Walker on December 21, 1923 in

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, in which Herscovitch was billed as the Canadian welterweight champion. Walker won with a sixth round

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...

, having broken his opponent's right hand during the fight.

Life after boxing

Herscovitch retired in the summer of 1924, and began volunteering as a boxing coach at the Montreal YMHA. Although he boxed at a time when fighters wore no protective gear, 'Moe' had never suffered a debilitating injury in the ring. However, on 24 July 1943 while on holiday at the summer resort of Plage Laval, he and some companions were set upon by a French Canadian anti-Semitic mob and beaten so badly that surgeons were forced to remove one of his eyes. He continued to be actively involved in sports and his community, and served as president of the Quebec Rugby Union. He died on 22 July 1969, and was buried at the Baron de Hirsch Cemetery in Montreal.

References

External links

*
Moe Herscovitch's profile at Sports Reference.com

1967 'Canadian Jewish Chronicle' article reviewing career of Moe Herscovitch

Newsreel film of Moe Herscovitch in the ring at the 1920 Summer Olympics
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Herscovitch, Moe 1897 births Place of birth missing 1969 deaths Jewish boxers Jewish Canadian sportspeople Middleweight boxers Olympic boxers of Canada Boxers at the 1920 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Canada Olympic medalists in boxing Boxers from Montreal Medalists at the 1920 Summer Olympics Canadian male boxers Romanian emigrants to Canada Canadian people of Romanian-Jewish descent Players of Canadian football from Quebec