He returned to St. Louis in 1972 to become the director of the Herbert Hoover Boys Club. Of 26 title fights, Armstrong won all but four (three losses and a draw). Historical Person Search Search Search Results Results William Henry Armstrong (1847 - 1909) . Hall of Fame in 1954 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990. Al Weill, Ambers' manager, was suspended four months for his unsportsmanlike behavior. Deceased : October 22, 1988. Higginbottom believes Davis can be among the best of the best. if (document.images) https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-Armstrong, African American Registry - Biography of Henry Armstrong, BlackPast.org - Biography of Henry Armstrong, International Boxing Hall of Fame - Biography of Henry Armstrong, Henry Armstrong - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). He also taught young fighters how to box. WHAT MAKES A GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS TITLE? The event is named after the late Mississippi boxer, Henry Armstrong, who, in 1938, became the first boxer to ever hold three world titles at the same time. After retirement, he became an ordained minister. Switch to interactive mode He became a born-again Christian and an ordained Baptist minister and youth advocate, helping to run the Herbert Hoover Boys Club. For more details about these defeats, refer to "All of Henry Armstrong's losses". Henry Armstrong | YourDictionary So, its just a coincidence that all this is coming together like that.. In 1949 Armstrong experienced a religious conversion and turned his life around. (February 23, 2023). var navathletescold = new Image(); Armstrong sought to become the first boxer to win world titles in four different categories in a rematch with Garcia, already the World Middleweight Champion, but the fight ended in a ten-round draw. Henry Armstrong fought a total of 183 times during his professional career. Henry Armstrong, born Henry Jackson, decided to become a boxer after reading in a St. Louis newspaper that Kid Chocolate had beaten Al Singer at the Polo Grounds in New York and was paid a purse of $75,000. The title bout came August 17, 1938, just three months after his fight with Ross, when Armstrong faced lightweight champion Lou Ambers before a packed house of almost 20,000 fans at Madison Square Garden. He died on October 24, 1988 at the age of 75 years. It began in 1964 when he won the Olym, Moore, Archie navgalleryover.src = "/i/sportscentury/nav_gallery_over.gif"; Madison Square Garden Bowl, Long Island City, Queens, California-Mexico World Featherweight Title. Armstrong had his cornermen remove his mouthpiece so he could swallow the blood flowing in his mouth the last five rounds. Over the course of his career, Armstrong earned more than $1 million. Omissions? [11] In February 1966, Rev. Click here to subscribe to our newsletter. Henry Armstrong, Maryland (21 matches): Phone Number, Email, Address As an amateur Armstrong fought under the name of Melody Jackson. Armstrong knocked out 100 of his 183 opponents. Having competed as a featherweight at 126 pounds, Armstrong had to increase his weight to 138 pounds in order to qualify to fight in the welterweight division. Hes fighting on the card, and he was the first person in Mississippi to win a title [since 1988], Higginbottom said. Historical Person Search Search Search Results Results Henry Armstrong (1887 - Unknown) Try FREE for 14 days Try FREE for 14 days. Armstrong was one of the few fighters to win in three or more different divisions: featherweight, lightweight, and welterweight. Ill prepared and undernourished, Armstrong lost his first professional fight by a knockout. Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. Returning to St. Louis, he founded the Henry Armstrong Youth Foundation and directed the Herbert Hoover Boys Club. He was stopped two times and lost 20 times via decision. Despite almost blacking out in the 15th round, Armstrong won a split decision to make history. Armstrong appeared on the TV game show I've Got a Secret with his simultaneous triple championship as his secret. His early childhood was spent on a plantation owned by Armstrong's grandfather, an Irishman who had married one of his slaves. "If you spit any more blood on that floor," referee Billy Cavanaugh told Armstrong, "I'm going to stop this fight.". DISCLAIMER: Data may be outdated or incorrect, use at your own discretion. [citation needed], Later in 1938, Armstrong, still the Featherweight division world champion, challenged Barney Ross for the title. After retiring from boxing, Armstrong became an ordained Baptist minister, working with disadvantaged youth. March 4, 1939: Armstrong successfully defends the NBA and The Ring welterweight titles against Bobby Pacho, winning the fight via 4th round TKO. In a publicity stunt, Jolson and Mead falsely advertised the buy-out price as $10,000. He gained fame in 1938 when he reigned as featherweight, lightweight and welterweight champion. 1921-1989 Well aware that his meager pay would never be sufficient to attend college, Armstrong's life changed one day when the sports section of a discarded newspaper landed at his feet. After Armstrong turned the trick in 1938, no boxer was ever again allowed to be a champion in more than one weight division simultaneously.In 1939, Armstrong lost the World Lightweight Championship in a rematch with Ambers by a fifteen-round unanimous decision. Chester Slider, John Thomas, Sugar Ray Robinson, Beau Jack, and Willie Joyce are some of the boxers who have beaten Armstrong. Twenty-six of the bouts were ended by a knockout, including that of Sarron in their 126-pound fight. In January 1935 he lost to Arizmendi for a second time. Armstrong's purses had totaled between $500,000 and $1 million, but most of the money was gone when the Hall of Famer retired at age 32. The Greatest Boxer of All Time - Henry Armstrong, Says Teddy Atlas - Here's Why He's The GOAT THE FIGHT with Teddy Atlas 280K subscribers Subscribe 1.6K Share 74K views 2 years ago. Armstrong was inducted into Ring magazines Boxing Hall of Fame in 1954. Henry Armstrong - Historical records and family trees - MyHeritage He teamed up with -- and took the surname of -- a trainer and former boxer named Henry Armstrong. Fighting true to form, Armstrong applied pressure throughout the bout. Armstrong was penalized five rounds for low punches, and that cost him the fight as two officials had Ambers winning by only an 8-7 margin. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. Henry Armstrong, Boxer born - African American Registry He was the son of Henry Jackson Sr., a sharecropper of African American descent and America Jackson, said to be a "full-blooded" Iroquois. Its my first time in front of all my friends and family, so Im excited, he said. Armstrong knocked down the champ in the fifth and sixth rounds, but Ambers cut him severely. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. He defeated Bobby Pacho at the Tropical Stadium in Havana, Cuba, in his fourth successful defence. Full Q\u0026A episode here: https://youtu.be/KULHRj7H9l0**** Teddy's Audiobook Now Available. Armstrong fought his first major bout in November 1934, losing the world featherweight championship in a close decision to Baby Arizmendi. American boxer Henry Armstrong (1912-1988) became the first boxer in history to hold world titles in three separate weight classes at the same time. Jolson offered boxer Petey Sarron $15,000 to defend his featherweight title against Armstrong, and the two boxers met on October 29, 1937, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) named him Fighter of the Year in 1940. We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. He also continued his ministry as an assistant pastor of the First Baptist Church. In 1943, Armstrong lost a 10-round decision to an up-and-coming Sugar Ray Robinson, who had idolized the three-division champion. 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. Henry Armstrong is a boxer from Mississippi and a world phenomenon in boxing. On March 1, 1940, Armstrong attempted to win from Ceferino Garcia the New York State version of the middleweight (160-pound) title, which was then in dispute, but the decision was a draw, permitting Garcia to retain the championship. [16] He returned to settle again in St. Louis, Missouri where, apart from the ceremonies and galas that he attended afterward, he led a quiet retirement. Born Henry Jackson, Jr., on December 12, 1912, in Columbus, Mississippi, Armstrong was the eleventh of the family's 15 children. Henry W. Armstrong - Wikipedia Of his total 151 wins, 100 of them were via KO (66.2%). [4] In 2019, the International Boxing Research Organization (IBRO) ranked him as the second best boxer of all time, pound for pound, as well as the second-best featherweight, third-best welterweight, and fifth-best lightweight of all time.[5][6][7][8]. edited by David L. Porter, Greenwood Press, 1995. October 30, 1939: Armstrong successfully defends the NBA and The Ring welterweight titles against Bobby Pacho, winning the fight via 4th round TKO. After losing his first two professional fights in Los Angeles, Armstrong began to consistently win his bouts. He had fulfilled his goal -- he reigned as champion over three divisions. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Intelligent and articulate, he turned to preaching and was ordained a Baptist minister in 1951. The fight lasted 15 rounds. Henry Armstrong - BoxRec He became known for his whirlwind combination of constant movement and knockout punches, earning him numerous new nicknames, including Homicide Hank, Perpetual Motion, and Hurricane Henry. On file we have 73 email addresses and 55 phone numbers associated with Henry in area codes such as 757, 941, 401, 609, 314, and 32 other area codes. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia.com cannot guarantee each citation it generates. Henry Armstrong | American boxer | Britannica But there was a sensitive side, too, as he showed at his high school graduation when he read an original poem. Armstrong made his debut against Al Lovino at the age of 18 on July 27, 1931, losing to Lovino via 3rd round KO. Armstrong was dynamite in a small The most consecutive boxing world welterweight title defences is 18 by Henry Armstrong (USA) from 25 November 1938 to 23 September 1940. However, the fight was so brutal that Armstrong blacked out at the end and could later recall very little of what happened. By the time Armstrong graduated from high school at the age of 17, the Great Depression had arrived. Five-time middleweight champion of the world, Sugar Ray Robinson is remembered as the greatest boxer ever, Patterson, Floyd 1935 Henry Armstrong - Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame He suffered his first loss in his professional debut against Al Lovino via 3rd round KO. Two boxers from the Pearl Boxing Club will be fighting in the event: Chown 'Chop Chop' Sims, and Keshaun 'Big Baby' Davis. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. In 1938 with 14 consecutive wins, 10 by knockout, Armstrong achieved his goal, becoming the first boxer to Ross was favored by odds makers three to one over Armstrong; however, when the two met in Long Island City on May 31, 1938, Armstrong won convincingly on points in 15 rounds, earning his second title, Welterweight Champion of the World. In 1932, Armstrong moved to Los Angeles, where he lost two four-round decisions in a row to Eddie Trujillo and Al Greenfield. The 23-year-old boxer was raised in Pearl, but is from Columbus. . Henry W. "Harry" Armstrong (July 22, 1879 - February 28, 1951). Armstrong had a 151-21-9 record in his 15-year professional career. He continued to box actively until announcing his retirement in 1945 at the age of 32. That didn't surprise anybody in boxing. After that, he concentrated once again on defending the world Welterweight title. Henry Armstrong, who moved to St. Louis with his family as a youngster, was the only boxer ever to hold three world titles simultaneously. Audiobook also available on iTunes here: http://bit.ly/ATLASbook **** THE FIGHT T-SHIRTShttps://teddy-atlas.myshopify.com/TEDDY'S SOCIAL MEDIATwitter - http://twitter.com/teddyatlasrealInstagram - http://instagram.com/teddy_atlasTHE FIGHT WITH TEDDY ATLAS SOCIAL MEDIAInstagram - http://instagram.com/thefightWTATwitter - http://twitter.com/thefightwtaFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/TheFightwithTeddyAtlasBig thanks to VHS collection for intro music. There he became involved in boxing. Upon his return, he became a boxing manager for a time, but his increasing use of alcohol led to his arrest in Los Angeles. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) in 1990. Here he gained his first boxing experience, winning a competition among the pinboys. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995. //]]>. Armstrong, however, displayed no interest in fulfilling these wishes. Armstrong moved to Los Angeles, where he resumed his amateur status. He defended it in eight fights in a row, the last of which was a nine-round knockout win over Puerto Rico's Pedro Montaez. Armstrong went on to win his last 12 fights in 1936. . He is currently the Mid America super middle weight title holder, winning the title in 2020. Want more WLBT news in your inbox? His attempt to regain the welterweight championship on January 17, 1941, resulted in his knockout in the 12th round by Zivic. Seven months later, a fading Armstrong finally lost his welterweight title after the 19 successful defenses, including six in 1940. 1716-1914: New York State Religious Records at Findmypast; images only ($) 1809-1850: 10,000 Vital Records of Western New York at Ancestry; index & images, ($) 1875-1916: New York, Yonkers, Birth and Death Registration and Indexes at FamilySearch . "Henry Jackson," Contemporary Authors Online, Gale Research, 1999. http://www.galenet.com(December 13, 2000). While successfully defending this welterweight title, Armstrong was also featherweight world champion and defeated Lou Ambers to become world lightweight champion. Armstrong made his professional boxing debut at the age of 18 on July 27, 1931. By his last professional fight on February 14, 1945, Armstrong's boxing record stood at 151-22-10 (100 KO wins, 2 KO losses).