Joe Louis

I was sorry to hear that William Lloyd "Little Willie" Adams had passed away. Years ago, my friend Elliott Klupt, who lived next door to Mr. Adams, and I were invited over to meet Joe Louis, who was staying at his home before a fight. We were about 12 years old, and Mr. Louis was in the basement practicing his punching. That was a special time in my life. Gerald Yamin, Pikesville

I was sorry to hear that William Lloyd "Little Willie" Adams had passed away. Years ago, my friend Elliott Klupt, who lived next door to Mr. Adams, and I were invited over to meet Joe Louis, who was staying at his home before a fight. We were about 12 years old, and Mr. Louis was in the basement practicing his punching. That was a special time in my life. Gerald Yamin, Pikesville

On November 6, 2005, JOE LOUIS, husband of Francine T. Carter. Friends may call at the family owned MARCH FUNERAL HOME EAST, 1101 East North Avenue on Thursday after 1 P.M. where funeral services will take place on Friday at 1:30 P.M. See www.marchfh.com

A fellow with two first names won a version of boxing's heavyweight title Saturday night, but Mr. Flip will forgive you if you weren't paying attention. In the fragmented, star-starved heavyweight division, maybe Samuel Peter holds out the hope of at least a unified champion. He defeated Oleg Maskaev for the World Boxing Council belt, and now he apparently must beat a couple of Klitschkos - International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Organization champ Wladimir and former WBC titleholder Vitali - to be recognized as the undisputed champion.

On January 12, 2005, JOE LOUIS NICHOLS; loving father of Angeliha Thomas and Tanya Nichols. On Tuesday, friends may call at the VAUGHN C. GREENE FUNERAL SERVICES (EAST), 4905 York Road, where the family will receive friends from 3 to 8 P.M. On Wednesday, Mr. Nichols will lie instate at Vaughn C. Greene Funeral Chapel, 4905 York Road, where the family will receive friends from 11:30 to 12 noon, with services to follow. Inquiries to 410-433-7500.

On January 27, 2005, JOE LOUISBLANDING, SR. On Monday, friends may call at THE NEW VAUGHN C. GREENE FUNERAL SERVICES (RANDALLSTOWN), 8728 Liberty Road, from 5 to 8 P.M. On Tuesday, Mr. Blanding will lie instate at the Emmanuel Church, 8729 Church Lane, from 5:30 to 6, with services to follow. Inquiries to 410-655-0015.

A long time ago, when I was a kid sportswriter, I was sent to Chicago to cover a heavyweight championship fight.In the press hotel, I jumped on an elevator with an old pro writer, Barney Nagler -- and who was on there, all alone, but Joe Louis."

LET'S CALL IT Sonny's World. You enter it when you cross the threshold of a home in the Southwest Baltimore community of Carroll. It is a world that takes you back to a time when bottle-making was an art, when a Coke cost 5 cents and milk was measured in gills.Sonny's World -- not an official name but as good a name as any for this collection -- got its start 30 years ago, when James "Sonny" Johnson went to a flea market on North Point Road."I saw a lady I knew with her son, Lawrence Smith," Johnson recalled.

Presenting this week's sports media notes while keeping one eye out for falling spy satellite pieces: The title of HBO's documentary Joe Louis: America's Hero ... Betrayed (debut tomorrow at 8 p.m.) would lead you to believe the focus is on the sad part of his life after boxing, but the show is much broader than that. In another terrific HBO sports documentary, the story is just as much the America's Hero aspect of Louis. Though even the casual sports fan certainly is aware of Louis, his familiarity doesn't make Louis' tale any less stirring.

That he fought for the world heavyweight championship, when it was boxing's most coveted title, gave Clarence "Red" Burman a distinction that he carried for more than 50 years . . . or until his death yesterday after a prolonged battle with Pagett's disease.Funeral services will be private.Burman, a Baltimore native, reached that high point in his life when he fought Joe Louis in 1941 Burmanat Madison Square Garden and put on a courageous effort before losing on a fifth-round knockout.The bout brought Burman high praise.

Presenting this week's sports media notes while keeping one eye out for falling spy satellite pieces: The title of HBO's documentary Joe Louis: America's Hero ... Betrayed (debut tomorrow at 8 p.m.) would lead you to believe the focus is on the sad part of his life after boxing, but the show is much broader than that. In another terrific HBO sports documentary, the story is just as much the America's Hero aspect of Louis. Though even the casual sports fan certainly is aware of Louis, his familiarity doesn't make Louis' tale any less stirring.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Boxing's fractured heavyweight division has four champions. They are the World Boxing Council's Hasim Rahman, the International Boxing Federation's Chris Byrd, the World Boxing Association's Nikolay Valuev and the World Boxing Organization's Lamon Brewster. Of these, Rahman's belt is considered the most accepted - although not necessarily because he is considered to be the best of the lot. The WBC belt held by Rahman has a lineage that can be traced back through such champions as Lennox Lewis, Larry Holmes, Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali, Rocky Marciano, Joe Louis -- all the way back to John L. Sullivan in the late 19th century.

I still watch the fights with my dad. At 8 o'clock most weeknights, I desert any household chore or ritual, sneak upstairs to the inferior but road-tested TV, and watch ESPN Classic Boxing. I imagine these old bouts are some of the same fights my father watched on TV in the 1940s and '50s. Pabst Blue Ribbon beer -- with its theme song, "What'll You Have?" -- sponsored the "Fight of the Week" Wednesday nights on CBS. It was no coincidence that my father's beer became PBR. On Friday nights on NBC, the legendary Don Dunphy announced the fights on The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports.

On November 6, 2005, JOE LOUIS, husband of Francine T. Carter. Friends may call at the family owned MARCH FUNERAL HOME EAST, 1101 East North Avenue on Thursday after 1 P.M. where funeral services will take place on Friday at 1:30 P.M. See www.marchfh.com

Max Schmeling never lived up to Adolf Hitler's expectation of him. He didn't want to. Schmeling, the former world heavyweight boxing champion and the only German ever to hold the title, died Wednesday at his home in Hollenstedt. He was 99. Tall, tough and square-jawed, he won the crown in 1930 and became poster boy for the Nazi regime in 1936 when Schmeling floored Joe Louis, the American favorite. German propagandists touted him as a picture of Aryan supremacy to a world on the brink of war. But Schmeling let der Fuehrer down.

On January 27, 2005, JOE LOUISBLANDING, SR. On Monday, friends may call at THE NEW VAUGHN C. GREENE FUNERAL SERVICES (RANDALLSTOWN), 8728 Liberty Road, from 5 to 8 P.M. On Tuesday, Mr. Blanding will lie instate at the Emmanuel Church, 8729 Church Lane, from 5:30 to 6, with services to follow. Inquiries to 410-655-0015.

NEWARK, N.J. -- Dawn creeps through the windows of the Essex County Youth Detention Center, and about 50 teen-agers -- accused of murder, theft, rape -- sleepily eat breakfast. Then a short man with a military bearing enters the room and bids them good morning.Without hesitation, the teen-agers stand ramrod straight. Then, loudly and in unison, they shout: "Good morning! Director Clark! Sir!"Yes, that Clark. Crazy ol' Joe (as some of Newark's black ministers call him). The black Batman (as a gang of high school students once dubbed him)

Everybody knows Jackie Robinson the fleet-footed slugger who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers at the start of the 1947 season.Far less known, however, are robinson's civil rights struggles within the U.S. Army, a gap neatly filled tonight by "The Court Martial of Jackie Robinson." The original film premieres on basic cable's TBS service at 8 o'clock (with a repeat at 10 p.m., plus additional plays Oct 16, 18 and 21.)While our knowledge of Robinson's future makes the action reasonably predictable, the film conveys a fine sense of the rage and futility over bigotry which the athlete's subsequent success helped overcome in America -- or at least begin to overcome.

On January 12, 2005, JOE LOUIS NICHOLS; loving father of Angeliha Thomas and Tanya Nichols. On Tuesday, friends may call at the VAUGHN C. GREENE FUNERAL SERVICES (EAST), 4905 York Road, where the family will receive friends from 3 to 8 P.M. On Wednesday, Mr. Nichols will lie instate at Vaughn C. Greene Funeral Chapel, 4905 York Road, where the family will receive friends from 11:30 to 12 noon, with services to follow. Inquiries to 410-433-7500.

LAS VEGAS - Following the same flight path out of their final debate, President Bush and Sen. John Kerry arrived yesterday in the high-stakes battleground of Nevada to send different messages. Bush declared the debates phase of the campaign over and dismissed talk of how his performances hurt his campaign, while Kerry responded to his opponent's oft-repeated use of a boxing taunt with one of his own: "Is that all you got?" The president, his lead in the polls having evaporated in the past two weeks, seemed bent on displaying optimism and confidence.