{"id":604,"date":"2013-08-03T02:24:26","date_gmt":"2013-08-03T02:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/?p=604"},"modified":"2013-08-03T17:13:02","modified_gmt":"2013-08-03T17:13:02","slug":"604","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/?p=604","title":{"rendered":"Time has forgotten the great Freddie Steele"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Clay<\/a><\/p>\n

Clay Moyle<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about Freddie Steele lately. Have you ever heard of him? He was also known as the \u201cTacoma Assassin\u201d and he wore the mantle of The Middleweight Champion of The World\u00a0in\u00a01936 –\u00a01938.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0short time ago,\u00a0I learned a lake\u00a0not far from my home\u00a0once served as a training camp for a number of boxers, including the champion\u00a0in that period of time. Now,\u00a0every time I drive to work and pass Five Mile Lake on Military Road in Federal Way, I find myself thinking about Freddie Steele and wondering what the site looked like in those days when it was the home to a resort and a number of summer rental cabins.<\/p>\n

One of these days I\u00a0may have to\u00a0go down to the Tacoma Library and see if I can find any photographs\u00a0of the lake around that period of time to satisfy my curiosity. In the meantime, for those of you who haven\u2019t heard of Steele or\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0know much about him or his career, maybe you\u2019ll find the following of interest.<\/p>\n

He was born in Seattle on December 18, 1912\u00a0as Frederick Burgett. I don\u2019t know the story behind the decision to box under the last name of Steele, but like many actors\u00a0who adopted another last name\u00a0it wasn\u2019t uncommon for a lot of boxers to fight under a different name\u00a0in the early twentieth century.\u00a0For example, the birth name of the great heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey was really William Harrison.\u00a0 Another\u00a0great\u00a0champion\u00a0known as Rocky Marciano was named Rocco Marchegiano\u00a0upon\u00a0birth.<\/p>\n

There were\u00a0a\u00a0number of\u00a0boxers who fought\u00a0under different names\u00a0back then because their parents\u00a0forbid them from fighting initially, and it was illegal in many parts of the country at different points in time, or maybe it was just because their real name just didn\u2019t seem marketable enough.<\/p>\n

In any case, about the time that Freddie was eight-years-old there was another fighter from the Pacific Northwest, a featherweight by the name of Tod Morgan\u00a0most folks today probably haven\u2019t heard of either.<\/p>\n

Morgan\u00a0was beginning to make quite a name for himself\u00a0in 1920\u00a0and would ultimately go on to win the world featherweight and junior lightweight titles. Freddie\u00a0became enamored with the fighter\u00a0while he\u00a0was training in Concrete, Washington\u00a0and tried to join him on his roadwork. That experience\u00a0generated an interest in the sport.<\/p>\n

So, a few years later the\u00a0little 12-year-old boy entered a boxing gym for the\u00a0first time and showed so much promise that a year\u00a0after that he\u00a0entered a ring for his first fight.<\/p>\n

\"Freddie<\/a><\/p>\n

Freddie Steele<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There appears to be some question as to whether or not some of Freddie\u2019s earliest bouts should be considers amateur contests or professional contests because there really wasn\u2019t a real amateur program in place at the time. But the bottom line is the kid burst out of the gate like a shot, winning 37 and drawing in nine of his first 46 fights before suffering his first loss by a decision in his 47th<\/sup>\u00a0bout while\u00a0fighting against many older and more experienced opponents.<\/p>\n

After suffering\u00a0his\u00a0first loss, Freddie went\u00a0on a tear of\u00a0another 32 contests before experiencing his second loss. He then went on another long streak of 56 more contests without defeat.<\/p>\n

Before he turned 24-years-old, Freddie had engaged in a total of 129 bouts and suffered only three losses!<\/p>\n

All of that success made it awful hard to ignore Steele, and five months before his 24th<\/sup>\u00a0birthday he finally received a shot at the World Middleweight Championship, and captured the title as a result of a unanimous 15-round decision over Babe Risko in Seattle\u2019s Civic Stadium.<\/p>\n

In early 1938, Freddie suffered a broken breastbone in a non-title fight against Fred Apostoli in New York\u2019s Madison Square Garden. Although he won his next three fights,\u00a0his longtime manager Dave Miller\u00a0also\u00a0passed away during the first part of that year,\u00a0and\u00a0many say\u00a0Steele\u00a0was\u00a0never\u00a0really the same fighter again\u00a0as a result of those two events.<\/p>\n

On July 26, 1938, seven months after suffering the broken breastbone, Freddie defended his title against another tough\u00a0young\u00a0hard-hitting Seattle middleweight named Al Hostak before more than 35,000 fans in Civic Stadium. To\u00a0the surprise of most experts\u00a0Freddie\u00a0suffered a first round knockout defeat.<\/p>\n

Some blamed the stunning defeat on the breastbone injury he\u2019d suffered earlier in the year and a failure to hold his guard up as high as he had before as a result. Others blamed it on the death of his longtime manager\u00a0and a loss of enthusiasm for the sport.<\/p>\n

Regardless, Freddie decided he\u2019d had enough and hung up his gloves.\u00a0 He came out of retirement just shy of three years later, but suffered a fifth round technical knockout and retired for good with a lofty record of 125 wins against only five losses and 11 draws.<\/p>\n

He was still just shy of his 30th<\/sup>\u00a0birthday when he gave up the game for good, but unlike so many other\u00a0champions in boxing history it appears that Freddie knew when it was time to call it a career.<\/p>\n

In retirement, the good looking young man followed the advice of another fighter named Mushy Callahan, who was serving as an advisor to Warner Brothers Studio, and moved to California in pursuit of an acting career. One of his earliest roles was as a double for Errol Flynn where he performed all the\u00a0close-up\u00a0shots of the fancy footwork in the portrayal of James J. Corbett in the movie\u00a0Gentleman Jim<\/i>.<\/p>\n

He\u00a0went on to appear in a total of 28 films over a seven-year period, including\u00a0The Story of G.I. Joe<\/i>\u00a0in 1944 with Burgess Meredith and Robert Mitchum and\u00a0Call Northside 777<\/i>\u00a0in 1948 with Jimmy Stewart and Lee J. Cobb.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, he\u00a0decided to move back\u00a0to Washington\u00a0State\u00a0where he and his wife Helen\u00a0opened Freddie Steele Restaurant in Westport in 1960. The couple\u00a0operated the business\u00a0together\u00a0for more than 20 years before illness forced his retirement.<\/p>\n

A few years ago,\u00a0I couldn\u2019t resist the urge and purchased a portrait of Steele that used to hang behind the bar in that establishment, when I learned a local fellow had it available for sale.<\/p>\n

Freddie passed away in a nursing home in Aberdeen, Washington in August of 1984.<\/p>\n

Although he\u2019s not as well known today as he should be there are many knowledgeable boxing historians who believe he warrants consideration as one of the ten greatest middleweights in history.<\/p>\n

The Pacific Northwest has a much more storied boxing history than I expect many folks realize.<\/p>\n

Now, whenever\u00a0I drive past that little lake\u00a0I\u00a0just\u00a0can\u2019t help\u00a0thinking of Freddie Steele and\u00a0imagining the events that must have taken place\u00a0there\u00a0when it was serving as a training camp\u00a0for\u00a0the reigning middleweight champion of the world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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