Mexicans root for Mexicans, Irish root for the Irishman, Hungarians root for Laszlo Papp.

I don’t think any of the seven could’ve beaten the great Joe Louis. Not that he would have found it easy or pleasant. But would he have found it?

“Even white folks on the job that would say nigger 50 times a day, that would say boy this and boy that, would light up when they talked about Joe.”—Dick Gregory

John Henry Lewis, Jack Roper, Tony Galento, Bob Pastor, Arturo Godoy, Johnny Paychek, Al McCoy, Clarence Burman, Gus Dorazio, Abe Simon, Tony Musto, and Buddy Baer. What do these Dirty Dozen have in common? Why, they’re the toughies who made up Joe Louis’ Bum of the Month Club, the contenders the “Brown Bomber,” whose centenary we celebrate today, beat between January 1939 and May 1941. And there’s something else—except for Lewis, all the “bums” were white.

Most whites loved Louis (though they might have felt differently if they’d known of all the mush he got up to with Sonja Henie and Lana Turner). As Joe Louis Jr. said, “What my father did was enable white America to think of him as an American, not as a black. By winning, he became white America’s first black hero.” But that doesn’t mean white America wouldn’t have preferred one of their own as champ. Fair enough. Mexicans root for the Mexican, the Irish root for the Irishman, Hungarians root for, well, there was Laszlo Papp…boxing is nothing if not tribal.

Is that why Joe Louis, greatest heavyweight of them all, didn’t give title shots to some of the best black heavies of his day? Taking out the Great White Hope component left you with…what? Exchanging one black champ for another lacked oomph.

While I don’t condemn Louis for doing what’s best for business, a word or two is owed to those black heavies who would be better remembered today if they’d been among the Bomber’s so-called bums.

I’m thinking of Lem Franklin, Harry Bobo, Turkey Thompson, Lee Q. Murray, Elmer Ray, Curtis Sheppard, and Jack Trammell, who spent much of their careers in a pugilistic version of Six Degrees of Separation. Franklin, who fought from 1937 to 1944 (31-13-1, 28 KOs), beat Sheppard, as well as Lee Savold, Abe Simon, Willie Reddish, and Jimmy Bivins. Bobo, a pro from ‘39 to ‘44 (36-9, 24 KOs), took out Franklin, not to mention Wild Bill Boyd and Lee Savold. Thompson fought from ‘38 to ‘52 (54-15-2, 39 KOs), beating Ray and Murray, as well as Johnny “Bandit” Romero (knocking him out on three separate occasions), Teddy Yarosz, Pat Valentino, Gus Dorazio, Arturo Godoy, and Willie Bean. As for Murray, who also fought from ‘38 to ‘52 (59-17-3, 42 KOs), he took out Sheppard, Bobo, and Thompson, in addition to Ted Lowry and Jimmy Bivins. While Ray, a pro from ‘35 to ‘49 (85-17-5, 63 KOs), didn’t beat any of his six compadres, he did emerge victorious over Jersey Joe Walcott and Ezzard Charles. And let’s not forget his nine bouts with the much-avoided and never-stopped, over 17 years and 101 fights, Obie Walker, winning four, losing three, and drawing two. Walker was the second-to-last World Colored Heavyweight Champion, a title rendered defunct by Joe Louis’ reign. Sheppard fought from ‘38 to ‘49 (52-33, 33 KOs), beating Murray, as well as Unknown Winston, Joey Maxim, Gus Dorazio, and Johnny Shkor. Trammell fought from ‘31 to ‘46 (50-12-2, 30 KOs). He, too, never got to face Louis, though his last wish, that Mike Tyson pay him a visit, was graciously granted.

I don’t think any of the seven could’ve beaten the great Joe Louis. Not that he would have found it easy or pleasant. But would he have found it? Oh yeah…he would have found it.