Charley Retzlaff

FORGET COVID AND POLITICS FOR A MINUTE (I wrote this a few years back)

The heyday of boxing in this writer’s estimation centers around the time and career of Joe Louis. He and his contemporaries filled the sport pages with stories of boxing glory. Contemporaries included familiar names like Max Schmeling, Max Baer, “Two Ton” Tony , Jersey Joe Walcott, Ezzard Charles, Rocky Marciano, and Charley Retzlaff … Who’s Charley Retzlaff?

Charley Retzlaff tallied a good heavyweight record, but the memory of the man and that one bout has been receding into an ever-darkening past. In North Dakota, his claim to fame is best known from the time he fought Joe Louis in the Chicago Stadium on January 17, 1936.

The Fargo Forum started carrying items prior to the fight, and one article posted three large pictures of him working with his cattle. The headline stated “Rancher Retzlaff, Preparing for Louis Fight, January 17, Shows He Can Do a Few Things Around North Dakota Farm.” That farmstead still stands today, just south of Leonard, ND.

Local sports writers pulled for Retzlaff but never gave him much of a chance against “The Brown Bomber.” Along the way, Charley acquired a ring alias, too, “The Dakota Dynamiter.” One sports writer described him as being a tall, thin-chested, bruising hitter with a cutting right hand. boxrec.com, a website of boxing records, verifies that he was a hard-hitter when he scored 70.13% KO’s in 77 professional bouts.

Retzlaff was courted by the young Joe Louis as a potential opponent, but Charley didn’t bite on the first offer of $600 to meet him in the ring. Deciding to wait for a better opportunity, it came with that headline bout in 1936, said to have sold enough tickets to fill the Chicago Stadium. Good news for Retzlaff fans never came because of the resounding defeat he suffered. Charley was knocked down and out in the first round after one minute and twenty-five seconds. He can be seen gamely trying to engage Louis, but making a terrible mistake, he tried to hit Louis with a long-distance left. Louis took the opening to hit him hard with his left. The fight ended with Louis pummeling him with a flurry of hard punches. Here’s where Jimmy Dean could have sung, “And a crashin’ blow from a huge right hand…” By the way, if you want to see the fight, search for the Retzlaff-Louis match on Youtube.

It proved to be smart for Retzlaff when he held out for more money. The fight grossed $67,826 and gave him 17.5% of the gate receipts, $11,869.67. Soon after, Charley left Chicago, sore and bruised, to go home to his wife and farm near Leonard. As fate would have it, insult was added to injury. He had caught a ride with a fellow who had to turn back due to a snow-blocked road, leaving Charley to walk the final five miles through the drifts. He went on to fight three more times, won two by KO’s and earned a draw on the third and final fight of his career.