by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
It was easy for Joe Louis Barrow Jr. to stay on the right path because it was his father’s right that was guiding him.
“Reporters asked my dad if I was going to follow him into the ring once,” said Barrow Jr of his father, former world boxing champion Joe Louis. “He told them, ‘If he ever gets into the ring, I’ve got one good right.’ He wouldn’t let me get in the ring. He wanted me to get an education.”
Barrow Jr. earned his B.A. from the University of Denver in 1968, but it was his father’s teaching on the golf course that helped him develop an interest in the game.
“Some people say golf is the reason he lost to (Max) Schmelling the first time,” said Barrow. “He became more focused on golf than the fight.”
Born Joe Louis Barrow in LaFayette, Ala., in 1914, Louis lost the first fight with Schmelling in 1936, but defeated Jim Braddock in 1937 to become heavyweight champion of the world. That win set up what Barrow Jr. thinks was his father’s most memorable fight, the rematch with Schmelling in 1938.
“It was America against Nazi Germany,” said Barrow Jr. “It defined the outcome of the war. People of European descent have told me they knew Germans would not win the war because Louis beat Schmelling. It put a damper on Hitler’s propaganda about the ‘Superior Race.’”
The Louis-Schmelling rematch may have gotten a lot of attention, but his son feels the fight against Billy Conn in 1941 was his father’s toughest.
“Billy had more points than my dad did late in the fight and he could have won if he stayed away,” said Barrow Jr. “But he decided he was going to knock my dad out and went toe-to-toe with him. He knocked Conn out in the 13th round.”
Barrow has a vivid memory of his father’s career after researching and publishing a biography about his father “Joe Louis: 50 years an American Hero” in 1988, but his fondest moments were made away from the ring.
“When we were out in public people always wanted to speak with my dad,” said Barrows Jr. “We could really be alone when we were out on the golf course and he taught me a lot. Had he not introduced me to the game of golf, I wouldn’t be here today.”
That’s why the office of an executive in the golf industry is adorned with pictures of a boxer. From this office, The First Tee Chief Executive Officer Barrow Jr. oversees the operation of 207 independent nonprofit chapters from Alabama to New Zealand that have served over 2.2 million participants in the program.
“I have visited almost all of them,” said Barrow Jr. “I’m so driven at The First Tee because I have an obligation to give back the way my father did.”
One of the chapters is located at Brentwood Golf Course in Jacksonville and the chapter had a ground breaking ceremony for its learning center June 5.
“I want to thank all of Jacksonville for their contributions to that project,” said Barrow Jr. “It is a phenomenal collaboration between public and private organizations. The Brentwood location is great because it is an area that we want to help improve.”
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