Editing 1940s (section)

====Boxing====
[[File:Joe Louis by van Vechten.jpg|right|upright|thumb|[[Joe Louis]] in 1941, world [[List of Heavyweight Champions|heavyweight boxing champion]]]]
{{See also|Ring Magazine fighters of the year|List of The Ring world champions}}
During the mid-1930s and throughout the years leading up to the 1940s [[Joe Louis]] was an enormously popular Heavyweight boxer. In 1936, he lost an important 12 round fight (his first loss) to the German boxer [[Max Schmeling]] and he vowed to meet Schmeling once again in the ring. Louis' comeback bout against Schmeling became an international symbol of the struggle between the US and democracy against Nazism and Fascism. When on June 22, 1938, Louis knocked Schmeling out in the first few seconds of the first round during their rematch at [[Yankee Stadium (1923)|Yankee Stadium]], his sensational comeback victory riveted the entire nation. Louis enlisted in the [[U.S. Army]] on January 10, 1942, in response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Louis' cultural impact was felt well outside the ring. He is widely regarded as the first [[African American]] to achieve the status of a nationwide hero within the United States, and was also a focal point of anti-Nazi sentiment leading up to and during [[World War II]].<ref name=matters>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kC4qYeafQzMC&pg=PA64 |location=New York |title=Sports Matters: Race, Recreation, and Culture |editor=John Bloom |editor2=Michael Nevin Willard |year=2002 |publisher=New York University Press |isbn=978-0-8147-9882-9 |pages=46–47 |author1=Bloom, John |author2=Willard, Michael Nevin}}</ref>
*[[Buddy Baer]]
*[[Ezzard Charles]]
*[[Billy Conn]]
*[[Rocky Graziano]]
*[[Joe Louis]]
*[[Sugar Ray Robinson]]
*[[Max Schmeling]]
*[[Jersey Joe Walcott]]
*[[Tony Zale]]