‘You can run but you can’t hide’ (Anonymous)
The origin of this quote was Joe Louis, world heavyweight champion between 1937 and 1949 who in 1941 took on the light heavyweight champion Billy Conn. In response to Conn stating he wouldn’t bulk up to fight the heavier man but instead rely on hit and run tactics Louis retorted with the original version of this quote ‘He can run but he can’t hide’. After a frustrating 12 rounds chasing his lighter opponent the fading Louis finally made good on his prediction landing a KO with two seconds of the 13th remaining. Over the years the quote has caught the popular imagination and been transformed for use in literature, music, campaign straplines and even the name of a Christian ministry movement!

Joe Louis nicknamed the ‘Brown Bomber’ holds the record as the longest reigning world heavyweight champ and most defences – 25 in all between June 1937 to May 1, 1949, when he retired as undefeated champion. In total Louis had 71 pro fights losing only three times and two of those during an ill-advised, financially driven, comeback where he lost to notable champions Ezzard Charles and Rocky Marciano.
Louis was accurate, powerful and efficient to the point of ruthlessness . He fought all challengers in his era, won 21 of his 25 successful defences by KO including in those victories six against former heavyweight champions. From January 1939 through May 1941, Louis defended his title thirteen times, a frequency unheard of in modern times. The pace of his title defences during this time, along with his convincing wins, earned Louis' opponents the unflattering collective nickname "Bum of the Month Club." However despite its derogatory nickname, most of the group were top-ten heavyweights. Of the 13 fighters Louis faced during this period, five were rated by The Ring magazine as top-10 heavyweights in the year they fought Louis and four others were ranked in the top 10 in a different year. It was after these 13 fights that Louis took on Billy Conn in front of a 54,500 crowd in New York and gave his iconic quote.

Louis is however defined by a great deal more than his boxing pedigree. It was in his 1936 bout with German former heavyweight champ Max Schmeling that Louis suffered his first loss. Just over a year later he became world champ and the Schmeling 1938 rematch was one of his first defences. 70,000 attended the Yankee Stadium and 100 million listened on the radio in an event that transcended sport. By now the far Right was on the march in Europe and the storm clouds of war were gathering. The Nazi party had adopted Schmeling as an emblem of Aryan supremacy stating no black man could defeat him. The build up to the fight was intense. The Nazi’s had a publicist on hand and the fight was set as a demonstration of the validity of Nazi ideology. For his part Louis was cast as the Free World representative against the far Right. Louis said he would not actually feel like a world champion until he beat Schmeling. It is said that FDR called Louis before the bout asking him to win it for the democracies of the world. No pressure there then!

In the fight Louis floored Schmeling three times to end their world heavyweight title fight after just 124 seconds. It was around this time that Louis began to be adopted by all Americans as an American sporting icon. Earlier in his career he was felt by many African Americans to be one of their most significant public figures however through his return against Max Schmeling and WWII army service, most famously his ‘We will win because we are on God’s side’ speech he elevated his status beyond the lines of racial demarcation and white Americans embraced him as a national representative.
In WWII Louis was used in the Special Services Division to boost morale, as a recruitment drive and raise finances through exhibition fights. He travelled more than 35,000 km and staged 96 boxing exhibitions before two million soldiers.

It was post war that the US government showed the true extent of its ingratitude to Louis for his war time efforts. Through poor advice he signed checks made out to him to war effort funds rather than the money being paid directly to the funds. The IRS treated it as his income even though he never saw a cent of the money. In some cases he bought servicemen tickets to his exhibitions so incurring costs but was then not allowed to use this as deductions. The IRS relentlessly pursued Louis who had retired in 1949. He returned to the ring in 1950, simply to try to pay his tax bill. The problem was with new high tax rates and compound interest on his tax bill he found the more he worked, the less he had. Technically he owed his whole $300,000 purse from the Marciano fight to the IRS.
It was only the generosity of his many friends and admirers that helped Joe stave off poverty in his old age. As the IRS proved a more relentless adversary than any he had faced in the ring.