Rocky Marciano: Italian American Hero Name_________________

(1) Italy has a long and important shared history with the United States.
Italian explorers and sailors ventured outward from Europe and touched
America in its earliest days. The most famous was Christopher Columbus, an
Italian explorer who sailed for Spain to the New World in 1492. Eventually,
America received its name from an Italian too, the explorer Amerigo
Vespucci. His name was used by a cartographer in 1507 and placed on one of
the first maps of the New World, giving our continent its name.
(2) Between 1876 and 1924 over four-and-half million Italians immigrated
to the United States. Today, over 17 million Americans claim Italian ancestry,
making them one of the larger ethnic groups in the country. Italians and their
descendants in America have helped shape the country, and they in turn have
been shaped by it. Italian Americans have gained notoriety in politics, sports,
entertainment, and many other fields. This is the story of just one of the
many famous Italian Americans, a professional boxer.

(3) Rocco Marchegiano, born in 1923, was the son of an immigrant

shoemaker from Abruzzo, in central Italy. His mother was also Italian, having
moved to America from Campania, a region in the southern part of the
country. When Rocco was a teenager in Brockton, Massachusetts, his life’s
ambition was to become a major league baseball player. When the day finally
came that a major league club gave him a tryout, young Marchegiano was an
utter failure. He was too clumsy and lacked the finesse needed to play the
game. Rocco was heartbroken.
(4) Rocco left school and worked as a chute man on delivery trucks for the
Brockton Ice and Coal Company. He was drafted into the army in 1943 and
served three years during World War II. In 1947 he decided to use his
prodigious strength and hard fists to become a prizefighter in the sport of
boxing. Ring announcers soon complained that they could not pronounce his
last name, so his handler suggested they change it. The first suggestion was
Rocky Mack, but Rocco Marchegiano rejected that. He was proud of his Italian
heritage. He decided to go with the more Italian-sounding "Rocky Marciano.”
(5) As a professional boxer, Rocky was a parody of the great heavyweights
who had preceded him. He was described as awkward, crude, and clumsy in
the ring. Furthermore, he seemed to possess no knowledge of the art of
boxing. All Rocky could do inside the ring was punch!
(6) But how he could do that! Beginning in 1948, he bowled over a string
of opponents. Most of his wins were by knockouts, and he soon earned the
nickname the “Brockton Blockbuster.” Within four years he had muscled
himself into contention as the worthiest challenger for the world’s
heavyweight boxing title.
(7) In September 1952, in Philadelphia’s vast municipal stadium, before a
crowd of over 50,000 ring fans, Rocky Marciano found himself seeking
boxing’s most coveted crown. He faced the aging but cagy and ring-wise
world’s heavyweight champion, Jersey Joe Walcott.
(8) In the first round of that championship battle, Rocky was knocked
down for the first time in his life. After the count, he rose to his feet
humiliated but determined. For twelve torrid rounds he continued to absorb a
cruel beating from the gloves of the champion. Then, in the thirteenth round,
Rocky fired one of his blockbuster blows that traveled no more than six
inches before it caught the champion on the chin. It was one of the hardest
punches ever seen in a heavyweight title fight. The stunned champion
crumpled to the canvas and was counted out. With surprising suddenness,
Rocky Marciano, whose clumsy ability as a fighter had been ridiculed, became
the new heavyweight champion of the world.
(9) In the years that followed, champion Rocky Marciano took on all
comers in defense of his title. He never lost! His awesome punching power
became legendary. In 1956, aged 32, Rocky retired from the ring while still
the undefeated heavyweight champion of the world. Only when he had left
the ring was the true significance of his great feat understood and
appreciated. From his first fight to his last as a professional pugilist, he had
never lost a bout. His boxing career, which had begun in obscurity, ended in
world fame. Rocky Marciano had fought in the ring forty-nine times. He had
won forty-nine straight victories – forty-three by knockouts! His record in
heavyweight boxing has remained unmatched since.
(10) After retirement, Rocky worked as a boxing commentator and did
some acting on television. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall
of Fame. On August 31, 1969, Marciano was a passenger in a small private
plane that crashed while landing in Iowa. Rocky died tragically that night,
only a day short of his 46th birthday. In the 1970s he became the inspiration
for the name and fighting style of the title character Rocky Balboa in director
and actor Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky movie series.
(11) In 1990, a bronze statue of Rocky Marciano was erected in Ripa
Teatina, Italy, to celebrate the birthplace of his father and to celebrate
Rocky’s Italian roots. Rocky’s glory is just one of many achievements,
contributions, and successes of Americans of Italian descent. These are
celebrated each October during “National Italian American Heritage Month.”