Ringside Report Looks Back at The Story of Barney Ross

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By Tyler “The Miracle Man” White

Born in New York, on the 23rd December 1909 – to Jewish parents – Barney Ross was born under the name of “Dov-Ber Rasofsky”.

Ross’ parents were originally from Belarus, but were forced to emigrate due to horrendous violence towards the Jewish community from within the Russian Empire at that time.

After moving to New York, the family later moved to Chicago, where Ross’ father became a local Rabbi and opened up a vegetable shop.

Despite his father’s prominent and respected position within the Jewish society, he was shot dead after resisting a robbery at his shop and it would appear that this event is what flipped Barney Ross’ life entirely on its head and inspired him to become a fighter.

At the young age of 14, Ross was left to fend for himself, as his mother suffered a nervous breakdown and his younger siblings were put into care or given to other members of the family.

After losing his father at such a young age and losing his home and family too, the young Ross was filled with rage and a desire for vengeance.

It was all of these events which influenced Ross and made him decide to to mix with the local thugs and he subsequently turned into a street fighter, thief and essentially an errand boy for the local mob.

The infamous, Al Capone, even employed the young Jew and would later go and support him throughout his boxing career.

The young man also made friends with another Jewish kid who was – like him – “off the rails” …

Together, they decided to try their hand at boxing as a means to earn some extra cash and for Ross, to re-unite the remainder of his family once again.

(That other Jewish kid, by the way, was Jack Ruby – the man known for killing Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated President John F. Kennedy).

After learning how to box, Ross went on to compete as an amateur and would pawn the awards he won after each victory. He saved the money he earned from the items he pawned and put towards re-uniting his family.

Within a few years, Ross had won both the Chicago Golden Gloves and the Intercity Golden Gloves tournaments by the age of 19 and so the future was looking bright for Barney Ross!

The Jewish fighter would go on to have almost 200 amateurs fights before turning professional in 1931, racking up an 11 fight win streak before suffering his first defeat.

During his time as a professional prizefighter, Ross won world titles in three weight divisions: lightweight, light welterweight and welterweight.

The triple world champion was known for his ring IQ, stamina and speed, Ross was a fan-favorite, often fighting in front of crowds as big as 50,000-70,000.

Throughout his 81 fight pro career, Ross was not knocked out or stopped once, which earned him a reputation as an incredibly strong and resilient fighter despite his smaller stature.

During his career Ross helped to paint a picture of the Jewish people fighting back against Adolf Hitler, whilst he was using propaganda to spread hatred for the Jewish community.

His resilience and talent as a fighter was a good advert for the American people to see that Jews could do well in their new communities and the messages that Hitler was trying to portray were nothing short of lies…

Ross would later go on to join the US Marine Corps after retiring from professional boxing and was soon overseas; fighting for his country.

During the Battle of Guadalcanal, Ross and three of his comrades came under enemy fire and each man was wounded as a result.

Despite his wounds, Ross was still able to fight on and single handed killed almost two dozen Japanese soldiers throughout the night.

Afterwards, two of his three friends and brothers in arms lay dead, whilst Ross somehow managed to walk away; carrying his one surviving comrade to safety.

As a result of his actions and his unbelievable bravery, Barney Ross was awarded the Silver Star and a presidential citation by President Roosevelt.

However, despite his bravery and heroic actions, Ross would go on to have a struggle with drug addiction…

The war hero developed an addiction to morphine whilst being treated for the wounds he sustained in the South Pacific.

This eventually lead to him succumbing to heroin use in the outside world, before checking into a recovery center where he once again fought and won – this time against his addictions.

During his last few years, he helped to promote businesses using his celebrity status, whilst he also wrote an autobiography titled “No Man Stands Alone”.

As well as working on his book and helping to promote businesses, he also reflected on his lifetime achievements.

His own; most important achievements being that he became a boxing world champion and that he was successful in re-uniting his family…

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