Rocky Marciano

In 1947, Rocky met Barbara Cousins, who was the daughter of retired Brockton police official. Four years later, they married and had a daughter named Mary Ann. They also adopted a son and named him Rocco Kevin.

On his 46th birthday in 1969, the eminent boxing champion died in a plane crash.

On the 1st of September, 1923, Rocky was born to Italian immigrant parents in Brockton, Massachusetts. His father, Pierino Marchegiano was a shoe maker, while his mother Pasqualina Picciuto was a homemaker. Pierino along with his other siblings lived close to James Edgar playground, where Rocky played endless games of baseball.

Rocky was always interested in sports as he made homemade weights and worked on them until he was dead tired. He was also interested in football along with baseball.

In ‘Brockton High School’, he was part of the baseball team, which he later had to quit as he joined another team in ‘Church League’, since it was a direct violation of the school rule. After his tenth grade, he discontinued studies.

Rocky then worked as a chute man for ‘Brockton Ice and Coal Company’. Some of the other jobs he took to support himself include a shoemaker, ditch digger and railroad layer.

In 1943, he was absorbed in the Army for a period of two years. It was his job at Swansea to help in supplying ferries to Normandy via the English Channel.

After the war, he completed his service at Fort Lewis in 1946. While waiting to be discharged in Fort Lewis, Rocky was part of a number of amateur boxing duels for his unit. The same year, this budding boxer won the ‘Amateur Armed Forces’ boxing tournament, where he knocked out Lee Epperson in only three rounds.

It was also in 1946 that Rocky came back to his hometown, and appeared for the selection trials of the ‘Chicago Cubs’ baseball team. The trials did not turn out to be well, as he could not make the throw accurately. He then started training for boxing with his long-time friend Allie Colombo.

In 1948, he started his professional boxing career and won against Harry Bilizarian. During this time, he was under the training of Charley Goldman.

After his win with Harry, Rocky won sixteen fights in knockout, ending his fight before the fifth round. And he finished nine games before the first round could end.

During his illustrious career, Rocky won 49 straight fights. Among these, 43 were known as knockout matches. He was an undefeated heavyweight world champion till his death.

With a knockout percentage of 87.75, Rocky held the record of highest knockout percentage among all the heavyweight champions.