MARCIANO MET HIS MATCH IN WALLACE
HAVING DEFEATED Rocky Marciano in the Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions and later portraying Joe Louis in the film biography of the Brown Bomber, Coley Wallace will forever be linked to two of boxing’s greatest champions. But make no mistake — Coley Wallace is no mere footnote to history.
Born in Jacksonville, Fla., Wallace came north with his family to Philadelphia and later to Harlem. It was there that a 20-yearold Wallace found his way to the same Salem-Crescent Gym that launched the career of Sugar Ray Robinson a decade earlier.
Bearing a remarkable resemblance to Louis and with a similar style in the ring, Wallace could not escape the comparisons as he moved through the 1948 inter-city tournament. Expectations were high, but he lived up to the challenge to win the heavyweight championship and a pair of Golden Gloves.
That championship led to the now-famous showdown with Marciano — the free-swinging New England champion Rocco “Socko” Marchegiano who would later change his name.
Contrary to legend, the bout was not a final; it did not take place in Madison Square Garden; and it didn’t end in a knockout.
The two met in a Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions quarter-final held at Ridgewood Grove on the Brooklyn/Queens border on the afternoon of March 1, 1948.
According to Jack Smith, who covered the bout for the Daily News and others, Wallace, a more polished boxer, also outpunched Rocky in Round 1, but Marciano “would not go down.” A hard right hand from Marciano staggered Wallace in Round 2 but couldn’t stop him. While Wallace may have been hurt, he managed to keep away from the dangerous New Englander and score enough to win the bout.
After winning a second Golden Gloves championship in 1949, Wallace turned professional. He ended his career with a 21-7-0 record with 16 knockouts.
Until his passing in 2005, Wallace was a fixture in the New York and world boxing scene and a great ambassador for the Gloves and boxing.
“I remember my grandfather taking me to the gym to watch Gerry Cooney train and put me in ring with him,” recalled Patrick Leake, 39. “Everybody knew Coley. He was just the warmest, kind-hearted man you would ever want to meet.”