Isadore Schwartz

Isadore "Corporal Izzy" Schwartz (July 23, 1900 – July 8, 1988) was an American boxer, who became recognized as the New York Boxing Commission's World Flyweight Champion from 1927 to 1929. His manager was Phil Bernstein. He was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1998. Though never having much of a knockout punch, in 115 professional bouts between 1922 and 1929, he scored 15 knockouts, 50 decisions, 12 draws, 8 no-decisions, and lost only 28 times.

Early life Schwartz was born in New York's East Village on October 23, 1902, not far from the neighborhood of Jewish Lightweight Champion Benny Leonard. Both his parents died when he was two years old, and he was forced to spend the remainder of his youth in a Jewish orphanage.

Fleeing the oppressiveness of a job he took as a factory clerk after high school, Izzy enlisted in the army in World War I. Being underweight, he barely passed the physical required for army enlistment. After an officer observed him holding his own in a brawl at his base at Laredo, Texas, he was given the opportunity to represent his company in boxing competitions. According to one source which may be embellished, the army brawl that launched his career took place when Izzy was barely eighteen around 1919, and was precipitated when Schwartz, refusing to loan money to a fellow soldier, received an ethnic slur. Izzy took advantage of the opportunity to box competitively, traveling frequently between army bases to take on flyweight competitors, until he was eventually crowned the Army's Flyweight Champion. Schwartz's first official bout in the Army was a torrid match with Kid Pancho, whom he fought to a fifteen-round draw despite being outweighed by eight pounds. Continually depicted by the press as an underdog, even in this his greatest victory, the Reading Times described Schwartz as a "frail-looking soldier warrior", and noted he was outweighed four pounds by Newsboy Brown.

He defended his crown against Chilean boxer Roubier Parra on April 9, 1928. In May, he stepped up in class to fight Bushy Graham for the bantamweight title, but lost the fifteen round bout. Schwartz started the fight favorably, but by the end, "Bushy made use of his weight advantage, and Izzy "tired and fell under the gruelling pace." Schwartz had two more successful defenses of the flyweight title against Frisco Grande and Little Jeff Smith, but after a string of losses to boxers Willie La Morte, Willie Davies, Eugène Huat, and Harry Fiero in four successive non-title bouts, he made his first retirement from boxing in 1930.

Schwartz came out of retirement in 1930, and defeated Jack Terranova, and Freddie Lattanzio in 1932. When he was knocked out boxing Filio Echevarria in Havanna Cuba, on May 7, 1932, he officially retired.

Taking on his father's profession, and following in the footsteps of many retired Jewish boxers who worked for movie studios, he got a job as a motion picture projectionist, and worked for MGM at their headquarters in New York. He worked as a projectionist in a variety of other metropolitan locations as well. According to Ken Blady, he may have worked as a projectionist as long as fifty years, later taking on work as a financial secretary for the Motion Picture's Projectionist's Union, and as President of Ring 8, a veteran boxer's association.

He had two children with his wife Sarah, with whom he was married over sixty years. Both sons worked in movies, one as a projectionist, and one as a film editor. He died in July 1988.