Sammy Luftspring

Sammy Luftspring (May 14, 1916 – September 27, 2000) was a Jewish Canadian boxer.

A former Canadian Welterweight Champion and highly ranked in the Welterweight class during his career, Luftspring was forced to retire from the sport due to an eye injury.

Genovese and Luftspring's rivalry was extremely competitive and one of the dominant story lines of Toronto boxing in the late 1930s.

That same year, he was ranked as the third best welterweight boxer in the world.

Luftspring began his boxing career in 1932 out of Brunswick Talmud Torah, a local Toronto Jewish community and recreational centre.

Throughout his career, he wore a Magen David on his trunks.

Over the next four years, he fought 105 times (attaining a record of 100–5) and captured Golden Gloves Tournaments in various weight classes ranging from bantamweight to welterweight.

By 1933, he was the Ontario amateur lightweight champion and regarded as one of the best amateur boxing talents.

In 1933, he was involved in the infamous Toronto Christie Pits riot.

A wild street brawl first broke out at Christie Pits Park following tensions that occurred during a series of amateur softball games between two rival teams.

The riot continued for six hours, and eventually attracted 10,000 locals, mostly spectators.

The initial antagonists were a group of young Jewish and Italian men on a local team who started a fight when a Gang unfurled a Swastika, a symbol that had been displayed the previous day and on other occasions by the local Swastika Club, a group of Canadian Nazi sympathizers.

Luftspring was named to Canada's Olympic team for the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

At the encouragement of his parents, he refused to attend the Games in protest over the poor treatment Jews were receiving in Nazi Germany.

He made his views on the subject public in a letter to the Toronto Globe.

In the letter, he protested that "the German government was treating its Jewish brothers and sisters worse than dogs".

He even went as far as to say that "the German government would exterminate Jews if they had the opportunity".

Luftspring and another boxer, Norman "Baby" Yack, attempted to participate in an alternate event being hosted that summer, the People's Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.

The Spanish Civil War broke out prior to the Games' opening ceremonies.

The event caused the cancellation of the People's Olympics.

By the time Luftspring found out about the cancellation, he had already reached Dieppe, France.

Luftspring, disappointed at not having a chance to compete, returned to Toronto.

Luftspring began to box professionally in the fall of 1936.

A year later, he fought Gordon Wallace for the Canadian welterweight championship.

He lost to Wallace in a 10-round decision at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens.

He married his wife Elsie in 1938 at Toronto's McCaul Street synagogue.

In 1938, Luftspring knocked out Frank Genovese before a Toronto crowd of 10,000 in the 13th of 15 rounds to win the Canadian welterweight championship.

Genovese was down at least three times in the final rounds for counts of 9.

The fight was his first in Canada under the management of French-American Al Weill, who had managed the exceptional welterweight Lou Ambers.

He was subsequently offered a chance to fight world champion Henry Armstrong in 1940.

Luftspring lost to Greek American boxer Steve Makamos, a Middleweight contender, on February 14, 1940, in a ten-round split decision in Toronto.

Makamos led in the early fighting, and a late rally by Luftspring in the closing rounds was not enough to gain the decision.

In a fight at New York's Bronx Colliseum on May 27, 1940, against Steve Belloise, Luftspring received an eye injury in the fourth round from a looping right punch that unintentionally caught his left eye with the thumb of the glove.

The medical diagnosis was a detached retina, an inoperable condition, that resulted in nearly complete loss of vision.

The fight was intended to be a tune up for a potential championship bout against Armstrong.

The injury forced Luftspring to quit boxing and ended his contention for the world welterweight title.

Details of his career record are unclear.

He was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1985, and the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 1996.

Luftspring was born to Jewish parents of Polish descent and raised in St. John's Ward, a low class residential area of Toronto that was home to both Jewish and Italian immigrants.

His father attempted to make a living as a bootlegger prior to prohibition, and the family struggled to raise six children under difficult circumstances.