Thomas Peter ("Pete") Rademacher (born August 20, 1928) is a former boxer who made boxing history by being the only man to fight for the world heavyweight championship in his first professional fight.

Amateur career

In his amateur career, Rademacher had 79 fights, going 72-7. He won a series of tournaments, including the 1949, 1951, 1952, and 1953 Seattle Golden Gloves (he lost in 1950 to Zora Folley, who he would face several times in his career), and the US Amateur Championship as a heavyweight in 1953 -- avenging his earlier loss to Folley. He also captured the Chicago Golden Gloves, the All-Army championship, and the Service championship in 1956, before qualifying for the Olympic team. In the Olympics, held in Melbourne, he captured a gold medal in the heavyweight division.

Olympic results

• Defeated Joszef Nemec KO 2
• Defeated Daan Bekker KO 3
• Defeated Lev Mukhin KO 1

Rademacher also attended college, playing offensive line on the football team for Washington State.

Professional career

After winning the gold medal, Rademacher started saying that he would be able to become world heavyweight champion in his first professional fight. He made his belief public and was able to lure world Heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson into defending his crown against the debutant Rademacher. It is the only time to date that a fighter making his professional debut has challenged for a world title.

Rademacher dropped Patterson in round two, but Patterson recovered and defeated him by a knockout in six.

Rademacher later on went on to fight Zora Folley, Brian London, George Chuvalo, Lamar Clark, Buddy Turman, and the former world light heavyweight champion, Archie Moore. He lost to Moore, Folley and London but beat Chuvalo, Clark, and Turman. His last bout was against former world middleweight champion Carl "Bobo" Olson, whom he beat by decision.

Later life

After retirement, he went into business at McNeil Corporation in Akron, Ohio. He retired as President in 1987. In 1996, he and his two daughters helped carry the Olympic torch around the streets of Cleveland, Ohio.

Rademacher is active in local politics in Medina County, Ohio. He is also well known in northern Ohio for the amazing gasoline-powered one wheel "unicycle" he rides in local parades.

External links

• Alternate record site