The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-05-19
Washington Senators Making Early Flag Bid
Grim Become LesendoFy As The Man Nobody Could Knock Out
 But Paid Price For Odd Fame
By BIlILY ROCHE Famous Referee

Joe Grim, the original Iron Man, became legendary as the man noe body could knock out.
 Grim stood only five feet seven weighed no more than l46 pounds ct his most durable. He engaged in more than 300 battles from four to 20 rounds all over the globe for Q period of ii years, was floored oftener than any other combat atant, boasted of his ability to take 1t.
 One after another the hardest hitters of his time, including world champions from lightweights to heavyweights, tried vainly to flat ten him. Ills ring career was one long endurance contest.
 Champions whose Sunday gwats ricocheted harmlessiy off orims granite jaw were Joe Walcott, Joe Cans, Matty Mathews, Bob Tttzsim- mons and Jack Johnson. F1tz, the most devastating dealer of them all, dropped Grim l7 times, seven for the count of nine. Ruby Robert landed his famous solar plexus plunch cleanly repeatedly without apparent effect. Following that one Qfim was hailed as the man with out Q solar plexus. His fame spread. KAYoTNG GRIM DISTINCTION
 Jim Barry broke Grims jaw, Sept. 25, 1907, but couldn't put the human slug sponge away. Kid Car ter, Peter Maher, Owen iegler, Dixie Kid, Jack Blackburn and Philadelphia Jack OBrien punched themselves out without erasing the smirk from 0rim's grimy counten- ance. He bounced up and down tiIl" der their heaviest bombardments.
 Knocking out Grim became e distinction. Sailor Burke, light heavyweight, finally succeeded in doing 1t In three rounds in Brook lyn, May 2l, 1908. Four years later Sam McVey, all 20S pounds of him, duplicated the feat in l2 rounds in Paris. One Young Zeringer was said by some to have halted Grim in three rounds in Pittsburgh in 1904, but this has been questioned on the ground that the referee, appalled, at orims gluttony for punishment, stopped the carnage.
 Travelling to the Fiji islands, Australia and New Zealand with vaudeville company, Grim boxed Malley Jackson Zeehan 20 rounds for the heavyweight championship of Tasmania, lost as usual.
 He kept no record, his being conn piled from those of men he tackled. NAMED FOR HIS GANrENESS.
 Grlm's real name was Saveiro Giannone, and he was born in Italy, March l6, 1881, the eighth of nine children. Coming to this country when Joe was nine, the GiannoneS settled in Philadelphia, where the father died suddenly. The kid, g shoe-shine boy at l2.l became proficient as a rough and tumble fighter through constant battling to hold e lucrative corner.
 Impressed by his grim game ness, Lew Bailey, fight promoter and patron of the bootblack, ot- fered him 9 fight ct his club. billed him as Joe Grim, managed him. The young man took Q shel- lacking in his debut, made a career of it.
 The cruel beatings he absorbed finally took their toll and Grim went to a sanatorium, July 28, 1913. Discharged as cured, he became a shipyard foreman in New York in 1919. He died Aug. 19, 1899 in the State Hospital at Byberry, Pa, broke mentally and financially.
 Joe Grim gave the fight game everything he had-his stamina.
 It gave him nothing in return except a left-handed fame.