[joe-frank-list] Rodriguez-Carter bout in 'The 80-yard run'; an observation about Joe's timeline in Iowa; better sources for Rafael Gomez Ortega

[rbell at alumni.caltech.edu]

	In that episode Joe says, 'And when we learned that he [Luis
Rodriguez] had signed to fight Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, we were
absolutely horrified.  How could he do such a thing?  He wasn't large
enough, he wasn't strong enough to take on Carter, it was outrageous
that he should get in the ring with this man who was too big, who was
too fierce, who was too powerful.  He had been beaten by Griffith two
out of three fights and Griffith had been knocked out in one round by
this man and now he was getting into the ring with Carter.  And we
could not imagine how he could withstand the punishing blows of a man
so much larger than he wasn't or how he could survive in the same ring
with Carter if Emile Griffith had been reduced to an inert heap on the
canvas in one round.  And we felt that Rodriguez was clearly stepping
out of his league, that he was out of his depths, that he was going to
be killed.  Actually we were seriously afraid that he was going to be
killed.  It was like pitting a boy against a man or a dog against a
mountain lion.  We almost wondered how the boxing commission could
allow it to happen.  All right, Luis Rodriguez was a great fighter but
he was too small.  Even in his own division as a welterweight he'd
seemed weaker than his opponents.  And only won because of his stamina
and his boxing ability - but now he was going too far he was taking on
too much.'
	According to
https://boxrec.com/wiki/index.php/Luis_Manuel_Rodriguez_vs._Rubin_Carter_(1st_meeting)
Rodriguez was a 2-1 favorite.  Contrary to Joe's account, Rodriguez
fought well in the first rounds.

	At 31:50 Joe says, 'You remember Luis Rodriguez has defeated
Rubin "Hurricane" Carter and now I'm off to the University of Iowa
where I'm going to graduate school there.'
	Joe claims Iowa's football team was #1 and that Forest
Evashevski was the coach - that happened last in 1960.  In 'Cocktails
before dinner' Joe talks about the 22 caliber pistol in a shoebox in
the back of his closet; he bought it as a young married student in
Iowa, during the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962, to protect
himself and his wife from the aftermath of a nuclear war.  The
Rodriguez-Carter bout took place 1965 February 12.  He married in
1961.

	I found better articles about Rafael Gomez Ortega:
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_G%C3%B3mez_Ortega
https://historia-hispanica.rah.es/biografias/19942-rafael-gomez-ortega
https://ellancedesandracarbonero.com/articulos-y-reportajes/rafael-gomez-ortega-el-clasicismo-y-la-personalidad-de-un-genio-parte-i/
	They're consistent with Joe's stories.  The Wikipedia article
is far different from the last time I looked.

russell bell