Barney Ross 1909-1967

Boxer Barney Ross was born Dov-Ber Rasofsky in Chicago. When Ross was 14, his father, an immigrant rabbi and grocer, was shot and killed by robbers and and his mother suffered a nervous breakdown from grief. Left to fend for himself, Ross took to the street, running with Jack Ruby and doing small jobs for gangster Al Capone. At age 19, Ross became a professional fighter and, by 1938, he had fought over 300 times, often against future Hall of Famers and in front of large crowds. Ross enlisted in the U.S. Marines after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and received a Silver Star for heroism.