This week many children in Regensburg will have heard for the first time about one of their most illustrious neighbors: Hans Huber. He had just died at the age of 90 and the German city’s newspapers were filled with articles remembering his figure and the reason why he had long been considered a hero. Few neighbors live with fresh minds and memories of his history, so for the vast majority it was a small discovery. Regensburg, a town located in the south of Germany, next to the Danube and famous for the three universities it has and which guarantee permanent vitality in its streets, had sent two athletes to the Olympic Games Tokyo in 1964: boxer Hans Huber and high jumper Horst Rosenfeldt. That was a small event for them. The city said goodbye to them in style, with a reception at the town hall, speeches appealing to the pride of the land, bouquets of flowers and the desire for a good competition. Little did they know that things there would go much better than the most optimistic could imagine. Rosenfeldt was soon eliminated in his competition, but Huber’s behavior was infinitely above what his neighbors could imagine.
The German boxer had a curious story behind him. He was a baker’s apprentice when he put on the goalkeeping gloves for Wenzenbach, a modest team in the region. His impressive stature suggested that he could make a living as a goalkeeper in the world of football and for a time he trained hard. But along the way, after leaving the bakery and while he was preparing to earn a living as a bus driver, His instructor invited him in 1953 to try his luck in the world of wrestling.. He explained to her that it could be a good way to take advantage of his impressive physique and obvious strength. The man appealed to the importance of being the first and only person responsible for his victories and his defeats. That was a great recommendation, since his progress was immediate and he soon became German runner-up. Huber’s desire for victory was too powerful and he soon understood that in front of him he had an invincible rival in his desire to become the best fighter in Germany. Winfried Dietrich, who was nicknamed “the Schifferstadt crane”, one of the great myths of German sport who stood on the Olympic podium four times including the gold won in Rome in 1960, was in the same category and systematically closed the door to the reign. of their country and therefore access to the Olympic Games. When he lost the German final with him in 1960, Huber made a radical decision: He abandoned wrestling and began his path in the world of boxing. Just three years after that decision, When he was around thirty, he already had his passport in his pocket to attend the 1964 Tokyo Games. in the heavyweight category after having achieved the title of German champion. That appointment was especially important for him because he planned to retire shortly after the sport and focus on the job of bus driver for which he had conscientiously prepared. If he wanted to enjoy an Olympic experience it could only be in Tokyo.
Soon the “Huber fever” throughout Regensburg as rounds progressed in the Olympic competition. When he defeated the Italian Giuseppe Ros with overwhelming superiority in the semifinals, the fever turned into absolute madness. He was already guaranteed the silver medal, but that wasn’t enough for Huber. He needed the title to feel fulfilled. But there was a problem: in the fight for gold, the American Joe Frazier, one of the greatest boxers of all time, world champion on several occasions, the man who years later would star in three unforgettable duels against Muhammad Ali for the world heavyweight title and the first who defeated him. At the time he was only twenty years old and no one still knew him by “Smoking Joe,” the nickname that would accompany him for the rest of his career. The story of Frazier and the Tokyo Games is also curious. Just like Huber, he was not expected in the duel for gold, although at his age he had already won the Golden Gloves (United States amateur tournament) three times in the heavyweight category. The one everyone was waiting for was Buster Mathis, who had beaten Frazier in the preliminary tournament that was to decide who would represent the United States in the Tokyo Games. However, Frazier got on the plane that took them to Japan as a substitute for Mathis who had a knuckle injury and it was not clear if he would arrive in condition to participate in the Olympic tournament. After days of uncertainty, the same morning that boxing debuted on the Olympic calendar, Mathis accepted the evidence that he would not be able to get into the ring to fight against the Ugandan Oywello, his rival in the first round. Frazier was recruited at the last minute and then began an impressive career of unappealable victories until the final where the German Huber awaited him.. The story still hides some other script twist. Joe Frazier’s problem is that in the semifinal against the Soviet Yemelianov he suffered an injury to the thumb of his left hand that led him down the path of bitterness but which he hid out of fear that he would be prevented from being in the duel for gold medal. After the final, an x-ray revealed that the American had suffered a fracture in his finger.
On October 23, 1964, the two fighters starred in the final episode of the Olympic Games boxing calendar. It had been a controversial tournament in its development: the Spanish Valentín Loren and the Argentine Chirino had attacked the referees for not agreeing with their decision and a Korean opted for a more peaceful solution to protest: he sat in his corner and refused to leave the ring. For almost an hour he was there in silence without responding to the requests that he stop his attitude.
The heavyweight final took place within normal limits. It was a great fight in which two different styles collided. Huber had the advantage of experience (ten years older) and size because he was four inches taller. This allowed him to reach more easily and keep his distance from Frazier, who was a whirlwind, a force of nature who, however, had to take risks when entering the distance of the German. Looking at the history of both, one might think that the North American was much superior, but the truth is that he was not. The fight was even and was resolved in favor of Frazier by a narrow margin of 3-2. It was the only victory for the United States in boxing in 1964, dominated mainly by fighters from the East, Poles and Soviets above all.
More than twenty thousand people came to welcome him at the train station
Life stopped in Regensburg at noon on October 23, 1964. Huber’s neighbors glued themselves to the transistors to listen to the narration of the combat and take away the disappointment of a defeat that did not tarnish the pride they felt for their neighbor. For Huber it was a little more painful because he had caressed the gold. He confessed after the defeat that “before arriving in Tokyo I was happy to get any medal, but losing the gold is a very bitter experience.” The sadness did not take long to disappear because when he returned to Regensburg a crowd of More than twenty thousand people were waiting for him at the train station to cheer him and thank him..
Huber left the boxing after Tokyo to devote himself to driving a bus Although he remained linked to sport, helping the sports department of the Regensburg town hall, where he lived his entire life, becoming a popular hero who, as time went by, fewer and fewer people remembered. Until these days, his death at the age of ninety returned his name to the newspapers and the German city revived that fever of the end of 1964.
2024-01-22 14:45:06
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