The day I almost fought with "Ingo"

A beautiful, white frosted, January morning in 1946 was our neighborhood gang gathered on the large hill at the wide grassplain outside Johanneberg Church in Gothenburg armed with "lances." These "lances" we had got by collecting, from the 6-storey houses ejected, de-needeled Christmas pine trees. This year, when I would fill 9, I was the leader of Johanneberg Gang. Armed with these lances we used to have battles and measure our strength against the adjacent neighborhood gangs and this morning there was the gang from "Solgårdarna" that turned up. Leader of "Solgårdarna" that morning proved to be a certain Ingemar Johansson - yes just the one. But no one knew at that time his inherent capacity. He would complete 14 years this year but looked like a large, shapely 18-year-old, at least the head higher than I and probably twice as wide. The following year, he would first come to stand for boxing club Redbergslids club-copmpetition for juniors in a show match. The real boxing fight debut came in the junior championships in Gothenburg in 1948 when Ingemar seriously began his remarkable boxing career. In particular, I remember him on the very morning of January in Johanneberg as an extremely broadbuilt adult. We came face to face. I remember that I felt quite scared at the sight of Ingemar. But there was never any battle that morning. I felt that I wanted to avert it, when I perceived the great Ingemar Johansson as a whole over powerful opponent, though with a most friendly expression in his face and even friendly language and body language. To my great happiness, however, our own neighborhood gang of Johanneberg had gathered at least twice as many as Ingemars that morning. Our gang included both Bertil Steen and Gilbert Holmström at my side, already friends and future schoolmates at Hvitfeldtska. Probably valued Ingemar Johansson these powerbalance carefully and realized that the expiration of any battle would be uncertain. Perhaps Ingemar was already one of the wise caution and clear analytical ability, he would show some years later in the finals against the giant like Ed Sanders of the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952 when he chose to give priority to defense and not attack and had his well-deserved silver medal only thirty years later. We fencered up to only a few friendly strokes with our lances, and then we decided jointly not to continue to fight and all receded. Years went by and after the nice time at Hvitfeldtska we boys from the West Coast as destined to become doctors and dentists did our military service at T2 in Skövde. In the late evenings there we often could enjoy improvised tapton from Gilbert Holmströms´s already formidable tenorsax that made us fall asleep with thoughts and feelings light-years away from all warfare even in a regulatory regimental bed. When I, after such a servicesummer, in September 1958, in a relatively close range just got to see Ingo knock Eddie Machen in the first round at New Ullevi and the following year in the radio heard him defeat Floyd Patterson at Yankee Stadium in New York and become world champion in professional heavyweight champion I realized who I had almost been proposed by which the church in Johanneberg hill and all the rough maltreatment, I probably had escaped that very January morning. But it has happened to me many years later that I bragged for my children and now also for my grandchildren that I almost fought with Ingo.
Ulf Herrströmer