Swiderski, Paul

Swiderski, Paul
boxer, also known as "Paul Swider, The Syracuse Polack"
(January 15, 1904 - October 2, 1989)
As he was growing up in Syracuse, New York, where he was born, Paul Swiderski discovered that boxing was one way to put bread on the table. His brothers, who came from Poland just ahead of his birth, were different. John, who was born when his mother was 17 years old, became a liquor dealer, and John, fifteen years younger, opened a restaurant.
Paul Swiderski was probaby the first heavyweight in the United States to come from the home of Polish immigrants. He stood at six feet three inches and his weight varied. In his first bout on November 26, 1926, he lost to Gene Zedick, an obscure boxer, in Stamford, Connecticut. He did better the next time he stepped into the ring. In all, he faced 43 opponents, won 21 bouts, 11 of them by knockouts, lost 18, and twice was held to a draw. In a bout at St. Louis on December 2, 1930, with Maxie Rosenblum, who had already won 109 matches, the Missouri Boxing Commission disqualified Swiderski and called the bout a no contest.
For the first time in his career he fought in Madison Square Garden, New York City, on January 6, 1928, and lost to Jim Braddock, who would eventually become a world champion. The two matches he had with Mickey Walker, a world champion in two divisions from 1922 to 1931, stand out in the history of boxing. When they first met in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 16, 1930, Swiderski floored Walker seven times in two rounds and yet lost the fight. Neither boxer threw many punches five months later in Newark, New Jersey, and disappointed their fans. From then on the two boxers went downhill.
Life changed dramatically for Swiderski in 1933 when he married Margaret Beck, a widow with three children, and moved to Great Neck, Long Island. Soon afterward he took them to Paris, France, where he lost two fights in 1933 and 1934, and to Barcelona, Spain, where he ended his boxing career in 1935. He lost to a rookie. Owing to the Spanish Civil War, Swiderski left Barcelona on a cargo ship, S. S. Magalannes, March 15, 1936, with his wife and three stepchildren, and arrived in New York on April 2, 1936. They moved back to Great Neck for a short time.
The next stop for the family was Asbury Park, New Jersey. Because Paul and Margaret Swiderski did not have any children, they devoted all their attention to the activities of the three children of a former marriage. Vera Beck, who was born August 23, 1921, was the first one to leave the family in Asbury Park. She joined the army and used the GI Bill to become a lawyer. Frederick Beck, who was born April 29, 1927, became a musician and died at a young age. Patricia, who called her stepfather "Pops," was born April 7, 1924, and graduated from Asbury Park High School in 1943. In the fall she enrolled at Bennington College in Vermont to study poetry with Theodore Roethke and writing with W. H. Auden. In her freshman year her mother, Margaret Swiderski, died from cancer. Paul Swiderski was left alone in Asbury Park and nothing is known of his future until he died October 2, 1989, in the Bronx, New York.
From: Edward Pinkowski (2008)