(1907-1959)
Inducted into the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, 1997
The Fiersteins were amateur and professional boxers from the 1920s through the 1940s, and may have been the only group of Jewish brothers who were boxers in Connecticut.
Born in Austria, Myer was the oldest in the family. From 1923-1934 he had 86 professional fights to his credit, and he won 80 of them. After his boxing career, he lived in Brooklyn and managed fruit stores.
Born in New Britain, Harry was a successful amateur boxer in Hartford, losing only one out of 19 fights in the 1930s. In addition to boxing, he was on the track and baseball teams. He coached the YMCA boxing team in 1933 as well as a West Hartford Alumni League baseball team. He was a fruit and vegetable vendor in West Hartford for many years.
Samuel, the youngest brother, was on the YMCA boxing team in Hartford. As an amateur boxer, he scored 24 knockouts, winning 33 bouts between 1934 and 1947. As a professional in the 1940s, he participated in 36 boxing bouts and had a record of 9 wins, 7 draws and 5 losses. His mother disapproved of his boxing, so he sometimes used as an alias Sammy Stein or Toomy Brown.
When he was in the U.S. Army, he was part of the Goodwill Club boxing team, entertaining at several veterans’ hospitals. Before going into the service, he boxed in an exhibition at Bradley Airforce Base, at which Lou “Kid” Kaplan was the referee. Samuel was a member of Temple Beth Tefilah in East Hartford.