If you're a fan of early aviation's absolutely bat-shit crazy barnstormer pilots you know Jimmy Doolittle as a fierce daredevil. If you are knowledgeable about advancements in aviation technology and practices you know Doolittle as a pioneer of instrument flying that is, flying blind. If you know the phrase (or film) "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" you know Doolittle as the intrepid hero who engineered and flew bombing raids past the point of no return-delivering their payload and then ditching the plane hoping to fare well once the pilots parachuted to ground.

          Now, unless you are already a fan of this aviation great you may not know that he also did a little boxing. Doolittle, grew up in the rough wilds of Nome, Alaska in the midst of the late 19th-century Gold Rush which attracted all sorts of hard folk (think the rugged tales of the equally rugged Jack London and you're on the right track). Doolittle was never a big man, and thusly, a boy small for his age, couple that with his delicate boyish looks and curly locks and, as you may have guessed, he engaged in more than a few fistfights usually with foe larger than he.

          His mother moved with him to Los Angeles in 1908 and enrolled him in Manual Arts High School where he stayed true to his ways and met taunting head-on with fists held high. It was during this time that boxing coach, Forest Bailey, caught one of these scuffles and advised him "You're going to get hurt badly one of these days. You let your emotions rule your body." The young Doolittle decided that maybe there was something to this and began formerly learning to box under the tutelage of Bailey. This education culminated in his becoming the amateur bantamweight champion of the Pacific Coast at the age of 15.

          He left boxing and civilian life behind when the United States entered the First World War and set his sights on becoming an aviator. Upon earning his wings he became obsessed with making planes do and perform in manners not commonly thought possible. He was noted for staying extremely calm under exceptionally trying circumstances and one aviation historian, Paul O'Neil, attributes at least some of Doolittle's aviation success to the lesson in controlling his emotions offered by Coach Bailey and the self-discipline it took to make him a champion.