On June 13, 1935, Jimmy Braddock, who less than a year before had been on welfare in New Jersey, became the biggest star in sports, the world heavyweight boxing champion.

That improbable achievement followed one of the most amazing transformations in history, as Braddock emerged almost literally a new man after more than a month of arduous training in Loch Sheldrake. The Jimmy Braddock story is eloquently told in the recent documentary from filmmaker Evan Haiman, Ringside in the Mountains.

As noted in the documentary, Braddock was virtually an unknown fighter when he arrived at the Hotel Evans amidst little fanfare to train for his shot at the heavyweight championship held at the time by the seemingly invincible Max Baer. He was hardly more than an overblown light-heavyweight at that point and was so heavy an underdog for the bout that few sportswriters had any intention of covering his camp. But a combination of the magical Catskills air – after all, it had been curing tuberculosis for nearly half a century by then - the Evans’ renowned cuisine, and an innovative training regimen devised by manager Joe Gould, turned Braddock into a finely-tuned fighting machine that the sports world could not help but notice.

“Braddock arrived (in Loch Sheldrake) on April 27, seven weeks before the fight, and moved into a log cabin several hundred yards from the hotel’s main building," writes Jeremy Schaap in Cinderella Man, his 2005 book about the fight. “The cabin featured running water and electricity, but those were the only luxuries.”

“For the first two weeks Braddock trained in serene solitude, without Doc Robb or Solly Seeman overseeing his workouts, which were limited to long runs and shadowboxing. Every morning at five o’clock he woke up in the darkness. He waited for daylight, and then ran eight to ten miles through the chilly countryside, rarely encountering humans or automobiles. By the time he had finished running, the sun was climbing rapidly, and it was time to eat an enormous breakfast - a ham steak and six eggs, six pancakes, a loaf of toasted bread, coffee, and juice. Then he would take a nap for an hour. Then he would shadowbox. Then he would eat lunch. Then he would rest or play cards with the brothers who owned the hotel. Then he would eat a steak dinner, with French fries, vegetables, and a chocolate sundae for dessert. In the cool night air, as the sun was setting, he would drink a cup of warm milk. Then, at about eight o’clock, he would go to sleep in the single bed in the cabin.”

By the middle of May, Braddock had gained 40 pounds, and at six-foot-three and 220 pounds, he was bigger than he had ever been. The few sports writers who traveled to Loch Sheldrake to watch the challenger prepare began to write about his “amazing transformation.” They also noted the unusual quality of the sparring partners Gould had assembled for the camp, and the fact that they had been instructed to give Braddock the best they had.

“Gould was determined to make Braddock’s camp the most grueling ever conceived,” Schaap writes. “The sparring partners switched off after every round, so Robb threw a fresh opponent into the ring every three minutes. When Braddock wasn’t sparring, he was running along country roads, jumping rope, and shadowboxing. When he was sparring, he wasn’t really sparring, he was fighting.”

By the time legendary ex-champ Jack Dempsey drove up to Loch Sheldrake to see Braddock in late May, the challenger was “a chiseled 198 pounds - the roadwork and the sparring had burned off the excess weight.

Impressed by the Braddock he saw, “bigger, stronger, and infinitely more nimble” than he’d ever been before, Dempsey noted that Baer, who was notorious for his disdain for the rigors of training, “better not take Braddock lightly. The kid’s training to fight forty rounds.”

Braddock’s camp remained at Loch Sheldrake until four days before the fight, when they returned to New York. Braddock took up residence at the Mayflower Hotel, on Central Park West. He was by then a fan favorite, though few gave him a chance to overcome the 10 to 1 odds against him. Almost everyone in boxing considered Baer a virtual lock to successfully defend his crown. Of seven former champions asked to predict the outcome, Jack Dempsey, James J. Jeffries, Primo Carnera, Max Schmeling, and Gene Tunney picked Baer, though Dempsey added “Braddock has a chance.” Jess Willard and Jack Sharkey picked Braddock.

Braddock fought valiantly that Thursday night in Long Island City, and easily won a 15-round decision in one of the biggest upsets in boxing history. When he returned to the Evans the following year to train for his next fight, against Max Schmeling, he was, in the words of sportswriter Damon Runyan, “the most popular champion in the history of the game.”

But Braddock hurt his hand while sparring in Loch Sheldrake and the fight with Schmeling had to be called off. Instead, his first - and, as it turned out, his only - defense of his crown took place on June 22, 1937, against Joe Louis. Braddock had the Brown Bomber on the canvas early, but Louis rallied to win by a KO in the eighth round. The defeat did little to tarnish Braddock’s reputation, and although he fought just once more - outpointing Tommy Farr in January 1938, he would long be remembered for his stunning upset of the heavily favored Baer.

Under an inspired financial arrangement, Braddock collected a share of the purse on all of Louis’ title defenses for the next ten years. That, and the income he earned operating heavy equipment, enabled him to purchase a modest, five-bedroom home on County Road 121 near North Branch, and he lived there part-time until his death in 1974.

John Conway is the Sullivan County Historian. Email him at jconway52@hotmail.com.