A rare and unlikely survivor advertising the services of Cherubin Durocher, boxer and masseur in 1927. It consists of illustrations of Durocher playing sports (as the only Black athlete pictured), and training other athletes, displaying his versatility, teaching abilities, and impressive physique.
Born in Martinique, Cherubin Durocher competed in swimming, fencing, long distance running, soccer, gymnastics, and more. “Maintaining his physical fitness became a true passion … despite his small stature and unassuming appearance. He became a sportsman, not in the aristocratic fashion, but with the voracious appetite for all kinds of sports that characterized him and reflected the ideal of the complete athlete of the Belle Epoque” (Gastuat). Nonetheless, he wasn’t exempt from the type of stereotyping and discrimination other athletes of colour experienced.
Although he won the 1913 French Navy bantamweight championship in boxing, Durocher’s competitive career stalled, and he became a boxing teacher and professor of physical education at the Reims College of Athletes. His duties included improving the fitness of soldiers preparing to fight in the First World War.
It’s comes as no surprise that such ephemeral material is unrecorded on OCLC.
Gastuat, Y., Les Champions dit “de Couleur” entre Mythes et Realité, Open Edition books, https://books.openedition.org/pur/235638 accessed 26 May, 2026.
