AN INTRO TO NEW FNU BOXING WRITER PATRICK MCELLIGOTT
Posted on | July 6, 2007 | 4 Comments
By: Patrick McElligott
Bill Wetzel recently asked if I would be interested in writing a boxing column for Fight News Unlimited. We have been friends for several years, and frequently discuss the sport. Bill and I share an appreciation of boxing that goes beyond the statistics found on a boxer’s record, or the current ratings of any of the alphabet commissions: as in anything that is important in life, it is necessary to understand not only “how?” something happens, but also “why?”
As a retired psychiatric social worker, who comes from a family with a long history of boxing, I have a perspective on boxing that Bill thinks might be of interest to readers here. I want to thank him and Rich for having me here. And I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself to you.
Boxing has been a part of my extended family’s lives, on my father’s side, since they came to this country from Ireland in the 1800s. Years ago, I wrote a book (From Glenagore to Guilford: Irish Destiny on the O&W) that detailed how my grandfather came from the Old Sod in 1879. Relatives were stone-cutters on the canals and railroads in New York State. Grandpa and a brother-in-law eventually owned a construction company in Nutley, NJ. Among the people who worked for him was Arnold Raymond Cream, who fought in bootleg fights in New Jersey and New York City. He eventually took the name Jersey Joe Walcott, and won the heavyweight title.
Though Grandpa favored baseball, his brother Patrick was a boxer. Uncle Pat’s biggest win was over Bucky Lawless in Sherburne, NY. Though Bucky is but a footnote in boxing history today, and his complete record was never kept, his name can be found in the Ring Record Book on the records of 14 men who held world’s titles, from the lightweight to light heavyweight divisions. Bucky lived with Uncle Pat in Sherburne for a few periods of time, and Pat would drive Bucky to fights in Syracuse, Binghamton, Rochester and Buffalo.
Uncle Pat promoted fights in Sherburne. Many of these are not found on various fighters’ official records, in part because they were “bootleg” fights, and many were contests with “no decision.” If there wasn’t a knockout, neither fighter was deemed the winner. Yet fighters like Bushy Graham, the bantamweight champion from Utica, and Carmen Basilio, the welterweight and middleweight king, both fought in Sherburne.
Recently, I was with my younger son at the NYS Eastern Division Golden Gloves semi-finals in Amsterdam, NY. Those who attend or participate in events like the Golden Gloves know that things move at a hectic pace. However, I noticed an elderly gentleman there, who very few of the young fighters would have recognized. His name was Alfred Pescatore, a former European lightweight champion, who had been a sparring partner for guys like the great Willie Pep. Alfred sat and talked a good hour with us, and it gave my son an opportunity to hear first hand about events in places like Sherburne that are lost to everyone except those who sit in the village’s historical society research room.
My father was one of 14 siblings, including brothers who boxed and played baseball. I was the youngest of five, including two brothers who boxed and played baseball. And so my childhood consisted of going to school, working on our small farm, and neighborhood baseball games and backyard boxing matches. By my early teens, I was fighting for the Oneonta Boys Club, for Carl Delberta. In his younger years, he fought as “Carl Del”; he fought Charlie Burley, who Sugar Ray Robinson avoided. Carl’s friend Willie Pep was the referee of my one my fights in Oneonta.
This year, at the regionals of the Silver Gloves, I had the chance to introduce my son to Carl. Again, it was an opportunity to have a 90-year old hand down some history to a teenager. My son has loved Jack Dempsey since he was a little boy, and Carl has some wonderful pictures of him with Jack in training camps. (Dempsey and Basilio were my son’s favorites; my cousin Jack – Uncle Pat’s grandson – had Carmen sign a nice photo for my son a few years back.)
My brothers and I eventually had a good team that represented the Sidney Recreation Center. We fought in places like Oneonta, Binghamton, Albany, Syracuse, Buffalo, and Rochester, NY, and in Scranton, PA. I was friends with Rubin “Hurricane” Carter by this point, and I was good enough at knocking opponents out that I was featured in an article in Boxing Illustrated. I will share some of the Hurricane’s “lessons” in future articles. However, the one that was the most important was that education was more important than amateur boxing, and I began to focus my attention on college rather than the ring.
I ended up with a career in social work. Yet there are areas where boxing and social issues overlap. A few years ago, my oldest brother and I looked at some interesting numbers from the Sidney Rec Center boxing team. In the mid-1970s, there were about 75 kids active in the club. Not all of them boxed competitively: some worked corners, some just sparred. But most fought against teams from the cities across New York State.
Of the 75, we counted more than 50 who had experienced “trouble” at home, in school, and/or in the community. Some had been suspended from school, others had been arrested, were on probation, and a few had been in jail. Yet during the periods of time they were actively involved with the boxing club, none of them had been in any real trouble. I can’t think of any other social program that can claim that type of result.
That doesn’t mean that I view the sport through rose-colored glasses. When I recently spoke with Rubin to ask if he was planning to attend the annual induction ceremonies at the Boxing Hall of Fame, he said, “Pat, I love boxers, but I hate boxing.” The promoters and managers who exploit the athletes are, sadly, as much a part of the sport today as they have ever been. And, though as a teen I never recognized the connection between the punch-drunk pugs I met and the punches my brothers and I were taking, today my oldest brother suffers from the same symptoms as did Jerry Quarry towards the end of his life. Boxing can be brutal.
Still, I enjoy watching the sport on TV, and attending fights – both amateur and professional – from time to time. I enjoy discussing the sport with others on the internet. My experience gives me a perspective that I think is of interest to others. I enjoy being able to connect what happened in the gyms and in the bootleg fights from the early 1900s with more current events. Or, when Rubin was the studio guest on ESPN’s Friday Night Fights, being the “fan” who asked him to tell about when he used to spar Sonny Liston.
I again want to thank Bill and Rich for having me here, and I look forward to discussing the sport of boxing with everyone here.