FIGHT NEWS UNLIMITED COMBAT SPORTS SHOW PREVIEW: A FRIEND OF “THE BROCKTON BLOCKBUSTER” ROCKY MARCIANO HENRY TARTAGLIA

Posted on | June 9, 2009 | No Comments

by: “Rabble Rousin'” Rich Bergeron

Tony “The Tornado” Penecale came all the way up to Beantown from Philly with his Dad, cousin and uncle to take in a thrilling Red Sox game on June 7, 2009 and show off his new Rocky Marciano Foundation shirt.

While Tony was here we decided to do an intro for our radio show interview this coming Thursday with a friend of local Brockton, Massachusetts legend Rocky Marciano (Hank Tartaglia). Read more about Hank below, but for now enjoy the video we made (sorry about all the background noise):

Editor’s Note: Hank doesn’t actually live in Rocky’s old house right now (I messed that up), but he did grow up living in Rocky’s neighborhood just a street away from Rocky’s Dover Street residence. Mark Casieri, seen in the video at the bottom with the Rocky Marciano Foundation shirt on (just like Tony’s), is the one who actually lives in Rocky’s old home.

And here’s Tony’s photo gallery of the trip:

HENRY “HANK” TARTAGLIA, BOYHOOD FRIEND OF THE MARCIANO FAMILY, IS THIS WEEK’S RADIO SHOW GUEST (11pm EST THURSDAY NIGHT on Blog Talk Radio):

The low-lit bar Henry “Hank” Tartaglia tends faithfully is found just through the back door of George’s Cafe in Brockton, Massachusetts, and everywhere you look you are forced to realize the historical significance of where you are.

Super sharp black-and-white snapshots of Rocky Marciano’s merciless right hook against Jersey Joe Walcott in the 13th round of their famous fight are plastered throughout the bar in key spots. It seems like that one punch is covered from at least 7 different angles on the walls of George’s Cafe.

Then there are the other still shots of the follow-up left in the same Walcott fight, and there’s a few angles of that shot, too. If you take the time to stroll slowly down each wall and look at the clusters of pictures from a bygone era in American boxing, you get the feeling that just about everybody does when they first learn about the legend: Rocky was just a regular guy. Perhaps this is why he had such great appeal as an American Heavyweight and a World Champion.

There is a history you just can’t get out of watching the old videos of any fighter. Rocky Marciano’s history plays out on the wall’s of George’s in the snapshots taken by the pioneers of sports photography with the best equipment of their day. Back then, the internet was just a dream and video was still light years away from catching up to the detail provided by these crisp black and white shots taken from ringside. Then there are the character shots, the photos of Rocky in the gym; Rocky wearing a pair of absolutely tattered old gloves given to him by Skip Sergio; a shirtless Rocky holding a huge baseball bat in one huge palm out by his side; Rocky with all the neighborhood kids; Rocky with “The Splendid Splinter” Ted Williams; and even a select few pictures of Rocky in his retirement.

During an age when America was most passionate about the arrival of the daily newspaper, Rocky was a household name in New England and America. Before mixed martial arts was even a brain fart in any Gracie’s head, Rocky was thrilling crowds with gutsy and skillful exhibitions of iron will and pure punching power. It would be hard to find a trainer today who would encourage his own students to emulate Rocky’s low handed, stalking, clubbing style. Yet, Rocky managed to pull it off and more.

As long-time friend of the Marciano family Hank Tartaglia recalls that Rocky managed to knock a lot of guys out with the same right hand that baseball scouts didn’t consider to be good enough for him to make it to the bigs. After a brief stint in a catcher’s role with the Chicago Cubs organization, Rocky was told his throw to second base was not quite accurate enough to make the cut. Rocky would often haunt the Brockton baseball fields blasting line drives and fly balls to the younger kids. “He was a real good baseball player,” said Tartaglia, who shagged Rocky’s hits from time to time himself and lived just one street away from the Marciano family home. “Everyone hung around the park. We were all very close in that neighborhood. All the Italian kids hung together.”

Tartaglia, this Thursday’s guest on the Fight News Unlimited Combat Sports Show, is shown in a family photo in this cool local YouTube clip about the WBC planned statue in Rocky’s honor slated to be built in Brockton sometime late this year or early next year:

Hank will give us a sense of who Rocky really was and how the neighborhood he grew up in shaped his career in boxing. This is sure to be a very special show for all boxing historians out there. Don’t miss out! Tune in live or listen here on the blog widget on the right of the screen.