Return To Mecca by Pusboil

Return To Mecca

Pusboil

Well folks, I spent this past weekend in Canastota, NY. The home of the International Boxing Hall of Fame. I will not write anything further without saying this: Ed Brophy and his crew are continuing to do a fantastic job.

This year's ceremonial weekend was a far cry from the one's I have attended in the past. There was a lot more going on. The grounds of the hall were more comfortable. Everything seemed to be improved. Not to say that previous years were done poorly, just that each year the staff of employees and volunteers seem to make this weekend better and better, except for one incident which I will address later.

This year's featured inductees were Carl "Bobo" Olson, Ken Buchanan, "Joltin'" Jeff Chandler and Tito Lectoure.

Olson was a middleweight who came along at the wrong time. The prime of his career was spent in the shadow of perhaps the greatest fighter of all time, Sugar Ray Robinson. Still, Olson amassed an impressive record of 99 wins, 16 losses, and 2 draws with 49 KO's. One quarter of Olson's losses came at the hands of Robinson who he finished up with an 0-4 record against.

After Robinson's first retirement, Olson won the vacant Middleweight title by beating Randy Turpin in October, 1953. He made several successful defenses of the title over the next two years until Robinson came out of retirement and in December of 1955 KO'd Olson in the second round. Olson finished his career at Light Heavyweight n 1966. 16 losses in 22 years is nothing to be ashamed of.

Ken Buchanan (61-8, 27 KO's) is most famous for his Scottish plaid trunks and
for losing the lightweight title to Roberto Duran in June of 1972. Few remember his win of the title in triple digit temperature in San Juan, Puerto Rico against Ismael Laguna in 1970. Also the fact that the loss to Duran came after a low blow by the future "Hands of Stone" legend and Buchanan could not answer the bell for the 14th round.

Buchanan never got a rematch with Duran but went on to beat future Hall of Famer Carlos Ortiz with a sixth round TKO also in 1972. He retired in 1983 after only fighting occasionally the previous few years.

Jeff Chandler (33-2-2, 18 KO's) was World Bantamweight champion from
1980-1984. He was a tough "Philadelphia" fighter who always wanted to fight
the best. Bantamweight is a division that American fighters have never really dominated, but he managed to stay undefeated for a seven year stretch in that
division.

Tito Lectoure was a boxing promoter of unmatched quality and quantity in
South America. The sporting arena Luna Park was just one of the sites that
Lectoure promoted at heavily. Over a thirty year period he averaged two fight
cards a week. Think about that number for a moment. Fighters like, Carlos
Ortiz, Kid Gavilan, Emile Griffith are just a few of the names that fought on Lectoure promoted cards.

Back to the weekend.

All of the usual festivities occurred, the celebrity workouts, lectures etc. Current middleweight champ Bernard Hopkins was giving an interview and signing autographs on the museum grounds as was referee Arthur Mercante Jr. and a host of others. The Memorabilia show appeared slightly less crowded then previous years, but my old friend the Neanderslob was there, hawking his wares. My favorite item for sale at his booth was the boxing gorilla, oy vey.

Ken Norton was there, autographing his new book titled "Going the Distance". Ken Buchanan was available for autographs as were Angel Manfredy, Carlos Ortiz, Jeff Chandler and Jimmy Ellis. And what would a boxing memorabilia show be, without Boncerusher Smith's new hot sauce, I shit you not.

Saturday night was for the highlight and lowlight for me at the Banquet of Champions dinner. The dais was a who's who of boxing past and present. In some cases it was a who's that?? Why Carl "The Truth Is I Have No Chin" Williams was up there was beyond me.

Our host for the night was Bert Randolph Sugar. In his usual flamboyance, he outdressed most of the women at the dinner. As Joe Frazier, and several others, noted "Nice pants, Bert". There were conversations done at the podium between Alexis Arguello and Aaron Pryor, Lou Duva and Mickey Duff, Joe Frazier and Jimmy Ellis and many other well matched pairs. They exchanged stories, barbs and jokes. There was also a nice video presentation on Bobo Olson's career.

We met up with Alexis in the bar area, as we happened to step out of the room at the same time for a smoke break. Real gentleman, we chatted with him for a little while before returning to our table.

We were supposed to be seated at table 69, but when we got there the table was one seat short. So the woman in charge of seating (I believe her name was Melissa) moved us over to table 61, which was empty at the time. Apparently this table was being used for overflow and for volunteers. Shortly after we were seated, the rest of the table was filled up.

About 20 minutes later, three gentlemen came over to the table. All three of their tickets said Table 61. So once again Melissa came over. I thought that we might have been in their seats, so I reminded her that she had moved us here. She said that was not the problem but she would figure it out. So these guys continue to stand at the end of the table.

Here's where I lost it. The woman sitting next to my friend, who was one of the volunteers, actually calls to these gentleman and asks if they are going to be standing there the whole night. One of them politely turns to her and says, "No, we're just waiting to find out about our seats." She replies "Oh I thought you were just security."

These three men were dressed in suits, looked better than my friend or I did. I was an unshaven mess, in khaki pants and something resembling a dress shirt. It was pretty obvious to myself, my friend Billy, and our three newcomers, that she made this "assumption" based on the fact that these men were black.

I was appalled. Billy and I just looked at each other and looked at these other "paying" customers (125 bucks a head) like us and couldn't believe it. One gentleman just smiled at me and he must have seen the rage in my face, because he just said to me "Don't worry about it".

Well, I couldn't let it go. I'm a wiseass through and through. My favorite line from the movie "Major League" came into my mind and I rose from my seat I whispered to this guy, "You want me to drag her outside, and beat the shit out of her??". He laughed so hard and then again said, "It's okay, it'll all work out. It's cool."

Well as it turned out he was right. Melissa returned and addressed my newest enemy sitting next to Billy and proceeded to inform us all that it was her and two of her friends that were at the wrong table and they should return to the correct table now. She was quite stern with the idiot next to my friend, which I really enjoyed. It may not have been justice for what this imbecile said, but we all got a pretty good kick out of it.

The night went on, Billy and I spent the night talking boxing with these guys it was great. All three were from Philly, and knew their shit about fights. We talked about fights like Starling-Honeyghan, Pettway-Brown, and other fights that your casual fan probably missed. When the night was over, we all shook hands, said our good-byes and went our separate ways. Hope to see our new acquaintances back at the dinner next year.

After dinner, we all headed over to Graziano's for a beer or ten. Arguello was quite the smoothie on the dance floor most of the time I was there. Bert Sugar looked like a baby giraffe on crack dancing, but he is always good for a laugh. The place was packed full of people and was hot as hell. A little after one o'clock we decided to leave and head back to our hotel.

I thoroughly enjoyed this year's activities and once again Ed Brophy deserves to be commended for his and his staff's work. I refuse to let one myopic amoeba's point of view damage my memory of the weekend, but I will admit it still annoys me.

Pusboil