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10/13/2004 Archived Entry: "FIGHT MANAGER "MOTOR MOUTH" MORTON, R.I.P."
FIGHT MANAGER "MOTOR MOUTH" MORTON, R.I.P.
by CBZ Staff
MICHAEL F. MORTON
October 8, 1912.--- October 11, 2004
Michael Morton stepped straight out of Damon Runyan’s hilarious sagas of old school New York fight guys. The dapper Morton vibrated with energy and enthusiasm. He was a rapid fire talker with the tang of Brooklyn on his tongue and a vaudeville delight in limelight. A gifted and successful salesman in his adopted hometown of Portland, OR, his accent became his trademark as he joked and charmed his way around the Western wariness of Eastern city slickers. Mike Morton reached for every tab. He was a soft touch, compulsively generous to family, friends and strangers. Nobody ever spare-changed him and went away empty handed. One friend says, "He might not give you his last dollar but he’d certainly split it with you." He made money by selling siding at his own Portland company, Lager Construction. He delighted in the celebrity that his starring role in Lager’s television commercials brought him. But he spent most of his money on boxing and boxers. For almost 40 years, he was the best known and busiest professional boxing manager in the Pacific Northwest.
Boxing was his life long passion, the world where he felt most alive, and where he achieved a level of national and even international recognition. The vanity plate on his car read "BOXING." Years before a cable TV channel called itself "The Heart & Soul of Boxing," Morton’s partner John Brune coined that phrase for Morton’s business cards and advertisements. When aggravated, Morton compared his boxing habit to an incurable illness, an addiction. But he loved the colorful characters in the sport and he took pride and pleasure in the enormous number of people he met, worked with, and called his friends.
A boxing manager’s first duty is to get fights for the fighters. All Morton’s skills and determination were in play when he was on the phone trying to get a bout for one of his boxers. If wit, charisma, pranks, or even the occasional temper tantrum couldn’t make a dent, Morton’s sheer stamina usually wore the opposition down. He worked often with promoter Don King who, many years ago, dubbed him "Motormouth." The moniker "Motormouth Morton" stuck. Reporters loved his quotable quips and lively stories, which helped keep them interested in his fighters.
Throughout his life, Michael Morton represented or worked with hundreds of fighters for all or part of their careers, many with no more contract than a handshake. Among them was hard-punching bantamweight contender, Jesus Pimentel,who Morton co-managed in Los Angeles with Harry Kabakoff. Pimentel still stayed in touch with Morton by phone and letter. In Portland there was the former #1 world ranked lightweight Ray Lampkin, best known for his 1975 title clash with Roberto Duran in Panama. Lampkin,now a building contractor ensconced in the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame, was at his old manager’s bedside the night he died. There was also former top ten light heavyweight Andy Kendall, who Morton named "The Scapoose Express," and parlayed into a notable career and a title challenge of the great Bob Foster. Morton managed middleweight Mike Colbert, who was ranked in the top ten for nearly a decade in the 70’s and who fought both Marvin Hagler and Tommy Hearns. Featherweight Miguel Arrozal lost a decision to Eloy Rojas in a 1996 challenge for the WBA Championship. There were heavyweights Thad Spencer, Larry Frazier and Ken Arlt, light heavyweights Dale Grant and James "C.Q." Williams, regional champions Curtis "Razor" Ramsey, Darryl Penn, and many more.
Despite his frail health in recent years, with the help of his wife Lynne, Morton was still representing fighters. Just weeks before his death, Morton attended the matches at the Lucky Eagle Casino in Rochester, WA. to cheer for his popular young welterweight, Michael Lucero. Afterwards he approved the scheduling of Lucero’s first 10 round main event in November.
Michael Morton’s long, complex life began on October 8, 1912, when he was born at his family’s home in Brooklyn, New York, the 6th of 8 children in a strict Jewish family. The birth certificate names him Max Moskowitz but through his childhood and youth he was known as Milton Moskowitz. His father was a one-legged tailor from Romania. His Russian mother died of pneumonia when he was 12. In 7th grade at the time, he left school and went to work. He delivered telegrams for Western Union in the still-surviving Woolworth Building, and he sold roasted sweet potatoes from a pushcart in the street.
He boxed as an amateur and was undefeated in 8 pro bouts. He married Lillian Neiderman and she insisted that he quit boxing. He did as she asked, but he was still a fighter at heart, and the frustration drove him to see his dreams in other people. He became interested in managing fighters and began making the personal contacts in the business that would always serve him well.
He and Lillian had two children when the family moved to Los Angeles where Morton joined his brother Danny in the construction trades. He legally changed his name to Michael Morton, a last name that another brother was using in show business. His dynamic sales ability made him prosperous. Los Angeles had a thriving boxing scene, and he plunged into managing boxers.
After a divorce and the annulment of a brief marriage to a French actress, Morton married again and had three more children.
In 1965 he came to Portland, OR on business and stayed to manage light heavyweight Andy Kendall. For several years Morton lived at the downtown Hilton Hotel in Portland, always thinking that his stay was temporary. He and a business partner founded Lager Construction Company, a sub-contractor of siding, and he was managing more Northwest boxers. His wife wanted him to return to L.A. but he was having too much fun in Portland. She divorced him.
When Morton married again in Portland. he became step-father to four children. Even after his break up with their mother, Morton housed and supported the children into adulthood.
In 1980 Morton met then 25 year old Lynne Borowick, who would be his wife, friend, partner and nurse for the rest of his life.
After a heart attack in November of 1993, Morton recouped rapidly and went right back to work and to boxing. On Friday, November 13 of 1998, Morton suffered a stroke. Wounded but undefeated, he was on his way to a boxing show with a friend when he fell and broke a hip. In the aftermath, Morton had no choice but to retire and to sell Lager Construction.
After a lifetime of non-stop labor, Morton had time to relax, watch television, read, and entertain friends. Fighters still called from around the country, and many came asking him to manage them. With Lynne’s help he continued to work with a few fighters, going to their bouts whenever possible.
Morton maintained warm relations with his cherished children, and was planning to fly to Los Angeles to celebrate his 92nd birthday with them when he suffered a heart attack on Monday, Oct. 4. He lingered in a coma for a week. During that time his wife, his children and his friends, boxers and ex-boxers, filled his room daily with friendly voices and faces. People of many races, religions and walks of life came to offer respects and good wishes. "The United Nations is at Michael’s bedside," said his wife, Lynne. The Jewish prayer of confession was read for him. At 1:55 a.m. on Monday, October 11, Michael Morton died peacefully in his sleep.
That morning, his former fighter Ray Lampkin made phone calls with the news. The message he left said, "Mike Morton--the Legend --Boxing’s greatest manager-- has died."
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Replies: 2 Comments on this article
I ONLY WISH THIS WONDERFUL ARTICLE COULD CONTINUE FOREVER. I WORKED WITH MICHAEL FOR MANY YEARS & HAS NEVER LOVED ANOTHER SOUL OUTSIDE OF MY FAMILY-OH WAIT "MOTORMOUTH" WAS MY FAMILY. JOHNNY "BUGS" BRUNE ans
Posted by John Brune @ 10/14/2004 02:07 AM EST
I ONLY WISH THIS WONDERFUL ARTICLE COULD CONTINUE FOREVER. I WORKED WITH MICHAEL FOR MANY YEARS & HAS NEVER LOVED ANOTHER SOUL OUTSIDE OF MY FAMILY-OH WAIT "MOTORMOUTH" WAS MY FAMILY. JOHNNY "BUGS" BRUNE ans
Posted by John Brune @ 10/14/2004 02:07 AM EST
