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03/29/2005 Archived Entry: "BWAA to Award Maurice Watkins"
BOXING WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA PRESENTS SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD TO MAURICE "TERMITE" WATKINS
ANNUAL AWARDS DINNER MAY 6TH AT MANDALAY BAY HOTEL & RESORT IN LAS VEGAS
PHILADELPHIA, March 28- Someone once said that there are no extraordinary men, only ordinary men who find themselves in extraordinary circumstances. It's how individuals react to those circumstances that results in the creation of heroes. Houston native Maurice "Termite" Watkins, a former junior welterweight contender who posted a 59-5-2 record with 40 knockouts during his professional career, never set out to become the Iraqi Olympic boxing coach. But Watkins told his wife and children he had a "calling from God," and thus should go to Iraq to work as a civilian contractor eradicating bugs at U.S. military installations. "It was a scary experience, but it was God's will for me to go, so there wasn't much fear," said Watkins, 48, who nonetheless found out what it is to scramble out of his bunk during a mortar attack.
While in Iraq, Watkins mentioned his boxing background to an officer. One thing led to another, and eventually he was put in charge of 11 Iraqi boxers who remembered all too well the oppressive practices of Uday Hussein, son of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, who routinely tortured Iraqi athletes if they failed to perform up to his expectations. Watkins coined a slogan, "Iraq is back," which his team shouted before and after every training session. The chant was soon taken up by Iraqi athletes in other sports.
Only one Iraqi boxer, flyweight Najay Ali, qualified for the 2004 Athens Olympics, and he did not medal. But his even being there qualified as a triumph; he was the first Iraqi fighter to participate in the Olympics since 1988. For his work under the most trying of conditions, Watkins will receive a special achievement award from the Boxing Writers Association of America at the 80th annual BWAA Awards Dinner May 6 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Resort in Las Vegas.
Watkins' story will be told at length in a book, "Termite," co-authored with Suzy Pepper, which goes on sale April 19.
For more information on Boxing Writers Association of America, visit http://www.bwaa.org/
