He was a kid from the Linden neighborhood of Windsor Terrace in Columbus, Ohio. He was a standout basketball player at Linden McKinley High School, the son of a local amateur boxing hero who packed up and went off to college with dreams of making it to the NBA. But as sons often do, he […]
Boxing
Interview with James “Smitty” Smith
The palm trees, the sand, the balmy weather. Miami is where his story begins. As a child, he was a ball boy for the Miami Dolphins, befriended Hall of Fame Wide Receiver Paul Warfield and even appeared on Warfield’s television show. He was a standout football player at Carol City High School and later at […]
Interview with James “Lights Out” Toney
June. 2017. It was a happenstance meeting. The kind of thing I’ve come to expect at the International Boxing Hall of Fame’s annual festivities. It was me, my father, and my brother-in-law. We were entering the ballroom of the Oncenter, located in downtown Syracuse, New York, excited to take in the “Banquet of Champions.” We […]
Interview with Jack Loew
If you are a boxing fan from my neck of the woods, you know the story. It’s the one about a blue collar boxing trainer who spends his days paving and sealing driveways before heading to his gritty boxing gym located on Market Street in Youngstown, Ohio. And then one day in walks the right […]
Interview with Keith Morehouse
On April 3rd, 2018 I will visit Marshall University for a reading from my upcoming book “12 Rounds in Lo’s Gym: Boxing and Manhood in Appalachia.” Although I was raised in the rural coal mining town of Cowen, West Virginia, returning to Huntington always feels like returning home. The town of Huntington is key to […]
Interview with James “Bonecrusher” Smith
He was born into a family of sharecroppers from rural North Carolina, born and raised in a small town of about one thousand residents. He was the first member of his family to graduate from college, the first college graduate to win a heavyweight championship. He was the first boxer to knockout England’s Frank Bruno, […]