DId any of you meet joe frazier?

Yes I have on a few occasions. I went to his gym for a while and he was one of the nicest people you would ever meet.

 

Sure did f...

 

I met him in Plattsburgh, NY on the Air Force Base there in 1992 or 93. I was stationed there and he came there for an autograph signing. He was nice enough to talk to us, and he refused to leave until he signed everything that was asked of him, even though his handlers were ready to go. He was very kind to us and very charming. I do have to add that he seemed to have a little bit to drink before he came. But we didn't care because we met the champ. He really enjoyed taking pics with the military femailes. That was a good day, and he signed one of my Illustrated History of Boxing book and a pair of my gloves.

 

fg,As i previously posted,and not to be redundant, I first saw Joe Frazier
in the 1964 Olympic trials, losing a close decision to Buster Mathis.
Next time I saw Frazier was in 1967,1968 or so In training in Sullivan County, NY. At a gym in a hotel ,I arrived very early to see Joe Frazier train . Sitting by myself,right by the ring,who walks in by himself, but the great man himself. He sat down on a chair a few feet from me, taping his own hands.He was so close to me,that I could touch him, but nary a word from me. I was in awe of him. I wanted to tell him,"Joe, I saw you against Buster Mathis in 1964 ",to break the silence, but refrained. A few minutes later his trainer Yank Durham walked in with a couple of sparring partners,and Frazier started his sparring. After the session, Frazier left the gym,and I and some other spectator had an interesting chat with Yank Durham, who died a few years later. Last time I saw Frazier was in 1971
at MSG, in the FOTC...I loved Joe Frazier, a true TOUGH GUY in the ring,and a nice guy out of the ring...Cheers...

 

I met him several times. Several years ago, I was Ring Announcing at a show at the Birchwood Manor, Whippany, New Jersey and he came. We talked for several hours before the show. I remember him asking me about what I thought about how these young kids wear there pants now a days. He was talking about them showing there butt. I wanted to be nice, But as I was about to say what I thought, he said, that he thought it was discussing, and they should be a shamed of themselves.

Later on that night he had security guards around him, as too many people wanted his autograph. I brought my little 9 month old grand daughter into the ring to take a few pictures. My daughter asked me if I thought Joe would let us take a picture of him with her. I looked over to him and he waved me over and told the sucurity people to let us by and he took the picture.

Click the following link to see the picture:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procgserv/47b7d802b3127cce98548b3a6f4200000025100RZN2jRsxYw

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I was also the MC for the Ring 8 Christmas Party last December and Joe Frazier was sitting right next to me for about 4 hours. He asked me several times to sit down and eat as my food was getting cold.

He had a cane but when he got up to talk he told me that he didn't need it as it was only a few steps. I MC a lot of boxing and sporting events and when people are making a lot of noise, I make a Shhhh sound over the mic and everyone turns around and looks at me and you can hear a pin down. In fact last night I did the samething at the NJ Boxing Hall of Fame affair. When Frazier got up to talk, people started making noise again, and I was about to do my thing, But Joe did it instead. It didn't work as good for him and when he sat down he told me, Henry it work for you.

Here's what I wrote a while back about this:

Here is a web site on that party and if you go down to MVI_3470 on the left hand side about 67% down the page, you will see him talking while I helped him with the Mic. In the beginning of his speech, people were making noise and he said, Shhhh, that's because I was doing that all night long and it actually works, at least it did for me.

It takes a while to download this:

http://www.ourlic.com/cgi-bin/articl...to_display=500

 

When I was very little, my dad introduced me to "a very good friend" of his, "Mr. Joe Frazier". He looked all embarrassed about the introduction, I thought. He taught me some things and let me hit his hands for probably a half an hour while he talked to dad. I must have annoyed the crap out of him. I was wicked excited for the rest of the month about learning from him and trying to hit everything in the house exactly the way he taught me. I never saw him again.

I treasured that memory and relayed it to somebody later when I was a teenager and he overheard me and started laughing. It was only some black guy he knew at work. I was like "Why would you do that to me?" and he was like "Why would you think I never bothered to talk about my friendship with Joe Frazier in all the years since then?" He thought I figured it out on my own like I did Santa Claus.

 

Met him at the boxing H of F, met him in Gleason's Gym on w 30th street ... both times a pleasant, unpretentious guy .. laid back, very confident .. he did not doubt himself.

 

Here's the picture of my grand daughter and Joe taken on June 23, 2007.

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That is incredible Henry. Your granddaughter will grow up with one heck of a show and tell piece.

 

Yes she will. My daughter sent this picture out that night and several people said, that guy looks al lot like Joe Frazier, Then they looked at in again and said, it is Joe Frazier. My daughter and her husband were so proud to show the picture off.

 

Nice story, Burt. You and I haven't caught up in a while. I am glad to see you are still educating us youngsters and sharing with us some of your great experiences. Thanks, Burt! :good

 

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