Here's the pictures from the party we had for Emile Griffith yesterday. It's very sad to see a Great Champion like Emile looking like this. � Blog Archive � Emile Griffith Just click on the picture to make it larger.
Thanks for that HH,...but it's so depressing to me...i remember the Emile Griffith who sparked my interest in boxing in the 60's.
Henry,it is so sad for me to see Emile Griffith in this condition. I first saw Emile when he won the New York Golden Gloves title in 1957 I believe. Saw him as he turned pro later on. Emile had the widest shoulders for his weight I have ever seen. i spoke to him just before his tragic ko of Benny Paret in 1962. Always a soft spoken gentleman in and out of the ring. Someone once said "old age is not for sissie's" .So damn true. My thoughts are with Emile Griffith now...Thanks for the photos Henry...:good
Yes, I attended the party yesterday with my wife Joyce. On the 1st picture on the web site, were the two on the right. In 1995, long retired and dulled by alcohol, Emile walked out of a gay bar in Times Square carrying a few hundred dollars. When five teens jumped him, they did not know their tipsy chump was actually a champ. Emile fought back for a few minutes before a baseball bat did him in. Boom, crash, blood, again and again and again. Somehow, the former World Champion rose from the pavement on his own and made it back to Queens, bleeding internally, his bones broken, his head crushed. His brokenhearted Mommy and lover Luis sat at his hospital bedside for the next three months. The "secret," though, remained intact. The press respected him. Through it all, no one wants to admit "it." "It," yeah. But "it" is true. Ask Charles Barkley, a truth-teller. The damage to Emile's brain was irreversible; his memory eroded. Well into retirement, the spiral kept going. Though all those championship rounds had made him slow, it was the baseball bat that returned Emile to the simplicity of his childhood.
It is sad to see him like this, but at one time the was an incredibly physically imposing fighting machine. Unfortunately, to be great in this sport, the sacrafices are sometimes great.
Wow, this is really sad. Back in 2008 I was lucky enough to meet him at the boxing hall of fame. He was still able to walk around ok, although I did not hear him speak at all. I tried to get his signature as I saw he had been signing earlier but his handlers or whoever they were told me that he did not want to sign anymore and took my signature book away from him and gave it back to me. I was pissed about it up until now, but I didn't realize he was in the state that he's in. I was angry because he had shown willingness and interest in signing for me, and there was not a crowd around him and they did not allow him to sign. Had I known the condition he was in I would not have asked for his signature.
Thanks for posting the pictures. I had not known about the attack - similar to the one on the elderly Jimmy Wilde around 1969. So sad to see him in this condition. Back in the early 70s he rescued a friend of my sister's from a similar gang attack. Emile Griffith was always one of my favorites - my thoughts and prayers go out for this grand champion.
Thanx for sharing these. Its so sad to see him like that when we are so used to knowing him as a physical phenomenon but its great to see he has family and friends such as you supporting him.
I thought 2 ask if it was Alzheimer's but now I guess not . And it also answers d question if his situation is career related .
