Emanuel Steward Speaks About His Amateur Career

I know personally, despite the fact I talk to Emanuel fairly regularly I never knew much about his amateur background.

Asked him a few questions on it and thought his answers were very interesting.

In case any of you are interested, I transcribed the whole segment (and more):

CLICK HERE TO READ ENTIRE TRANSCRIPT


CIANI: Emanuel I wanted to ask you something different than I typically would. I think it was on a recent HBO broadcast where Jim Lampley had made a reference to your amateur boxing career where you had previously won the National Golden Gloves. And that’s something that I think a lot of fans don’t know too much about. I’m wondering if you can share a little bit about your experiences as an amateur boxer and winning that tournament?

STEWARD: Well the biggest achievement I’ve had in my life, even though I’ve had a very successful life in every aspect of boxing as a trainer, manager, broadcaster, I’ve been very successful. But the highest most important thing that every happened in my life in boxing, or in anything, was winning the National Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions in 1963. What was so special about it at that time, you only had eight weight divisions and you fought like professionals so to say. There was no headgear and all of that. I mean it was just like really semi-professional fights. Also the fact that you had boxers who were not turning professional then because there wasn’t much money in professional, particularly for the smaller weight divisions, you know maybe a few heavyweights but as a rule guys just came from one tournament to another tournament. So you had in this tournament guys with 200, 300, 400 fights, and everybody was punching then. The way the system is now everybody just throws to get the points. They don’t get hurt, they have headgear, and they have wider gloves. So to win that tournament was a major, major thing and it was almost like getting close to winning the Olympics to some degree, because there were only two major tournaments that happened through the entire year. It was called the National Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions and the National AAU.

But the National Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions you had the toughest roughest kids and the best fighters from all of the cities in the United States to meet in Chicago, which was like a tradition. A guy named Cassius Clay had won it just three years before I got there. It was a pace where you fought for two weeks. You fought for one full week with three rings going, and you fought twice a night. That’s something that doesn’t happen anymore. Whether you got cut or hurt, you still would fight twice some nights. Then the last four guys that made it to the Finals, they ask you to come home so they can make a program book up, and when you came back they had the four guys in each weight division. Whoever won it had to fight twice that same night again. So the stadium was sold out and everyone in America would be fans and waiting to see who was going to be the number one Golden Glove boxer in America, and it was a major, major thing.

That particular night when I won it I had a very tough fight. My first fight, which was about at 8:00 I remember, and I was back in the ring at about 10:30 for the championship fight fighting a guy named Frank Glover. He had won his fight earlier that night by quick knockout, which is what he had done for the most part of the two weeks. So to win that tournament, and win it against a guy particularly in this case who was favored to win and beat me. I was 18 years old. I think he was 22 years old at the time. It was a major thing. Also one of the guys on the team with me who won the middleweight championship was a guy named Bill Douglas. Bill was fighting at 160 and he was in the Army, but he was with Columbus, Ohio. His teammate was the guy that I beat, Frank Glover. They were both scoring a lot of knockouts in the tournament.

When I came home they had parades and a big reception at the Mayor’s Office, because I was the first National Golden Gloves Champion I think in about 15 or 20 years. Also my victory won the team title for Detroit, which they hadn’t won in 24 years. So that was a major, major thing. Today the kids have a tournament every month, there are so many different ones, Silver Gloves, Diamond Gloves, and so, and so, and so. Everybody is now trying to score points on the computer system. If you even watch an amateur boxing match, and that’s why you don’t get to see too many of them, you look more in the left lower corner to see who got the computer points. So it’s not even like boxing anymore. It’s like a computer game. But back then it was a very serious thing, there were lots of knockouts, and there were a lot of seasoned guys, particularly the military guys who were just professional fighters so to say almost like the Cubans were. But it was a major thing to win the National Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions at that time.

CIANI: Now did you ever think during your amateur career, did you ever imagine yourself not even becoming as successful as you have, but did you ever imagine a scenario where you would be out there training boxers?

STEWARD: Yeah I was training fighters then. I won the National Gloves Tournament of Champions—and I always use those words “Tournament of Champions”. Not winning the Golden Gloves because everybody got the Golden Gloves all over in the different cities, but it was the National Tournament of Champions that was the difference. I was training boxers since 1961. In fact I was 16 years old, and I would go to the gym and I would train the boxers from like 5:00 until like 7:00, and then at 7:00 I would do my training. In fact the year that I won the Nationals I had to hurry up and rush home, because that same weekend we had the little city junior championships, and I had my little team, and we won the team championship. As a coach I had five winners out of five fighters I entered into the tournament. So I was training boxers in 1961, even a lot of guys that were much older than me. But I was training fighters then.

I never thought I would be to this level. I never even expected to even train anybody professionally. I was doing it just as a part of what I was doing. Then in like 1964 or 1965 I virtually just got out of boxing altogether. I just dropped it and I was working very successfully in Detroit Edison as an electrician. Just through my half brother moving in with me and wanting to box, I started training him a little bit and the next thing I knew I was back in boxing. That was in 1969. So for about five years I was totally out of boxing, which people don’t realize, and I didn’t miss it believe it or not. I didn’t even go to fights. I was just in a whole different world. I was smoking my pipe, just a regular construction worker, coming in and working in my garden and around the house. I was very, very happy living that life believe it or not, and never in a million years did I expect to get back in boxing, which started in 1969. I started training some little kids mainly because of my brother. The next thing I’m all over the world here when I was very happy with my career at Detroit Edison.

 

I always wondered that too, and had been meaning to ask about that. Lampley recently bringing it up on HBO broadcast kind of reminded me.

If it's not the real Emanuel, then I've been bamboozled for years by one hell of an impersonator.

:good

Thank you.

He kind of hinted there was no money in the lower weights. Anyway, I plan on revisiting this with him at some point. Perhaps as a theme piece that gets into far more detail.

I will definitely ask him if there was ever any thought in turning pro at any point.

My impression is, based on his tone from the interview, that it just wasn't financially feasible for smaller guys in most instances (but I am guessing here).