Not a lot of people know this but...

I saw that one coming jackass.

 

Stillman’s Gym was like rush-hour on Broadway in the mid 1940s: Hall-of-Fame boxers and trainers bumped into each other, tearing from one side of the cavernous former union hall to the other, while a florid Lou Stillman growled non-stop obscenities over a loud speaker, drown-out by clanging bells and telephones.

It was against that setting, on a frigid winter afternoon, I climbed the 13 steps to Stillman’s – with more than little trepidation -- to learn how to box and emulate local idols, Rocky Graziano and Jake LaMotta.

The gatekeeper at the head of the stairs, collecting quarters for entrance, was manager Jack Curley, under the gimlet eye of Lou Stillman, seated on a raised chair next to ring # 1.

I paid and asked Jack Curley if he could set me up with a trainer.

After appraising me like pawnbroker, he crooked a finger at a character the image of the Penguin in a Batman comic book. “Izzy, see what the kid’s got.”

He must have been mid 40s, about 5'7" – bulging wall-eyes, the drained pallor of a lifetime in airless gyms, and dark, kinky-curly hair threatening to uncoil but bulldogged down and parted in the middle like a ‘20s bootlegger.

His nose was much too long for his face and pointy as a dart. He had no chin, no neck, was shaped like a pear and his stomach hiked up his trousers to his chest. He wore what must have been a white T-shirt at one time and an unbuttoned cardigan sweater with a towel thrown over his shoulder.

Rocking back on his heels, he shuffled over, chest out, straight up and flatfooted; his shoes pointing outward like a Garment Center salesman. The only thing missing was the Penguin's umbrella.

He was my coach for the years I trained at Stillman’s. His name was Izzy Blank, and he looked after me like a son.

Though Izzy never gained the notoriety of a Charley Goldman, Ray Arcel, Whitey Bimstein, and the like, he was respected and embraced by the fraternity and was spared, for the most part, from Stillman’s wrath

As good or bad as I ever got, Izzy never allowed me to forget what he thought unpardonable: As a teenager, I did what all the other kids did, I carried a condom in my wallet-- not that I had chance to use it-- but it was expected.

One day while changing, the rubber fell out of my wallet onto the floor and Izzy saw it. If I did anything after that that didn't live up to his expectation, he shrugged: "Sure! How can he fight? He's in the saddle!"

I had to do three times what anybody else did. If I so much as took a deep breathe: "The kid's in the saddle!"

Izzy Blank died a few years ago…still unsung -- a funny, dear man that was my professor at the University of Eighth Ave.

 

Yeah I read them about a year ago or something, some great stories on there.

Found the site by chance while bored at work, just googled "boxing stories" or something

 

These sound like something from a book, do you have a personal collection john?

 

They are from a a collection of treasured memories, MS. Know anyone with heaps of money wantin' to publish a book?...At this point, a full tanka gas would do it.

 

In the '70s and '80s -- with trainer Tommy Gallagher -- I had a damn good amateur boxing team, staffed with local volunteers who had some ring experience and wanted to keep kids off the street.

They were invaluable: wrapped hands, taught fundamentals, had kids fitted for mouthpieces, worked corners during sparring, and drove them -- in any weather -- to amateur shows and smokers all over New York.

One guy in particular, Gino -- very quiet – barely spoke above a whisper – was tireless. Never lost his patience with kids always testing. He was in the gym week days, weekends – never complained about doing the most menial things.

One day, while the kids were working the bags, he came over: “Joe…I wish I had this when I was a kid, maybe I wouldna done some of the things I did.”

“What’d you do, Gino?”

“Armed robbery and kidnapping.”

 

Great stuff, Garfield.

Díd that actor ever learn who he slapped? Man, LaMotta couldn't really be used to that. Maybe the actor owes his life to the fact that it's probably hard to go directly from rehearsing T. Williams to tearing someone limb from limb. On the other hand I could see good reason why LaMotta would do that after trying to tackle Tennesse's lines for a while.

 

By the way, Garfield, would you say that Pep is the most naturally gifted fighter you ever saw? Which boxer who you saw live impressed you the most? Was it Pep or someone else?

 

Yes, B, I would say Pep was the mosty naturally gifted I've ever seen. He could do what he did at his best from the first day he put on gloves...Spent more time in ginmills and at the track than he ever did in the gym.

Had he really dedicated himself to it, God knows what he'd have accomplished.

Robinson impressed me the most, lethal, lithe, and dramatic.

 

He couldn't comprehend what Jake was, B. That was a different universe from the one he inhabited. He was a very gifted actor, though -- was on the threshold of being a star, when his life was cut short by Aids.

 

Do you remember superbad Bernard Mays..

He was something else ...

also do you remember a guy called Aundrey Nelson, i befriended him in Vegas a few years ago.. he was working as a sparring partner for DKP heavyweights.. Tony TNT Tucker in particular........

 

Michael Dokes is one of the finest Jazz trumpeters i ever heard...
Mike Grant is also a pretty handy classical pianist..
Ray Mercer has a wonderful collection of tropical fish..

 

Bc, where'd you see Dokes and Grant play?