Sonny Liston's age?

The people who have been posting here are effing great. Smart, fun, engaged, intellectually curious and damned good boxing pals. I'm enjoying this experience

 

Yeah I have always been skeptical-it makes a great tale, but too much not only non-existent early history, but also not consistent with plausible ages of events that occurred from adolescence onward, like running away from home...Which then would have to be well into his 20's, not early teens.

 

You're being scrupulously fair and judicious. We think it's possibe, but is it probable? It hinges in part on, to put it bluntly, how much of a freak of nature was he? I think it's clear that he was an
incredible presence in a room with people. The Denver Broncos had a running back in the mid-1960s. Cookie Gilchrist, a 250-260 pound fullback. That's when Sonny was still in Denver. I remember seeing a story about the two of them meeting in a room full of people and sizing each other up. It was said that Liston at 215 looked bigger than most football players. We know about his hands, those huge fists, the terrifying stare, his reputation among the cops . . .. Confronted with three or four officers, he would visually decide whether or not to take them on. There was nothing ordinary about Sonny L.

 

It always sounded to me like it happened in the war years when he was about 12 to 14, then jail at 18 in 1950. Seen through this new lens it's now got a Depression backdrop.

 

To me it is clear that Liston was likely born in the early 1930's.
Either that or did you check out my post earlier in this thread?
If so tell me if you believe that 337,623 at time of his (alleged) death is plausible.

And how did you come upon this website, & your history with boxing?
A hearty Late Welcome to you!

 

Hi I just see your post, & not even accidentally buried in mine any of yours-did you mistakenly delete it?

 

I believe I haven't deleted anything but I will space out on occasion.

 

I joined the site a long time ago but I let it slide and didn't visit often. Now I have lots of time. I used to visit the Sweet Science site. I liked that one too. Springs Toledo used to post there. Good stuff too.

 

History with boxing: I got into it in the Patterson championship years. Was a big fan of the Friday Night Fights which then moved over and took my Saturday nights. Read Ring and Boxing Illustrated pretty faithfully. I was a sitting duck for the whole Liston mind circus. I grew up in Plainfield, N.J. near Linden, Elizabeth, Newark. Junior High School Graduated high school 1966. Newark Riots was 1967.

 

It was the perfect setup for a Liston fixation. You had segregation in the elementary schools. In junior high whites and blacks went to the same school for the first time. So the white kids are dealing with that and at that moment along comes Sonny Liston.

 

In my second reading of this I sense fun being poked at our obsession with Liston.

 

Just as amazing is the fact that Liston himself predates the Rosetta Stone.

Sonny Liston: The Champ Nobody Wanted

Here ‘tis: -

https://archive.org/details/sonnyli...s.docyoung/mode/1up?q=The+champ+nobody+wanted

 

You caught me napping. George Katz of Philly managed Stanley Hayward and agreed to be Liston's cover manager when Pep Barone was deemed unacceptable by someone. I'm not related to him.