The Beast of Stillman’s Gym PART 1: CROSSROADS In the years after World War I, a ghostly lodge of southern terrorists reemerged as a movement with...
Sammy Aaronson!” An ex-pug stands by one of the phone booths at the entrance of Stillman’s Gym, a receiver held up over his head. He slips...
Doug Cavanaugh had it in his closet, hidden away like an escaped convict. No sirens screamed and no searchlights glinted by his windows in Canoga Park,...
RIP Champion. [Artist Richard T. Slone, courtesy sloneart.com] The strong men . . . coming on The strong’ men gittin’ stronger. Strong men. ....
“One loses force when one pities.”- Friedrich Nietzsche,The Anti-Christ [1895] “This is getting stranger and stranger,” said Ferdie Pacheco after Mike Tyson took a bite out...
The Italianate courtyard of the Boston Public Library is a secret place for scholars and students. It is modeled after Rome’s Palazzo della Cancelleria with its...
In 1965, Fighting Harada tore into the great Eder Jofre for fifteen rounds and toppled him from the bantamweight throne. From that high perch, Harada thrilled...
Chicago State Hospital, dormitory ward. After Cocoa Kid’s sparring session with Sugar Ray Robinson in the summer of 1949, I lost him. I was groping in...
An aging Cocoa Kid, more damaged than anyone knew. On December 9th 1943 the Boxing Writers Association of New York awarded those 4,019 boxers who answered...
On a September day in 1935, Cocoa Kid’s manager sat down and wrote out a check for $2500. He filed it at the New York State...