Legendary
Boxer Sugar Ray Robinson Honored With A Commemorative Postage
Stamp
Washington,
DC - Revered by Muhammad Ali as, "the King,
the master, my idol"; and by The Ring magazine as "pound
for pound, the greatest boxer of all time"; six-time
world champion boxer Sugar Ray Robinson was immortalized today
at Madison Square Garden with a commemorative postage stamp.
The dedication ceremony took place during the Daily News Golden
Gloves Amateur Boxing Tournament finals.
"When Sugar
Ray retired in 1965 at the old Garden, up on Eighth Avenue,
he received a trophy," explained Thomas Day, U.S. Postal
Service Senior Vice President, Government Relations, while
dedicating the stamp. "Its inscription read simply: 'The
World's Greatest Fighter.' Years later he was named the 'Fighter
of the Century.' That is the man we are honoring today. The
United States Postal Service is pleased to delight many of
Robinson's fans, and commemorate Robinson's legacy with a
postage stamp."
The
Postal Service receives approximately 50 thousand stamp subject
suggestions annually, yet only 20 to 25 make the cut. The
only other boxer placed on a U.S. stamp was Robinson's hero
and close friend, Joe Louis.
"My
dad was a true competitor," explained Robinson's
son, Ray, who joined Day in dedicating the stamp. "He
would have loved those odds." Ray Robinson II,
a promoter, works with Ring Eight, a boxing support
group that assists indigent fighters with housing. He
is also supporting a drive to create a Sugar Ray Robinson
Museum.
In
his prime, Robinson (1921-1989) was virtually unbeatable
in the ring. He launched his career with a second-round
knockout of Joe Escheverria on Oct. 4, 1940, at Madison
Square Garden. Sugar Ray would go on to lose only once
in his first 132 fights -- a ten-round loss to Jake
LaMotta, a decision he would reverse five times.
Although
archrivals, Robinson and LaMotta had great admiration
for one another. Said LaMotta, "I had great respect
for Ray, but I fought him so much that I almost got
diabetes," referring to Robinson's nickname, "Sugar
Ray," coined by a sportswriter who wrote he was
"as sweet as sugar." LaMotta asked Robinson
to be his best man in his sixth wedding.
"As
far as I'm concerned," said New York Daily News
Associate Sports Editor and Cartoonist Bill Gallo, who
watched Robinson from his Golden Gloves beginnings,
"Sugar Ray was the greatest boxer of all. It was
like somebody watching Fred Astaire in action and saying
'Can he dance?'" Before the bell, he was calm and
relaxed, almost like he could take a nap on his stool.
Once the bell rang, he became a craftsman, an artist
and killer all in one."
Robinson
reigned as the undefeated world welterweight champion
from Dec. 20, 1946, until Feb. 14, 1951, when he won
the world middleweight title for the first of five times.
Sugar Ray announced his retirement from boxing on Dec.
18, 1952, but he returned to the ring at the beginning
of 1955. He continued to box until retiring for good
at the end of 1965. The words, "The World's Greatest
Fighter," were inscribed on a trophy he received
in a ceremony at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 10, 1965.
Sugar
Ray Robinson was born Walker Smith, Jr., on May 3, 1921
-- either in Ailey, GA, (according to his birth certificate)
-- or in Detroit, MI, (according to his autobiography).
In 1932 his mother moved with Walker and his two sisters
from Detroit to New York City. They settled in Harlem,
where Walker's natural talent in the ring was noticed
at a local gym. He fought amateur matches using, as
the story goes, a borrowed Amateur Athletic Union card
that had been issued to a youth named Ray Robinson.
Building a reputation for himself under the assumed
name (which he would later take as his own), he fought
a total of 85 amateur bouts and won them all -- 69 by
knockout, 40 in the first round. In 1939 he captured
the Golden Gloves featherweight title. In 1940, after
winning the Golden Gloves lightweight championship,
Sugar Ray Robinson became a professional boxer.
Robinson's
portrait appeared on the cover of the June 25, 1951,
issue of TIME magazine -- the caption read "Sugar
Ray Robinson: Rhythm in his feet and pleasure in his
work." In 1967 he was elected to the Boxing Hall
of Fame.
Boxing
Hall of Fame Historian Bert Sugar, and former editor
of The Ring magazine, ranked Robinson "the greatest
pound-for-pound boxer in the history of boxing"
in his book, "Boxing's Greatest Fighters."
"Any
and all descriptions of greatness can be applied to
Sugar Ray Robinson," said Sugar. "He was indeed
the sweetest practitioner of 'The Sweet Science.'"
Robinson
was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame
in 1990, and nine years later a panel of experts assembled
by the Associated Press named Sugar Ray Robinson the
No. 1 "fighter of the century."
He
later moved to Los Angeles where he worked as an actor.
He established the Sugar Ray Robinson Youth Foundation
in 1969 to help inner-city youngsters develop their
skills in sports, fine arts and performing arts. He
died from complications of Alzheimer's disease and diabetes
on April 12, 1989.
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