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Teófilo-There Was Only One.

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Cuba.  What do we know about it?  Well, for one, great “stuff” comes from there.  Cuban sandwiches and awesome cigars are but two examples.  Famous people have too.  The high profile list is too long to list actually.  There are many musicians (Pitbull, Gloria Esteban, Xavier Cugat), loads of actors(Andy Garcia, Desi Arnaz, Jr.), and countless baseball players (Aroldis Chapman, Reynaldo Ordóñez, Yasiel Puig, Jose Canseco) who have left the island to achieve fame and fortune.

But one who chose to stay(or was told to stay) may have become the most famous of all.  Does the name Teófilo Stevenson ring a bell?  Rest assured that when the bell rung Stevenson rung a few bells himself.

Teófilo Stevenson Lawrence was born in 1952 and passed away in 2012 at the age of 60.   He was a Cuban amateur boxer and engineer.  Stevenson is one of only three boxers to win three Olympic gold medals.  Impressive.

The British Broadcasting Corporation(BBC) once called Stevenson “Cuba’s greatest boxer, and its most famous figure after Fidel Castro.”

It began when his father boxed a bit and Stevenson followed in his footsteps sparring more accomplished fighters when he was but nine. Cuba was all but controlled then by the Soviet Union.  In the state controlled boxing system he quickly rose through the junior and then senior ranks.  In 1970 he turned 18 and was considered Cuba’s best heavyweight.  He weighed in at 225 lbs and stood 6 feet and 5 inches (or 196 centimeters if you prefer).

Stevenson was little known outside of a few on the Moscow controlled island.  That all changed in a flurry and a hurry in 1972 at the Munich Olympics.  Duane Bobick, the USA heavyweight, was fully expected to take home the gold medal continuing the US dominance of that division.  Smokin’ Joe Frazier won gold in 1964, and George Foreman grilled all competitors to do the same in 1968.

Bobick did not get out of the quarterfinals.  Stevenson knocked him down three times in the third and final round. His ferocious display made the boxing world pause and take notice.  In the finals German Peter Hussing, the Munich crowd’s favorite child, got knocked out by the Cuban machine in the second round.  Gold was his and one of several that the Cubans brought back to their island that Olympics.

The 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal was Stevenson’s second gold medal and made him a national hero in Cuba.  At this point the natural next step was to accept $5 million from promoters to debut as a pro vs. one Muhammad Ali.  This dream fight had the promoters salivating.  Communist Cuba vs. Free America.  Challenger v. Champ.  The Bay of Pigs was still quite fresh in minds of many millions.

Stevenson, shockingly, passed.  Or, did Fidel Castro help him to make up his mind to pass?  Professional boxing was banned in Cuba in 1962.  Fidel Castro wanted, according to the socialist phraseology, to fight against the exploitation of man by man. “What is five million compared to the love of eight million Cubans,” Stevenson famously wondered.

The 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow was his third consecutive gold medal coronation ball.  That feat is unprecedented to this day in the heavyweight class.  America boycotted Moscow.

In 1984 the Soviet Union counterpunched, boycotting the Summer Games in Los Angeles.  Cuba followed the Soviet lead and stayed home also.  Stevenson was ready for a fourth gold, but a Cold War got in the way of the war he would wage between the ropes.  He retired from boxing after the 1988 Olympics, which Cuba boycotted yet again.

Below are the final Olympic results of Cuban heavyweight boxer Teofilo Stevenson:

Munich 1972

Montreal 1976

  • Round of 32: bye
  • Round of 16: Defeated Mamadou Drame (Senegal) KO 2
  • Quarterfinal: Defeated Pekka Ruokola (Finland) KO 1
  • Semifinal: Defeated John Tate (United States) KO 1
  • Final: Defeated Mircea Şimon (Romania) TKO 3 (won gold medal)

Moscow 1980

His body of work (the link is worth your time) shows that he won 12 and lost zero Olympic matches.  Eight of the 12 ended in knockouts.  He won three Olympic golds, three World Championships, three World Amateur Championships, and two Pan American Games.   Complete and accurate records beyond that are difficult to discern for obvious reasons.  It is believed that this human machine fought 302 times all as an amateur.

Teófilo Stevenson Lawrence’s story is about what could have been.  But, it’s also a story about what it was.  And, it was very impressive.

 

 

I Have Yet Another Story and a Moral Thereof

Posted on by boom booms room staff

On November 8th, 1970 the New Orleans Saints were hosting the Detroit Lions in old Tulane Stadium.  The Superdome was little more than a hope and a dream at that point.  The Saints won/loss record was a disappointing 1-5-1 on the season.  Prior to this dismal 1970 start the franchise had set a record in its 1967 expansion season with the most first season wins ever with three against 11 losses (they only played 14 games back then) .  In 1968 they improved to 4-10.  And, in 1969 they improved yet again to 5-9.

The 1970 season was so disappointing that the owner, John Mecom Jr., fired the first and only head coach, Tom Fears, that they had after the weeks’ prior loss.  In walked J.D. Roberts to confidently take his place.  The only problem was that Roberts resume’ stalled out at the NFL linebackers coach level, and that was two years prior.  After that he was running the Saints farm team (they had such a thing at that time) for two years.  Think of it as a JV coach in high school perhaps?

If you need more evidence as to how shaky this hire was jump forward for a minute to 1971 when Archie Manning became a Saint via the second overall pick in the draft.   That fall, in Roberts first full season, he, Manning, and the Saints traveled for preseason game number one.   Manning recalled this first game ever, which brought the Saints to Buffalo to play the Bills and their celebrity running back, O.J. Simpson.  After Simpson ripped off a 30-yard gain, “J.D. turns to me and says, ‘I don’t know who that No. 32 is, but he’s a damn good-looking running back,'” Manning said. “I couldn’t tell if J.D. was serious or not. That’s the way J.D. was.  But I thought to myself, ‘Here I am in the NFL and our head coach doesn’t even know who O.J. Simpson is.'”

So back to Roberts fifth full day on the job, he jogged out with the Saints to take on the soon to be playoff bound Lions.  Boom Boom and I had tickets courtesy of one of the suppliers that sold to him, Mr. Harold Kataya.  We joined his group of many in their row 2 upper deck 40 yard line seats.  The game ebbed and flowed and with under 30 seconds left Detroit kicked a chip shot field goal to climb ahead 17-16.

The cocktails were flowing all game long in row 2 as well.  Getting booze into the stadium wasn’t a tough task back then.  Watching a team about to fall to 1-6-1 was a tough task and likely much more fun if your vision was a bit blurred.  Detroit was much better than the woeful Saints.  However, they too may have had a few on Bourbon St. the night prior for the game to be this close this late.

A decent kickoff return and one pass play later the Saints were down to the final two seconds and the ball was resting on their own 44.  Time out.   Out trotted the field goal special teams unit.  In 1970 the goal posts were still on the goal line (the safety of the players wasn’t quite what it is today).  This field goal, given the seven yard snap back to the holder, would be attempted from 63 long yards.

The Mighty “Half Boot” of Tom Dempsey

Boom Boom turned to me and said convincingly and quickly “Son, there is no way he can make this.  You realize that right?”  “I think he can Dad.”  “He” was Tom Dempsey the N.O. field goal kicker.  Tom Dempsey was born with no toes on his right foot and no fingers on his right arm.  He kicked with his right foot.  That’s right.  His specially made kicking shoe was squared and flat on the end.  Like almost all others then he kicked straight on, not soccer style like every kicker does today.

Alex Karras starred in Webster

The longest field goal ever made to that point was 56 yards.  It was made 17 long years prior in 1953.  One Lion, Alex Karras, then a pro bowler and later in life a TV game analyst/announcer and  sitcom actor, was said to have laughed out loud on the field that the Saints were even attempting such an absurdity.

The snap was fine and the hold was perfect.  As Dempsey put his half-foot into the ball the Lions made only a cursory attempt to block the kick.  The kick traveled from our left to our right.  Time stood still.  Eighty three thousand fans were silent as one.  The football flew.  And flew.  And flew.  And when it crossed over the bar with a good two feet to spare the referees came from beneath the goal post, arms risen in unison, signalling that the kick was good.  Good.  GOOD!

I looked wide-eyed at Boom Boom.  He jovially looked at me. “You were right, son!”  I jumped for joy.  He caught me, hoisted me higher, and we jumped even higher as one.  There was but one problem.  Boom Boom lost his balance.  At that split second my back was to the field.   We fell into row 1.  Half of my body was above the railing separating us from 40 feet of free fall into the lower section.  Thankfully all of his body was below the railing and he never lost his hold of me.  The hug was too tight and the joy was so right.

The Saints lost every other game that year to finish 2-11-1.  It mattered not to this then ten-year old.

It was the mighty boot of Dempsey that made the football fly! Two seconds left, it was do or die!  Those are the first two lines of the ballad later sung, recorded, and sold on a 45 rpm to commemorate the moment.  I got the 45 as a birthday gift and played the grooves off of it.

The moral of the story you ask?  Actually there are a few.  Enjoy every second.  Dream big.  Cherish great memories.  Oh, and don’t sit too close to the upper deck railing.