beakdoctor
you are being too modest
you trained with james toney
and knew manny steward personally
you must have some great tales about those days at the kronk- please share them with fellow fight enthusiasts
Manny was a really nice guy. I never knew him when I trained at Kronk. I only knew him later just few years before his death. One of his fighters, William Caveman Lee, used to buy his beer at a Liquor store on Livernois St across from the police station (10th pct.) This was just a few miles north of the former Kronk gym.
I recognized Caveman Lee, he was really just an ex-con and alcoholic at this point, but he was so happy to be recognized. We started talking about boxing. Caveman got so excited because I am a boxing nut and historian we spoke about all the kronk fighters, Duane Thomas, Milton McCrory, Rick Womack. Lee had a pretty famous fight with John Locicero and a blowout at the hands of Hagler. So we talked about that. He said Manny and he were still close and that Manny still looks out for him. I didn't believe him. I didn't think Manny still lived in Detroit. So he calls Manny on the phone and hands the phone over, we start talking. I tell him who I am and where I work, I tell him I know Sugar Hill. Manny ends the conversation by offering to take me and my wife to dinner. Class act, all the way.
When I was a teenager, he lived across the street from my girlfriends house. I always wanted to talk to him then but was intimidated. We wouldn't meet until 2008.