Hall of Fame Writer Jack Fiske
HISTORIC LANDMARK HAD MANY CHARACTERS
San Francisco, CA- The address of Herman-Newman’s boxing gym at 312 Leavenworth St. was located in a neighborhood known as the Tenderloin. It is an area ripe with cheap hotels, hookers, drag queens, drug dealers and thugs. And yet, in the more than 15 years I made the trek downtown, with the exception of one fighter having had a pound of weed stolen out of the trunk of his car by another boxer, I can’t recall anybody getting hurt going to and from the boxing shrine.
BILLY NEWMAN’S FAILING HEALTH
In the latter 1970s, Billy Newman, who had bought his partner Herman out, was in failing health. The gym wasn’t making much money, partially because Billy didn’t collect dues diligently. Many youths like myself would end up paying the $10 membership fee maybe once or twice a year. As Newman began to slide health wise, he put one of his employees in Henry “Don” Stewart in charge of the oldest standing boxing gym in the United States. Stewart collected dues on a more regular basis, but he wouldn’t know a left hook from a bass hook.
DON HAD TOUPEE THAT LOOKED LIKE HOCKEY HELMET
Don Stewart was a nice guy who slightly deceived people when it came to his abilities as a trainer. We’d watch him bulls*it people coming in for his “white collar” boxing classes. Don, a former employee of the YMCA on Leavenworth & Golden Gate Sts., would tell people he trained the likes of Sonny Liston, George Foreman, neither of which was true. But Stewart had these pictures of him with both men post workout and the easily gullible didn’t realize it was Don, who wore the most hideous wig in boxing, posing for a photo op, so they’d sign up for his class.
LISTON WAS INTIMIDATING TO ME NOT!
When Sonny Liston was in town, he’d train in the gym that always had a very musty smell, a cross of sweat and liniments with the exception of the one day a month it was actually cleaned, the smell of Pinesole was overwhelming. There are stories that Sonny was a mean man, a one time leg breaker for the Cleveland mob, but he was quiet, kept to himself for the most part, I can’t recall his ever denying somebody an autograph or photo op. Having fought local heavy Eddie Machen a few years back, Sonny and Eddie sparred a lot of rounds together.
ALI PREFERRED THE FLORES GLOVES
Ray Flores, a Burlingame bar owner, he made boxing gloves in his at home workshop for many decades. Ali preferred the Flores gloves and Ray gave him a few pairs after Ali fought as an amateur in San Francisco. If not for the deep pockets of Everlast, who would sponsor Ali through thick and thin, Ray Flores’ gloves would’ve been on the hands future heavyweight champ throughout his career.
DON STEWART LOVED THE MEDIA
When boxing writers Eddie Muller or Al Corona from the SF Examiner would stop by, Newman who was now bedridden in an apartment on Nob Hill, a rich upperclass area just a few blocks north of the Tenderloin, Stewart would fall all over them. When Jack Fiske of the Chronicle, a Hall of Fame inductee came to the sweat box, Stewart kept his distance as Jack thought Don was a buffoon.
LOTS OF LAUGHS IN PART II FRIDAY
The second part of this story will be available late Thursday night for Friday morning. Come on back to www.RingTalk.com