Sweet Thunder Read online

  Langston Hughes’ words: ibid.

  Nightclubs were rarely affected: Buckley, The Hornes, 222.

  A fighter can’t go on forever: Life, 11-10-1952.

  We were all underage: Dick interview by author.

  One thing for sure, Ray: AN, 11-15-1952.

  the tall, shapely showgirls: ibid.

  Do you know the three quickest: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 229.

  The guy is a superb clotheshorse: ibid., 228–229.

  Most of the time: ibid., 231.

  You not so tough: ibid., 229–230.

  Even his closest friends: CD, 12-6-1952.

  fairly dazzles the customers: AN, 10-17-1953.

  Once I had the act down: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 231.

  had to be bailed out: CD, 12-19-1953.

  just an average dancer: ibid.

  gentleman on and off stage: ibid., 5-15-1954.

  a second rate entertainer: ibid., 5-8-1954.

  star in the entertainment world: ibid.

  I have been very happy: ibid.

  One thing I realize: ibid.

  I cannot say I am sore: ibid., 9-11-1954.

  I guess they expected me: ibid.

  He realized his act: Barnes interview by author.

  Sometimes mine would be the only black face: Life, 12-19-1955.

  You’d watch him jump rope: Duva interview by author.

  Greatness Again

  Sugar and I want to make a tour: NYT, 10-8-1954.

  ROBINSON FLASHES SKILL: ibid., 11-30-1954.

  he had been around: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 241.

  looking like a gentleman: CD, 5-21-1955.

  Sugar Ray even has the ladies: ibid., 2-5-1955.

  When does the fight start?: ibid., 1-5-1955.

  explosive right uppercut: NYT, 1-6-1955.

  it was only a matter: ibid.

  I’m the boss now: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 241.

  His misses were wild: CD, 1-15-1955.

  Jones is a little too tough: ibid.

  We’re not looking for soft touches: ibid.

  If Robinson wants to box: ibid.

  The fact remains that Robinson: ibid.

  When I hit Joe Rindone: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 244.

  Jones landed consistently: NYT, 1-20-1955.

  Hey, Sugar!: CD, 1-29-1955.

  The 30-month lay-off: ibid.

  Sugar Ray Robinson hasn’t got it: CT, 1-20-1955.

  When you’re through: CD, 1-29-1955.

  When a Tiger Jones can lick him: NYT, 1-21-1955.

  He kept saying: Dick interview by author.

  How come you didn’t: Sport magazine, 8–1958.

  a hard hitter: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 259.

  whacked with a baseball bat: ibid.

  bombing right: NYT, 7-23-1955.

  of the greatest rallies: ibid.

  a great fighter: CD, 10-22-1955.

  The bout will be a good one: ibid.

  Will we be needing these gorillas: Life, 12-19-1955.

  The world was moving: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 259.

  the sweet sounds: ibid., 266.

  a brooding genius: Sport magazine, 8-1958.

  It turns out now: CD, 1-7-1956.

  Battling

  a muttered exchange: Life, 10-7-1957.

  That didn’t hurt: ibid.

  machine gun bullets: NYT, 9-24-1957.

  a strange and questioning silence: ibid.

  Look at what they did to me: ibid.

  I figured my aggressiveness: ibid.

  the grudge fight: Life, 10-7-1957.

  Sugar Ray tried to fight: NYT, 9-24-1957.

  fluency and aggressiveness: Ring, 11–1957.

  The niggers are in our school!: Life, 10-7-1957.

  Two, four, six, eight: NYT, 9-24-1957.

  white supremacists: ibid.

  I went the whole fifteen rounds: Basilio interview by author.

  He was a showboat: ibid.

  jabbed a string of lefts: NYT, 3-26-1958.

  just fine: ibid.

  Trying to stop him: Life, 4-7-1958.

  He’s too incredible: NYT, 3-27-1958.

  This boxing is men’s business: ibid., 1-3-1957.

  This ain’t no Olson: ibid.

  the picture-book fighter: ibid.

  There’s nothing I can say: ibid.

  Instead of thinking his way: Sports Illustrated, 4-29-1957.

  There were few indeed: NYT, 5-2-1957.

  I was just maneuvering him: ibid.

  What happened?: ibid.

  Robinson has to be worked over hard: Unpublished Fullmer manuscript, 7.

  I’m so sick: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 291.

  It’s fitting now to say: ibid., 10.

  I believed Robinson fought: ibid., 6.

  He was tough: Fullmer interview by author.

  the miracle man of boxing: Ring, 2-1959.

  Clay’s last-round assault: Maraniss, Rome 1960, 282.

  That Sugar Ray, he’s something: Remnick, King of the World, 101.

  Man, I’m old: Newsweek, 2-1-1960.

  The heyday of Negro entertainment: Anderson, This Was Harlem, 349.

  Sugar Ray Robinson—Finished?: Ring, 12-1960.

  Where is Lena Horne?: Buckley, The Hornes, 242.

  Here I am: ibid.

  Breaking the White Barrier: SHOW magazine, 9–1969.

  You don’t have no idea: Branch, Parting the Waters, 810.

  Have lived longer: Nichols, Bontemps-Hughes Letters, 376.

  Without them, on my part: Bernard, Remember Me to Harlem, 310.

  Autumn Leaves

  He kept saying: Dick interview by author.

  He’s a wonderful fighter: Sports Illustrated, 9-6-1965.

  Oh, it’s lovely: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 353.

  Man … that Hawaii: WP, 6-13-1965.

  That Harrington in Honolulu: Sports Illustrated, 9-6-1965.

  Nobody has ever been a champion: ibid.

  Ray beats this Memo Ayon: WP, 6-13-1965.

  came to me after the fight: ibid.

  He’s a kind man: Sports Illustrated, 9-6-1965.

  Jab him. Jab him: Sports Illustrated, 9-6-1965.

  I want to retire as champion: WP, 6-23-1965.

  Of course Ray’s in shape!: Sports Illustrated, 9-6-1965.

  OK, … let the crowd in: ibid.

  Why, ten years ago: ibid.

  Come on, baby: ibid.

  I’d like it here: ibid.

  He had started saying: Breslin interview by author.

  Hey, George!: Sports Illustrated, 9-6-1965.

  Something fascinates me about second acts: King interview by author.

  To win the title again: Robinson, Sugar Ray, 357.

  Sugar, its time, man: Dick interview by author.

  I hate to go on too long: WP, 11-12-1965.

  I had hopes: ibid.

  When I was a little kid: WP, 12-12-1965.

  I was only the first fighter: LaMotta, Raging Bull, 214.

  Sugar Ray Robinson came: Davis, Autobiography, 287.

  He had no endurance: Anderson interview by author.

  His lawyers finally came up with: ibid.

  He said, “I gotta get paid”: ibid.

  Saving All Those Walker Smith Juniors

  I play my part: WP, 8-2-1966.

  Sugar … I believe you could help: Halberstam, What a Time it Was, 93.

  My heart cries: WP, 6-9-1969.

  No … Youhave just started: Halberstam, What a Time it Was, 99.

  I honestly believe: ibid.

  Everybody wanted to come by: Bristow interview by author.

  I’ve always felt; Sugar Ray understands; The foundation; I thought only: All quotes from 1978 Sugar Ray Foundation Awards Banquet program, author possession.

  It meant so much to him: Bristow interview by author.

  I’ve got friends: Halberstam, What a Time it Was, 101.

  Where the fuck is everybody?: Hamill interview by author.

  I went to look for him:
Dick interview by author.

  He asked me, three times: ibid.

  As I came in: Anderson interview by author.

  Every now and then: ibid.

  She said she’d have to charge: Moore interview by author.

  Let’s sing a song: New York Post, 4-13-1989.

  The best … is always fragile: Souvenir booklet, Sugar Ray Foundation, author possession.

  Elizabeth loved Ray: Dick interview by author.

  Epilogue

  They used to talk: Kilmer interview by author.

  One of my trainers: ibid.

  You don’t hear anything: ibid.

  You see how Robinson: ibid.

  He threw a punch: ibid.

  If you don’t have legs: ibid.

  You can’t teach people: ibid.

  I really can’t explain: ibid.

  to miss Sugar: The Guardian, 8-10-2007.

  It’s about the things: New York Daily News, 6-6-1989.

  He always had an entourage: ibid.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  WIL HAYGOOD began his writing career on a small weekly in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio. He went on to work for The Charleston Gazette, the Pittsburgh Post–Gazette, The Boston Globe, and currently The Washington Post. A celebrated journalist, he has received wide acclaim as well for his nonfiction books. His In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr., won the Zora Neale Hurston–Richard Wright Legacy Award, the ASCAP–Deems Taylor Outstanding Music Biography Award, and the Nonfiction Book of the Year award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. His King of the Cats: The Life and Times of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., was a New York Times Notable Book. The author’s family memoir, The Haygoods of Columbus—which critic David Nicholson wrote should be placed “squarely in the kingdom of literature”—received the Great Lakes Book Award. Haygood’s journalism honors include the National Headliner Award, the New England Associated Press Award, the Sunday Magazine Editors award, the Paul L. Myhre Single Story award, and five first–place writing awards from the National Association of Black Journalists. Haygood has been an Alicia Patterson Foundation fellow and a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and also a visiting writer at the University of Georgia, Vanderbilt University, Colorado College, and his alma mater, Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio. He resides in Washington, D.C.

  THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK

  PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

  Copyright © 2009 by Wil Haygood

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

  www.aaknopf.com

  Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  Grateful acknowledgment is made to Harold Ober Associates, Inc. for permission to reprint an excerpt from The Sweet Flypaper of Life by Roy DeCarava and Langston Hughes, copyright © 1955 by Langston Hughes. Reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates, Inc.

  Library of Congress

  Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Haygood, Wil.

  Sweet thunder : the life and times of

  Sugar Ray Robinson / by Wil

  Haygood.—1st ed.

  p. cm.

  “A Borzoi book.”

  eISBN: 978-0-307-27307-9

  1. Robinson, Sugar Ray, 1920–1989.

  2. Boxers (Sports)—United States—

  Biography. I. Title.

  GV1132.R6H39 2009

  796.83092—dc22

  [B] 2009005534

  v3.0