Word: patterson
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Patterson's story, says Sportswriter Paul O'Neil, "illustrates the fact that professional boxing, for all its seamy background . . . and its pitiful human flotsam, can be a power for good in shaping the character of young males...
...year-end rankings of The Ring, unofficial bible of boxing, Floyd Patterson is not even a heavyweight. Last week SPORTS ILLUSTRATED set the record straight: "It is now as clear as anything can be in the future books of boxing that [the] lithe young Brooklyn Negro-who celebrated his 21st birthday last month by challenging Rocky Marciano-will be the next heavyweight champion of the world...
Pitfalls on the Path. Patterson's path from Manhattan's slums to his high skill as a professional boxer was filled with pitfalls. As a boy Floyd was "a lonely, disturbed and defiant being-the third in a family of eleven children, whom his parents, for all their toil, could barely feed." He was a truant. He ran with store-breaking gangs. Eventually his mother had him committed to an institution for problem children. He was 14, a tall, skinny welterweight, when he first found Cus D'Amato's Gramercy Gymnasium & Health Club on Manhattan...
After two years and two score amateur fights, Patterson found himself at Helsinki, Finland, wearing the blue blazer of the U.S. Olympic team. Floyd won the null championship with impressive ease. "He was fully as sensational when he mounted a dais to receive the victory award-he put one hand on his stomach, the other against his back, and gave the crowd a deep, dancing-school...
Upstairs & Down. When he came home Patterson promptly turned pro, with D'Amato as his manager. He was sent to Trainer Dan Florio at Stillman's Gym for advanced instruction. Today, at 21, Patterson is known as a "fellow who will leave you for dead. He is a good-looking six-footer with lean hips, long arms and broad shoulders powered by slabs of smooth muscle ... he fights with the violent gracefulness of a large cat hunting its dinner. He is a rarity-a good boxer with a knockout in either fist . . . He is hard...