It was October of 1988 … had retired from career jail guard at the Suffolk
County Correctional Facility, Riverhead, Long Island and was living in Pocono
Mountains of Pennsylvania.
Had me a Saturday sports radio gig at a new station outside of Scranton …
assignment was to update the locals on the past week’s ring action.
One Saturday morning Paul Talerico, who founded and hosted the Saturday Sports
Special, asked if I’d like taping a live interview with either WBC light heavy
champ Donny Lalonde or challenger Sugar Ray Leonard, both of whom were training
at different Caesar Pocono Resorts.
A no-brainer to be sure … and come the following Monday, with station tape
recorder in tow, I set off for Caesars Cove Haven honeymoon palace no more than
a stone’s throw from my mountain chalet up the road a mile or two.
The choice was Donny Lalonde, since at that point in time, the ring career of
the very special Ray Charles Leonard was an open book to most fight fans.
Especially after the middleweight title win a year and change earlier over
defending Marvelous Marvin Hagler.
Wasn’t long after getting settled ringside in the press section, that I noticed
television cameras with Canadian call letters jockeying for position - and
knowing Lalonde was Canadian, I must confess to a temporary feeling of
inferiority.
But then it came to me … was something I had heard when the pairing was
originally announced, that Lalonde had recently joined with popular trainer
Tommy Gallagher. Bingo, a light in the attic quickly turned on.
Gallagher and younger brother of mine had been high school classmates at
Franklin K. Lane HS at the Brooklyn-Queens border… both had fought amateur in
their teens.
And so the stage was set … all I needed was good timing and being in earshot of
Gallagher when he and Donny neared the press section - and then a polite
applause from the assemblage greeted the entourage of several fighters with
Gallagher in the point position.
No further than 15 feet when I gave it my best shot … and hoping Tommy would
recall brother Robert’s B’klyn street name, I shouted "Yo’ Tommy … Gobby said to
give his regards."
To my relief, it worked like a charm … Gallagher stops on a proverbial dime, and
shouts back asking me where Gobby was. I left him to go about business after
assuring him he gets the rest of the story during our interview.
And then, during a break in the training session, I scooped the field in being
first in interviewing both Gallagher and Lalonde - and was outta there and
motoring westbound to the station before the rest had finished with Gallagher-Lalonde
and company.
On that note, you can have your 13-0 beizball, 100-30 roundball, 50-3 footballer
laughers - in my book, that past little bit of Brooklyn schoolyard street smarts
tops them all in the laugher department.
Closing comments ~ The fight date was Nov. 7, 1988 … Leonard by KO 9 to claim
the WBC bauble.
