Smokin' Joe

I heard on the news that Joe Frazier, the former heavyweight boxing champion, has been diagnosed with liver cancer and is under hospice care. I find myself very saddened by this news. You see, I was a big Joe Frazier fan during most of his boxing career. That being the case, I wasn't really much of  Muhammad Ali fan during that same period. I mean, you can't be a Red Sox fan and be a Yankees fan...the two are just not compatible. Same with Frazier and Ali...you had to pick a side.

Joe Frazier was born in 1944 in Beaufort, SC. Technically, he was born in Laurel Bay, SC, which is very near the city of Beaufort. Why bother to mention the distinction? Because in the mid-60's while my stepfather served as a drill instructor at the Marine Corp Recruit Depot at Parris Island, SC, I lived in Laurel Bay.

Where we lived was the military housing for Marines stationed at Parris Island or the Marine Corp Air Station. While the gated military housing complex where we lived was made up of neat, modest homes with well manicured lawns, the Laurel Bay immediately outside the gate was some of the poorest area I had ever seen in all of my 12 short years of life... run down shacks, tenant farms, dirt roads, broken down old cars, and dirty-faced kids with no shoes. My mother told me that the Piggly-Wiggly right outside the gate had to stop selling the canned dog food that was made from horse meat because some of the poor folks were buying it to feed their families. I imagine that the Laurel Bay where Joe Frazier grew up was quite different from the military housing area where I did. Up to that point I had spent most of my life growing up in an idyllic New England town...experiencing the South of the 1960's was quite a culture shock for this kid.

Life as a military brat living in Laurel Bay was quite good. Gray buses used to run on a routine schedule between our housing area and the Marine Corp Air Station not too far away. On that base we could utilize all the amenities that were available...the movie theater and bowling alley, the ball fields, swimming pools and gymnasiums. Everything was either free or cost so little it was something we could do all the time.

It seemed like every gym on base had a boxing ring somewhere in the building. Marines apparently love to knock each other around with boxing gloves. I can vividly remember playing basketball with my friends one day and hearing a big commotion as a bunch of soldiers and civilians came into the gym. We didn't really know what was going on but finally I heard someone shout, "hey, that's Joe Frazier!"

This was the summer of 1967 and, by 1967, Joe Frazier had already won an Olympic gold medal and had won 16 professional fights, 13 by way of knockout. To be honest, though, I wasn't much of a professional boxing fan at that time. But that all changed that day I got to see Joe Frazier in that gymnasium in Beaufort, South Carolina. He had everybody mesmerized by his physical presence, his humble demeanor and that ever present smile.  The fact that he had come back to his hometown and was willing to spend some time with some Marines and even some puny junior high kids made an enormous impression on me.

If you are a boxing fan, you know the story of Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali. Some of the best heavyweight fights ever were between these two champions. It always angered me, though, the way that Ali taunted Frazier...called him some of the cruelest of names...tried to humiliate him. Here was the Joe Frazier that personally appealed for Ali to be reinstated after he had been stripped of his title when he refused induction into the military...Frazier even put up the money for him to re-acquire his boxing license...and this is how Ali showed his appreciation? Frazier has said that he has forgiven Ali for this cruelty. I hope so. Lots of cruel words were spoken by both over the years.

I know that Joe Frazier is in a tough battle...liver cancer usually comes out the victor. But I hope that Smokin' Joe delivers one more good left hook in what may be his last fight. Laurel Bay is proud of you. And I am saying a prayer for you.