(photo courtesy of Pressboxonline.com from 2006 Press Box feature story)
Last night, we lost a true legend. BATB has learned that legendary trainer Mack Lewis passed away in Baltimore at the age of 92.
A native of Richmond, VA, Lewis came to Baltimore in 1924 and went to Douglass High School and played college football at Morgan State University. Lewis was a member of the 1940 undefeated Morgan State championship team.
Lewis began boxing while serving in World War II at Fort Lee, VA. He was one of the stars of the boxing team. He returned to boxing in Baltimore but an ear injury curtailed his pro boxing career.
Lewis trained a countless number of boxers in his famed Eager Street Gym in his more than six decades in the sport, including the likes of Larry Middleton, Alvin Anderson and Vernon Mason, who were in the top ten in their respective weight classes. In 1994, Lewis reached the championship level when he led Vincent Pettway to the IBF Junior Middleweight championship in 1994. Lewis also had a hand in the development of future world heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman.
But more importantly, at least to "Mr. Mack," were the countless number of boxers that he kept on the straight and narrow. There are so many people in boxing in the Beltway area that owe their careers and maybe, their lives to Mack Lewis.
Arrangements will be announced shortly.
3 comments:
Mr Mack was a legend and did a lot of good things for the youth of Baltimore. He was a good man and will be missed.
RIP Mr Mack.
Jim McNally
Navy Boxing
How many nights did Mack Lewis carry boxing cards for promoters in Maryland? How many kids, scared or invincible, did he lead down to the ring? How many life lessons did he teach? How well did he impart the secret of the craft? How fine was his handling of Vincent Pettway, prone to brutal early knockouts yet revealed as a champion? How open was he with strangers? How giving was he of his time? How stripped of artifice was he? How did he create structure amid chaos? How did he straddle generations? How much of his goodness is passed forward and how much is left behind? Those who crossed his path enough to know understood the selfless yet hungry nature of Mr. Mack. He could remind you boxing, in its purest form, is religion, meditation and the active contemplation of competition, self-determination and violence. He believed fighting could make better men, and it was in this belief and knowledge of it that he inhabited the world. I always thought he was great.
- John Scheinman
Very well said, John! Thank you so much!
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