?What boxing could use today was another Sunnyside Garden. Anyone who loves boxing loves Sunnyside Gardens??
?They didn?t have fights here, they had wars.??Harold Lederman
It?s not often that the history of the Sweet Science gets even a nod of recognition or acknowledgment. But it does happen.
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, ring announcer David Diamante, and members of Ring 8, the Veteran Boxers Association of New York, unveiled a new street sign??Sunnyside Gardens Arena Way??on Saturday, September 20, on the southeast corner of 45th Street and Queens Boulevard. The same group of sentimental boyos placed a commemorative plaque there two years before, inscribed, ?This monument is in honor and dedicated to those men who fought in the amateurs and professional bouts.?
Located at 44-11 Queens Boulevard, Sunnyside Garden Arena was a 2,500-seat venue that hosted boxing matches from 1945 to 1977. Originally built as a private tennis club for Jay Gould II in 1926, it was sold to Harry Jordan Lee, who joined up with Manny Heicklen to make it a sweet spot for the Sweet Science. Heicklen bought out Lee, and kept the arena until his death in 1969. Mike Rosenberg took charge until the arena was sold to Mike Prudenti in 1973, who promptly closed it. Nick Anesi and Vic Manni reopened Sunnyside in 1975, but it closed for good two years later.
A film was shot there, Mr. Universe, a low-budget 1951 clunker, but at least Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom was in it. Jack Kennedy stumped there, as did brother Robert. And there was wrestling, with guys like a middle-aged and legally blind Strangler Lewis, Haystacks Calhoun, and the legendary Bruno Sammartino. Chick Garibaldi died of a heart attack during a match with Sammartino at Sunnyside on February 18, 1961. It was a body slam that did it, and Sammartino was tormented by the memory for many a year.
But it?s as a boxing venue that Sunnyside should be best remembered. Home of the Golden Gloves until MSG?s Felt Forum took over in ?68, the DuMont Television Network aired Boxing From Sunnyside Gardens from ?49 to ?50. I think that was on Friday nights on Channel 5. An arena that outlived St. Nick?s, the Coney Island Velodrome, and the Eastern Parkway Arena, Sunnyside was a stepping stone to the Mecca, featuring such luminaries as Jose Torres (six times) and Gerry Cooney, who debuted there on February 15, 1977, knocking out Bill Jackson in the first. Jackson lost 14 of 15, every single one by early knockout.
?One of the guys was talking about how great it was to walk into Sunnyside Gardens,? said famed boxing judge and analyst, Harold Lederman, at the 2012 commemoration. ?Let me tell you, it wasn?t too great for us judges walking out of here because there was always a manager with a ice pick right behind me saying ?how did I score it against my guy.?? But that?s part of the charm, ain?t it? As Lederman himself added, ?What boxing could use today was another Sunnyside Garden, that?s for sure. Anyone who loves boxing loves Sunnyside Gardens.?
Sunnyside?s last card was on Friday, June 24, 1977. I don?t recognize any of the names, which is reason enough to name them: Patrick Maloney vs. Billy C. Coney; Bernard McLean vs. Kevin Smith; Greg Williams vs. Benito Jimenez; Jimmy Magnifico vs. Humberto Sanchez; Justice Ortiz vs. Johnny Sears; and Bob Smith vs. Ramon Ranquello.
A Wendy?s took its place. Stop on by. Ask the little freckle-faced girl with the red hair and pigtails tied up in blue ribbons for an egg cream. See what it gets ya.
