?One of the primary things boxing is about is lying?it?s about systematically cultivating a double personality; the self in society, the self in the ring??
?My father-in-law was a man?s man?a prideful man.??Elaine Satterfield, Bob?s daughter-in-law
?I hate this man (Tommy Harrison).??Elaine Satterfield
?I?m sitting here with a reporter from the Los Angeles Times and he says there?s a man who?s telling everybody he?s Bob Satterfield. He?s homeless and he has a very bad record, and he?s been molesting children and he?s using Pop?s name. Yeah. Uh Huh. Now, now. Don?t cry.??Bob Satterfield Jr.
After winning his last fight on November 21, 1957, against Howard ?Honeyboy? King, Bob Satterfield moved to Paris and studied painting. In fact, he had been an art student at the famous Chicago Art Institute with LeRoy Neiman, whose first boxing subject was none other than Satterfield. At some point, he returned to Chicago where he lived out his days on the South Side.
Much of Bob?s history during the time between his retirement and the time of his death remains unclear and perhaps that?s because nothing noteworthy happened.
Sadly, he passed away in January 1977 at the young age of fifty-three, suffering from cancer though the facts associated with his physical condition at the time of his death are somewhat unclear. There is a Robert Satterfield buried in Restvale Cemetery in Worth, Illinois, and I believe it is Bob. He was listed as a truck driver with his next of kin named Robert Satterfield Jr., who also resided on the south side of Chicago.
Junior reportedly passed away before I could have more than one telephone conversation with him, but I have talked to many others including the late Ernie Terrell, Bob?s purported daughter Iona Satterfield (his ex-wife also was named Iona) who calls me every year from Georgia, and also author, historian extraordinaire, and friend J.J. Johnston. See: https://books.google.com/books?id=i-n2DDO6r50C&pg=PA96&lpg=PA96&dq=chicago+boxing+history&source=bl&ots=TVbEPhoKdn&sig=n4BBpOQQ_PxCBtyiWJ1pJEnNdDQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CFUQ6AEwCGoVChMIn4D728XgyAIVCjk-Ch2cqwea#v=onepage&q=chicago%20boxing%20history&f=false
From all accounts, everyone?s description of him was that he was a man?s man who worked right up to the time of his death.
Resurrecting the Champ
?Somehow, I feel that Satterfield would have forgiven Harrison for his innocent role-playing, maybe understanding better than most of us that we all live semi-delusionary lives.??Dick Whittington, Newbury Park
?So Champ wasn?t a champ but a fake. Still, Moehringer wrote that he ?felt less betrayed? when he thought the ex-boxer was a child molester?There?s no way that such a petty deception could be more wounding than the lifelong sentence carried by a child who has been carnally assaulted. Molestation is a criminal act of betrayal against humanity.??Harmony Kahn, Burbank
?Everybody around here knows Champ was a prizefighter, but he never got his title shot.??Frank Brown, a friend of Tommy?s in LA
The story didn?t end with the fighter?s untimely death. A film was produced called ?Resurrecting the Champ,? co-starring Samuel L. Jackson and Josh Hartnett. The film was directed by Rod Lurie and was based on a series of prize winning articles written by J.R. Moehringer which originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times Magazine and were the subject of great acclaim. This link will get you to the page where the PDF copy of the article can be found here: https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=j+r+moehringer+article+called+resurrecting+the+champ
J.R. Moehringer
A biography of the author reveals the following: ?J.R. Moehringer has an old-fashioned flair for infusing potentially hardboiled subject matter with humanity and pathos. This gift was first evident in ?Resurrecting the Champ,? an article which originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times Magazine. The article detailed Moehringer?s attempts to track down former boxing champ ?Battlin?? Bob Satterfield. However, percolating just beneath the surface of this ?where-are-they-now? sports story was an issue much closer to Moehringer?s heart: the gnawing need to locate the father that abandoned him as a boy. 4
The resulting story not only became a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, but it also gained the attention and accolades of everyone from Chris Jones of Esquire to Katie Couric of The Today Show. He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1998 and received the Pulitzer for newspaper feature writing in 2000.
Reduced to its essence, the real story is that Moehringer met a homeless man who pretended to be Satterfield. When Moehringer researched him he realized that the man was a fraud and had an unsavory criminal past. To his great credit, Moehringer included that information in the article (as well as Tommy?s horrific record of child molestations) before it was published?unlike in the movie. (Moehringer has also written the critically acclaimed book entitled ?The Tender Bar,? which won numerous awards.)
After J.R. finished visiting with Bob?s son and daughter-in-law in Chicago and confirmed once and for all by reviewing a scrapbook that the champ was not who he claimed to be, he wrote, ?I?d walked up clean steps to talk to clean people and made them feel dirty.?
I have read Moehringer?s prize-winning articles. His writing is most compelling, and the contents are accurate. He tells a great story, but he tells it from the perspective of one who has never tasted leather or from one who has never made the less-than-seamless transition from street fighter to gym fighter.
J.R. is welcome to come into boxing?s safe place and do his research, but for God?s sake, don?t risk sullying the name of one of our hero?s. Bob?s glory days are one thing; Tommy Harrison?s so-called demons are quite something else. Make certain the imposter?s extremely dirty linen is compartmentalized and clearly delineated in the subsequent movie, or someone is liable to misinterpret it. As one critic said, ?It was a textbook case of a newspaper doing its job right, and if either Moehringer or the L.A. Times signed off on this movie hoax, shame on them.?
The Movie
??Resurrecting? delivers a heckuva story marred by some credibility problems but lands the majority of its punches via subtly powerful performances and a moving undercard of paternal connection.??Kevin Crust, LA Times Staff Writer
In the film (which came out in August 2007), Hartnett plays a young reporter who meets a homeless man in LA claiming to be Bob Satterfield. The fighter, with whom he develops a close relationship, proves not to be the former ?champ? but one Tommy Harrison instead. The journalist and the reluctant subject, albeit an imposter, then proceed to form a father-son bond while the scribe gets his ?heartfelt? story, or so it would appear.
Harrison was born in Kingston Jamaica, but grew up in Chicago. He said he had fought under the name of ?Battlin? Bob Satterfield but that?s manifestly false, though in 1953 he was, in fact, ranked higher than Satterfield by Ring Magazine. Tommy, alias Deno Burns, fought out of LA at the same time as ?Rapid Robert.? He was a tough fighter in his own right and had decisioned the great Jimmy Bivins in 1952 and beat Charley Norkus and Wes Bascom that same year. He also went to battle with such formidable competition as Ezzard Charles, Floyd Patterson, Dan Bucceroni and Bobo Olson. His final slate was 22-13-2 but he finished badly, losing his last five by stoppage.
In 1953, Ring Magazine?s top ten heavyweights were as follows:
Rocky Marciano: Champion 1. Nino Valdez 2. Ezzard Charles 3. Dan Bucceroni 4. Roland LaStarza 5. Earl Walls 6. Don Cockell 7. Clarence Henry 8. Tommy Harrison 9 . Bob Satterfield 10. Coley Wallace
Apparently Tommy chooses to remain on the streets, answers to the name ?champ? and reportedly can be seen sweeping in front of shops occasionally being given money for his efforts?this sometimes occurring on the western end of Santa Ana Boulevard.
I am a harsh critic of the movie and its director and producers. I have viewed numerous reviews. What I saw and read made my blood boil. Satterfield was never a ?champ,? nor was he ever called ?the Bombardier? or ?Battlin?? or ?Champ.? He was known as ?Rapid Robert? Satterfield.
Even worse, some clips about the film referred to Satterfield as a ?down-and-out ex-boxer.? Aged by makeup and wearing a gray wig, Samuel L. Jackson plays a shuffling, and mumbling homeless, skid-row drunk rendered punchy by too many repeated blows to the head. To imply (or to risk misinterpretation) that the Chicago slugger would end up that way is reprehensible. What?s worse, once one reads the story behind the story?and that takes some research?the implications are beyond reprehensible.
Incredibly, the movie?s production notes declare ?A film about truth demands authenticity,? and yet the movie is not authentic!
Director Rod Lurie should hold his head in shame for giving redemptive credibility to an imposter and for risking the public?s perception of a great warrior. If Hollywood wanted a dramatic storyline, there was much more to choose from?many compelling stories waiting to be told.
Bob Satterfield was the most exciting fighter ever to come out of Chicago. He was beloved by his family, friends, and fans and that should be his legacy. It deserves pristine accuracy and dignity.
The reporter?s original article appeared in the Los Angeles Times magazine in May 4, 1997. Robert Satterfield died from cancer in 1977 at the age of 53. Bob is dead. Let him be
As for Tommy Harrison, he became Bob Satterfield simply because he didn?t like being Tommy Harrison.
?One of the primary things boxing is about is lying?it?s about systematically cultivating a double personality; the self in society, the self in the ring.??Joyce Carol Oates in ?On Boxing.?
Bob Satterfield: Part One Bob Satterfield: Part Two
Ted Sares is one of the world?s oldest active power lifters and holds several world and state records. He enjoys writing about boxing.
