I was there for the early days of the brilliance of Fred Sternburg, when he was publicizing club fights in places like the Pikesville Armory, where he searched far and wide for a phone line for me to send my column about the fight he had convinced me to cover. He found one in the guard shack outside.
I was there when Sternburg’s career as a boxing publicist took off after he promoted David Tua’s fight with heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis and he even had me thinking Tua could win.
Lewis boxed Tua’s ears off for 12 rounds.
“I was convinced he was going to win,” Sternburg said.
And I was there when his publicity campaign helped make Manny Pacquiao boxing’s biggest star, culminating in the Filipino’s showdown with undefeated Floyd Mayweather.
So why wouldn’t I be there in Canastota, New York, when Sternburg is celebrated for his legendary work as a boxing publicist by being inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame Sunday?
“Nothing prepares you for this,” said Sternburg, 65, a Bethesda native. When I got the call, I think I asked, ‘Are you sure, and when’s the recount?’ He says you’re in and only one of 10 publicists ever elected. I’m thinking, I’m going to be up there with these legends forever.”
One of the first calls Sternburg got when his election was announced was from his mentor and former employer, 96-year-old Washington public relations icon Charlie Brotman, who was with his friend, television reporter Chris Gordon. “Charlie kept spelling his name to me and I said, ‘Charlie, I know how to spell your name.’ Chris says, ‘No, he’s just trying to tell you how many times he wants you to mention his name in your speech.’”
I’ve known many public relations people in sports, some great ones. But boxing publicists are different. They are often like a character out of a Damon Runyon story, with a gift for selling a fight, often with colorful gimmicks that become the stuff of lore — like the time when Sternburg made a local, talented welterweight fighter named Derrell Coley into a national media celebrity, before the days of social media, using postcards.
“I had thousands of postcards printed up and spent hours licking stamps,” Sternburg said. “I’m surprised I didn’t die from that. I hit every friend and friends of friends and relatives to send them out. They were pre-printed with, ’I’m a boxing fan and would really like to see Pernell Whitaker get a title shot against Derrell Coley.’ We got an Associated Press story, a USA Today story. [HBO boxing executive] Seth Abraham wondered, ’Who the hell is Derrell Coley and why am I getting these postcards?’ It was a riot. We didn’t get the fight, but we got him a lot more recognition. He was a featured fighter on USA
