Beneath a rakishly tilted fedora and behind a rising cloud of cigar smoke sat Bert Sugar, an iconic man who embodied the sport of boxing as much as he helped define it. Bert Randolph Sugar is irreplaceable, an old-school boxing writer who never sought the aid of Google for a superfluous statistic because he lived the sport. For 50 years, Sugar chronicled the fights and boxers who engaged in them, simultaneously railing against Machiavellian maneuverings that infest the sport. It is fitting and not surprising that the man who was boxing incarnate thought of the sport in his final days, requesting that in lieu of flowers, a donation be made to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in his name. Bert Sugar died on Sunday at age 75 but he refused to go silently and we are all better for it.
In a perfect kind of irony that Bert would appreciate, Sugar exited life?s stage on the same day as the new season of ?Mad Men? (a stylish drama of much acclaim about life and business in the 1960s) premiered. Bert Sugar was an original Mad Man, welcoming friends and strangers with a ubiquitous glass of scotch held out before unleashing a clever phrase to toast the occasion. His wit reached far beyond a bar, though any boxing fan wanting to chat was welcome to sit down next to Sugar and strike up a conversation. Those stories are legion and we remain privileged to have numerous books and thousands of articles written by Sugar to soak up his wisdom. Sugar was boxing?s go-to guy in good times and bad but now we must content ourselves with his thoughts in printed form alone. Sugar?s look and style was of a certain time but his insight on boxing and the eras it existed in remain timeless.
Born in Washington D.C., Sugar grew up playing baseball, football, rugby and, yes, he boxed. He did well but never shone in any particular sport, dubbing himself ?The Great White Hopeless.? Scholastically, Sugar excelled, attending Harvard for a year before enrolling closer to home at the University of Maryland, later transferring to Michigan to earn a law degree. It was a degree he never used despite passing a bar exam that Sugar noted with trademark wit as the only bar he ever passed. Sugar found he had a way with words, using them at the advertising agencies of McCann-Erickson and J. Walter Thompson in the 1960s, running national advertising campaigns for name brands like Nestl? chocolate. Advertising was his vocation but writing and sports were Sugar?s passion. After quitting advertising, Sugar?s name was soon found in newspaper and magazine bylines. Baseball was Sugar?s first love, though he quickly realized the idiosyncrasies of boxing better suited his colorful persona.
The rhythmic tapping of a typewriter gave voice to Sugar?s writing to the end, as much a part of him as the glow of a computer monitor is for today?s journalists. It shows in his writing, preferring a wry metaphor over an absconded statistic used to support a faltering argument. In a 2010 interview, for the website Bigthink.com, Sugar doled out sage guidance for aspiring authors. ?We used to sit at bars and tell stories. And the young kids, at which point I was one, would listen to the old timers. They?re too busy doing something, I have no idea what. But it sure as the dickens ain?t soakin? up what they?re coverin?. Now, the kids don?t go to the bars, I don?t care if they drink, have a Coke, but hear the stories. Sports did not start in 1979 with the beginning of ESPN.? In the days after his death, some of those writers (whom he loved to mingle with) filed stories praising Sugar, which he would appreciate since Sugar spun so many great ones himself.
Sugar was not great at everything; while his writing is difficult to fault, the same cannot be said of stints as editor and publisher at The Ring magazine, Boxing Illustrated and Bert Sugar?s Fight Game. When Sugar took the helm, those magazines suffered (though Sugar resuscitated The Ring back to respectability after a rankings scandal in 1977) ignominious runs, ending in complaints from writers and with Sugar engaged in a lawsuit against owners of one publication. Few held lasting grudges but it need not be overlooked and he would not have wanted it that way. Sugar preferred to hash things out over a stiff scotch (a common Cutty Sark serving as well as a fine Johnnie Walker, Chivas or Glendronach) at the pub, soothing hurt feelings with a well-placed joke, pat on the back and round of drinks on him. Sugar was not great at running a business; he was in the business of writing.
Books were another matter; through them, Sugar could delve deeply into issues or create issues with a line of thought or turn of phrase. Such as his last boxing project, The Ultimate Book of Boxing Lists (collaborating with trainer/commentator Teddy Atlas), where Sugar?s ability to articulate an argument in short bursts of reason stands out. Most cite Bert Sugar on Boxing or Boxing?s Greatest Fighters (both invaluable references at arm?s reach from my desk) as Sugar?s seminal boxing works, the latter chronicling Sugar?s 100 best boxers of all-time. Other non-boxing tomes such as The Ultimate Book of New York Lists: Everything You Need to Know About the Greatest City on Earth and The Baseball Maniac?s Almanac have garnered Sugar praise and many fans in those genres. Sugar is credited in the authoring of over 80 books, with his volumes on boxing standing out above the others.
The image Sugar created was found beyond the printed word and anyone who has heard him pontificate understands why he translated so well to all forms of media. Any boxing documentary produced after Sugar?s death is worse for it, his intellectual heft, personable storytelling and vibrant voice jumping off the screen to capture an audience. To watch Sugar orate was to appreciate a master at work but his charm and exuberance were equally discernible in radio interviews. Sugar was synonymous with boxing and is why he made guest appearances in movies such as ?Night and the City,? ?The Great White Hype? and ?Rocky Balboa.? Often, Sugar did not play a fictional role, portraying himself in films since a character like Bert was impossible to make up.
In 2005, for all his roles in boxing, Bert Sugar was honored with induction to the International Boxing Hall of Fame, a fitting tribute to a life devoted to boxing. However, I imagine Sugar saw it as the arrival point of a new platform from which to argue his points instead of the culmination of a life?s work. He happily shared the moment with his wife of over 50 years, Suzanne, with whom he had two children, the only facets of his life boxing could not rival. Blessedly, Suzanne and his daughter were at Sugar?s bedside as he passed away at age 75 of heart failure associated with lung cancer. Sugar battled cancer with the same courage the boxers he wrote about displayed, changing his telephone-answering message to say he was in training for a comeback. Life, like inept boxing judges, sometimes throws up a bad scorecard and we have all endured one this week with the passing of Bert Sugar.
If you smoke cigars, light one up for Bert Sugar.
If you enjoy alcohol, make a toast and knock one back for Bert Sugar.
If you read, indulge in a work authored by Bert Sugar.
If you laugh, have a good laugh tonight because that is what Bert Sugar enjoyed most.
A tribute to Sugar should end in his own words since he always got the last word. I struggled mightily to narrow it down to one since Sugar is an underappreciated intellectual who spoke and wrote with insight on many subjects. A suitable paragraph comes from Sugar?s introduction of his final book, The Ultimate Book of Boxing Lists.
?Having already had enough of these bar arguments, whether bellying up to the bar at my favorite watering hole or wearing down a carload of pencils to stubs reducing my thoughts to paper, whenever someone aims a scotch at my head asking for my opinion I reach for my coat and head for the door, crying out like the raven, ?Nevermore!?
