“With the loss of Emanuel Steward, we have lost a true Detroit icon. Emanuel Steward embodied our city’s toughness, our competitive spirit and our determination to always answer the bell.
“We are grateful for Emanuel Steward’s many contributions to our city and his impact on generations of young people.” View slideshow: Michael Martley proclaims: Emanuel Steward’s legacy, Greatest Trainer Ever in boxing
Those thoughtful words flowed from former NBA star, hugely successful businessman and now Mayor of Detroit, Dave Bing.
While the battered city has long been perceived as Loserville, both in economic and sporting terms (aside from the hockey Red Wings and the recent success of the baseball Tigers), Steward and his Kronk Gym fighters were almost always winners.
And Thomas Hearns and all the others repped their hometown so well.
My pal, ace fight photographer Teddy Blackburn, idolized the Kronk Goldfather and became his boxing friend over the decades. Blackburn was down in the emotional dumps due to a death of a parent and appreciated it when Steward invited him to visit Miami Beach and hang out in the sunny clime with the great trainer and world heavyweight champ Lennox Lewis.
? 2012 Nokia? 2012 Microsoft Corporation Location: Detroit 42.331680297852 ; -83.047920227051
Steward did things like that, not to curry favor with people, but because he was a warm, feeling person who had an excellent “antenna” which he used to read the emotional status of others.
For example, Steward used to hand out those coveted red and gold Kronk baseball style jackets to boxing people. Writers, including Marley of The New York Post, got one and so did boxing commissioners, fighters not connected to Kronk/Steward and virtually anyone who Emanuel took a liking to.
He was the same hail fellow well met character sipping copious amounts of red wine and buying drinks for other boxing people in a restaurant or at the bar.
It’s a cliche, sure, but Steward was always a people person. Or, as Don King might say it, Emanuel’s magic would lie in his people ties.
The Kronk jackets weren’t pugilistic payola, they were no strings gifts from the man who made Kronk an assembly line for world boxing champions.
Someone asked me today how great Steward really was as a trainer/cornerman/motivator. I can sum it up in three words.
Emanuel Steward…
Greatest Trainer Ever.
