Like Dad, Like Daughter, But Different Sport

Since 2001, I've met more and more people in the boxing world. I've made more friends and contacts. People recognize me from the boxing events that I'm always hanging around. I went from competing (or attempting to, anyway) to being a volunteer coach. I'm just like my late dad in that respect, but his favorite sport was football.

Dad played professional football briefly, before I was born. He played for a Canadian team, of which I couldn't tell you the name. I have to do research. There are pictures of Dad suited up on the field, ready to go. He never talked about it to me, but then there were a lot of things he never divulged about his younger life. I only found out about his playing career after he passed away almost five years ago. He might have been playing for a team in Canada because of the lack of opportunities for African-American football players in the USA at that time. I don't know why he gave it up. Perhaps he was injured.

Years later, Dad's third wife had a younger son who was on the football team. Both her younger son and myself were attending the same high school. I don't like football, so I paid little attention to the school's games. I only attended one football game, and at the time, I had been out of high school for several months. The game was being played at Soldier Field. Dad went all the way down to the playing area. He was used to doing that, because he did it a lot at the Chicago Bears' home games. Dad stomped back up to where we were sitting that day, cursing because the high school coaches wouldn't take his advice on how to run the plays of the game.

Dad was known to the Bears' players and coaches. He was a thirty-year season ticket holder. Despite Dad's gruffness, he possessed an air of charm that got him into places and around people that others couldn't. There are pictures of him hanging around the Bears' training camp, smiling with various people. He hung out with Walter Payton, Richard Dent, Gayle Sayers, and others.

He also liked baseball -- Dad was a Cubs' fan -- and golf, but football remained his first love as far as sports were concerned. I'm not big on team sports. You can be Mickey Mantle or Michael Jordan, but if the rest of the team is not pulling their weight, the star's efforts aren't worth much. But my love of boxing has enhanced my appreciate of the sports I followed before I got into boxing (professional wrestling, roller derby, ice skating), and lead me to be a fan of MMA and extreme sports (snowboarding, in-line skating, BMX riding).