[Burt Brooks]

Today rapping is common but the FIRST time I heard it was in 1939 when as a young boy my dad and uncle took me to the Golden Gloves
semi-finals at Ridgewood Grove in Queens County...In the corner of the Salem Crescent club helping out was the last year Golden Gloves Champion
sensation named Ray Robinson [Walker Smith] who was deemed a future pro champion, so impressive he was as an amateur..At the end of the bouts, a line was formed by some spectators wishing to greet this coming champion, not turned pro yet..The fan before me shook Robinson's hand and said " Ray when you become champ, buy me a cigar "! Robinson shot back," if i do, I'll buy you two "! Boxing's first rapper or poet... When he did turn pro
My dad and I saw him as a WW in his very prime several times...A "killer" in the ring ,and an artist to boot !

 

[Vic]

Good stuff.

So you not only watched Robinson at his WW prime days but also in his amateur days ?? That´s something special Burt.

 

[Burt Brooks]

Good stuff.
V
So you not only watched Robinson at his WW prime days but also in his amateur days ?? That´s something special Burt.

Vic, no I didn't see Sugar Ray as an amateur, the FIRST time i saw him was as as related above, in 1939 when my dad, my uncle and I shook his hand
after the Golden Gloves bouts, when he was helping out in the corner of the Salem-Crescent Clup that HE represented when he became the sensational
GG champion...And as fate would have it, in 1965-66 I was standing on line waiting for my car at the Concord Hotel in Sullivan's County, and who
was standing in front of me , but the retired immortal Ray Robinson...I tapped him on the shoulder [ever so lightly], he turned around and I
stammered Hya Ray...We then shook hands, and I couldn't wait to tell my buddies, who were trying to pick up broads in the lounge...
So I saw Robinson before he started pro and after he retired...