Fennelly on Angelo Dundee: 'He had a special way'

Column

He was the sweet science's sweetest ambassador, a humble, honest soul in the rough, tumbling world of boxing.

Angelo Dundee died in Clearwater on Wednesday night, 90 years young, with family all around.

Dundee was a legend in the fight game, perhaps its greatest trainer and motivator, working the corner for 16 world champions, including Sugar Ray Leonard, George Foreman, Carmen Basilio — and "the kid," as Dundee always called Muhammad Ali, who last month celebrated his 70th birthday in his hometown of Louisville, Ky. Angelo Dundee made the trip, despite health issues. He had to be there, again, for his friend Muhammad.

Dundee also was a local celebrity, having moved to the Tampa Bay area in his mid-80s with his wife Helen. His two children, six grandchildren and one great grandchild live in the Bay area.

"Dad had a wonderful life," Jimmy Dundee said of his father. "He never got mad at anybody. He had a special way. He was just a nice guy."

Jimmy laughed.

"How could someone be in boxing and have no enemies? How could someone be in a business that's not very nice and be so nice?"

Angelo Dundee had a special way.

And he was always ready for anything. He planned to attend a dinner at Tropicana Field tonight for Rays pitcher David Price's charitable foundation and the Ted Williams Hitters Museum.

"Dad liked going places," Jimmy said. "He didn't like sitting."

"Wherever he went, Angelo was a treasure," said Butch Flansburg, president of the Florida Boxing Hall of Fame, which inducted Dundee in 2009. "Angelo was vibrant, like a wind-up bunny. He just went."

Even in his 10th decade, Dundee was active on the national and local boxing scene. He attended fights in the Bay area, lately in a wheelchair. He visited Bay area gyms. He gave advice to boxers, with a smile and encouraging words. Dundee had been working with Tampa firefighter and professional boxer Christina Swanson.

"He was the nicest, most caring person," Swanson said. "He had time for everybody. He came to the firehouse and told stories for an hour. Even at his wife's funeral, Angelo starts asking me about my shoulder, I'd been having trouble with it. We're at his wife's service and he's worried about me ."

Dundee lost his beloved Helen in 2010 after nearly 60 years of marriage. He had broken his hip just before that. He used a walker at the gyms, but no one was fooled, the young fighters would listen — Angelo was still on his game, all of it.

Mark Grismer, Dundee's friend, manager and assistant, said, "Angelo used to say that if you hang around young people, it keeps you young."

"He was the second man in the Ali circus, in the shadow of the giant light that was Ali," said Ferdie Pacheco, the fight doctor who worked Ali's corner with Dundee. "But Angelo held the center, with common sense, with reason, gentility and kindness. I've never known anyone as humble."

Dundee was born Angelo Mirena in Philadelphia in 1921. His father was from Calabria, Italy. Angelo's brother, Joe, fought under the name Joe Dundee and his brother, Chris, became a top fight promoter. Angelo followed them.

He fought for America in World War II, Army Air Forces. There's a great war anecdote: Angelo on a plane flying low over the siege at Bastogne. Angelo is throwing relief packs. He looks down and sees people and waves. The people shoot back. They were German troops.

"That's Angelo, wave first," Grismer said with a laugh. "He was always a people person."

"He was among the sweetest men I've ever known," said ESPN analyst and Miami radio personality Hank Goldberg. "That's not to say some of the guys in boxing didn't take advantage of him from time to time, but because Angelo had such a good nature, he was always forgiving."

Dundee loved Rays games, any baseball, any sport, really. He also loved working with youth groups — again with the kids. He never turned away an autograph seeker, and when someone wanted to snap a picture, Dundee would say, "Only if you're in the picture, too."

Angelo was the one who organized the card games when he was at the rehab center for his hip and later some clots. Jimmy was in the elevator at the center after his dad passed when a nurse, with tears in her eyes, showed him a gold boxing glove pendant Angelo had given her.

"Dad always reached out," Jimmy said.

A memorial service for Angelo Dundee will be next Friday at the Countryside Christian Center in Clearwater. It will be open to the public, just as he always was.

Dundee called Christina Swanson "Christy" and she let him get away with it because it was Angelo. She fights as a light welterweight and is 2-0-1 as a professional.

"He was at my first two fights," Swanson said. "He told me I did great. His goal, because he was still rehabbing his hip and stuff, his goal was to get to the point where he could climb up and work my corner. He wanted to work my corner once. It hurts that we never got there, but I guess, in a way, he'll always be in my corner."