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New York's Boxing Hall of Fame: A Knockout
The International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, N.Y., honors boxers with exhibits that include their ring attire.
(By Darren Mcgee/nysded)
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Another fascination is the museum's collection of bling, the fluff and stuff that the bygone boxers cherished. Display cases hold dozens of velvet robes with forgotten Kid-This and nobody Sugar-That elaborately stitched across the fabric. Satin boxing shorts worn by Louis, Willie Pep, Joe Frazier, and Marvin Hagler are shown. And there is a collection of their flat-soled ring shoes, curled with years, frilly and tasseled signatures of their championship days.
Most conspicuous are the championship belts, big leather diadems loaded up with mirrors and spangles, metal studs and unworldly macho designs in testimony to their grandeur. As you enter the museum, larger-than-life plastic statues of hometown boxers Carmen Basilio and Billy Backus are draped with their championship belts. Forever crouching -- menacing with their dukes up -- the sight is pure rococo extravagance.
In a way, it was Basilio and Backus who started the museum. Townspeople wanted to honor the two natives for their boxing fame. In 1982, they set up an outdoor glass-enclosed display under lights showcasing their gaudy robes at the McDonald's across the street from the present-day museum.
People started coming by, and after some fund-raising and $50,000 in state seed money, the museum went up in 1989 in a field by the tollbooth off Route 90, the big Albany-to-Buffalo throughway.
"American has changed," offered Angelo Dundee, 84 and perhaps dean of the boxing establishment from its glory days. "Boxing has changed, too, especially today with all the movies and television and the new casinos with their own rings.
"It's still a tough hustle for the kids," said the trainer of Ali and Leonard. "But when they come to visit [the hall of fame], with all they do for boxers here, you know this [museum] is strictly done from the heart."
"For boxers, it's priceless," Dundee said.
-- Raymond M. Lane
The International Boxing Hall of Fame is at 1 Hall of Fame Dr. in Canastota, N.Y., about 15 miles from Syracuse. Admission is $7. Details: 315-697- 7095,http:/
