Fighting the Good Fight

Russell Impresses the Judges -- and Dad -- to Win Olympic Berth

HOUSTON, Aug. 26 -- When the boxing was done and a father's Olympic dreams had come true, Gary Russell Sr. started walking Sunday afternoon. He walked past the officials' table, around the bleachers, under the blue curtains with the giant American flag and out the back door of Exhibit Hall B3 of the George R. Brown Convention Center, until at last he stood on a big concrete loading dock that baked in the summer swelter.

Behind him, his son Gary Jr. strolled a circle around the ring at the U.S. Olympic trials, fists clenched above his head, and a gold medal draped around his neck that said he was an Olympian. But the father never saw. At that moment he was on the loading dock frantically punching numbers into his cellphone to call his wife Lawan back in Capitol Heights.

" 'Wan, we did it!" he shouted.

Then again. "We did it, 'Wan!"

Whether Lawan Russell heard was unclear. The connection wasn't very good; there was this awful rumble from the freeway just below, and anyway her husband was too busy wiping tears off his face to talk.

For two decades this has been his hope, even before the children started coming, and he gave them all the same fierce fighting name: Gary Russell. And because he always figured he knew them best, he trained them on his own, in alleys, apartment lobbies and ultimately the basement of the house in Capitol Heights.

On Sunday the first of his Gary Russells made the dream happen. Gary Jr. burst from his corner at the opening bell and battered a Dallas fighter named Roberto Marroquin with combinations of rights and lefts that knocked the opponent back and never made the final outcome much of a doubt.

The final scoring said Russell won, 18-14, though few here seemed to think it was really that close.

Definitely not Gary Sr., who fretted all week that the pressure of being the top amateur 119-pound fighter in the country the past two years had gotten to his son. Gary Jr. was fighting not to lose, he worried, too consumed with the judges who award points and holding back from throwing the combinations that have been so successful for him. When Gary Jr. lost his first fight in the tournament, throwing him into the losers' bracket, Gary Sr. ranted about his boy's lack of aggressiveness.

He rode Gary Jr. so much that on Sunday, after the trials were over and his son sat at a table getting the tape pulled off his hands, Gary Jr. looked up at his father, smirked and said: "You happy yet?"

Gary Sr. smiled. Yes, he was happy.

"This is college; this is graduation day," Gary Sr. said. "It's been a lot of hard work, man. It's a lot of dedication and sacrifice. Truly it is."