There have been stranger couples.
Sampson and Delilah. Sonny and Cher. Bridgette (Nielsen) and Mark
(Gastineau).
But in the often crazy world of sports, well, there just haven`t been many pairs any odder than Leon and Ernie.
These days, the thread that ties former heavyweight champions Leon Spinks and Ernie Terrell is a thin one. But clearly each holds dreams cut from the same cloth.
At 39, Leon Spinks is trying to do a George Foreman by resurrecting a career that has hit rock bottom more than once. At 51, promoter Ernie Terrell, refocused on trying to revive the sport in Illinois, is along for the ride.
”Ernie is a man I feel I can trust, and he`s also one that can help me get where I want to go,” said Spinks, five fights-all victories-into his latest comeback attempt.
”I want to get back to being the heavyweight champion of the world, and Ernie wants to bring big-time fighting back here. If we can pull this off, we`ll both go down in history.”
A boxing career of more than 20 years, however, has not left Leon Spinks naive to the ways of the business. He realizes the odds of regaining the title are overwhelmingly against him.
Since beginning his comeback, Spinks, the 1976 Olympic light-heavyweight gold-medal winner, at times has looked less than awesome.
Terrell has promoted two bouts for him at the Engineer`s Local 150 Union Hall in west suburban Countryside. In the first, journeyman Andre Crowder forced Spinks into a 10-round slugfest before Spinks won the decision. Last month, unheralded Jack Jackson bullied Spinks around before he scored a third- round knockout.
”I know I can get this done,” Spinks said. ”All my people believe that, including Ernie.
”Some people might say we`re an unlikely pair because our careers have been so different. But the way I see it, he`s a promoter and I`m a fighter and we can only help each other.”
Ben Bentley, once a promoter and a longtime observer of Chicago boxing, says of Spinks and Terrell: ”They, to say the least, are an interesting mix. ”Given all his troubles, some people might have a hard time taking Leon seriously. They love him as a fighter, but he`s got to prove a few things to them. He`s got a challenge before him.
”Ernie Terrell, on the other hand, is too honest for the sport of boxing. He`s the only man I know I`d buy a used car from.”
The challenge Bentley speaks of is one Spinks insists he`s up to handling.
”I`m on a mission,” he said. ”I want to put myself in a position where I can help the kids and have a voice that means something to them. I want to be someone they can be proud of and pattern themselves after.”
In 1988, Spinks was a host at a local restaurant and Terrell was beginning a hiatus from promoting that would last more than three years.
”I was burned out,” Terrell said.
Today, he also lists former Golden Gloves welterweight champion Leonard Townsend as one of his fighters. This Friday, Terrell will present a seven-bout card in Countryside. Unbeaten Vinny Letiza will take on Jackie Beard in the 142-pound main event.
”State (boxing) laws had just changed, and guys from out of town were being allowed to come in and steal fighters away without working with the
(local) promoters,” Terrell said. ”I had worked hard to build little things, and that really bothered me.”
Terrell became bored without boxing and returned to the sport last year. A few months later, Spinks` manager, John Caluwaert, came calling.
”I was apprehensive at first,” Terrell admitted. ”I`m very serious about what I`m doing, and I only want to be involved with serious people. I dedicate all of my time to this.
”Sure, I`d like to make a profit, but I also want to give the people good entertainment. I wasn`t sure where Leon was coming from, but he convinced me with how much more mature and settled he seemed.”
Maturity would seem to be a true litmus test for Spinks.
In February 1978, when Spinks was 24, he shocked the world in his seventh professional fight by winning a 15-round split decision over Muhammad Ali to become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.
After that moment of triumph began a period of self-destruction.
Less than a month later, Spinks was arrested in St. Louis for speeding the wrong way down a one-way street. Nearly four months after that he was arrested on consecutive days in North Carolina for driving without a license and speeding.
In all, the ex-Marine from East St. Louis was arrested seven times in six months. What was perhaps his most embarrassing moment also came during that time when he was arrested near his home for cocaine and marijuana possession. Police estimated the street value of the drugs at $1.50.
Seven months later, Spinks lost his title in another 15-round bout with Ali.
In his most recent reincarnation, Spinks seems genuine enough in his motives.
He has dedicated his comeback to the memory of his 21-year-old son, Calvin, who was killed by a stray bullet in July 1990 near his East St. Louis home. At the time of his death, the younger Spinks had just begun what some say was a promising pro boxing career.
”He wanted to be a champion fighter, and this is my way of keeping his dream alive,” Spinks said.
”We believe in Leon,” Caluwaert said. ”We look at the (heavyweight)
division and see no reason why he can`t be champ again.”
By contrast, not many people predicted a heavyweight title for Terrell during his 15-year career.
Terrell won the title in 1965 by outpointing Eddie Machen before 6,500 in the International Amphitheatre. Nearly two years later, he lost the title to Ali, then known as Cassius Clay. in a 15-round decision before 37,000 in the Houston Astrodome.
Not many people doubted the 6-foot-6-inch, 250-pound Terrell`s ability once he stepped into the ring.
With him, it was always more a question of personality.
”I always felt Ernie would have trouble in this business because he`s just too nice,” Bentley said.
Terrell, though, remains convinced he can continue to prosper from an association with boxing.
”I remember three title fights that were here in the `80s, and they all drew close to 10,000 people,” Terrell said of bouts between heavyweights Mike Weaver and James ”Quick” Tillis, welterweights Edwin Rosario and Juan Nazario, and light-heavyweights Randy Shield and Jose Cuevas.
”I think the Chicago area can draw like that again,” Terrell said.
”All we need is a fighter the people can rally around. I think everybody has a feeling Leon could be our man.
”People talk about his age, but Foreman was older when he came back, and he worked his way into another (title) shot. And, too, you have to realize that age translates into experience. And in boxing, experience can make for one savvy fighter.”
