I have not been doing this much of late. Truth be told with football approaching and so much work to do there just not enough hours in the day it often seems. But, as I scanned history today one item jumped off the page at me. The actual event did not occur on this date but the central character in the story was born on this date. He is one of the figures in sports history that even the most casual of observers can generally identify without my problem. He appearance is well, unique and all his own. The man I am referring to is boxing promoter Don King. At least I thought everyone would recognize him. I was a little wrong and it hit close to home.
The year was 1996 and my wife and I were in Vegas for a football weekend. There also happened to be a huge heavyweight bout on tap for the weekend at the MGM. Mike Tyson was taking on the aging Evander Holyfield. Odds makers had made Tyson a heavy, heavy favorite as I recall. The day before the fight that weekend my wife and I has headed over to the Las Vegas Hilton. The Super Book as it was called at the time was state of the art. We were there on a Friday afternoon and the book was busy but certainly not packed by any means. Kind of like the calm before the storm. We were sitting in the book and I got up to go to the counter and place some bets on some college games the next day. My wife was sitting there just looking up at the screens when a man came up and sat a couple of seats over. My wife was taken with his crazy hair. She smiled at him and they struck up a conversation. I think the guy was amused because it was pretty apparent this lady had zero clue who he was. That could not happen to him often, if ever. They were visiting and my wife actually asked him if he came out to Vegas often? He went along with it and said yes, usually on business. Well, when I got back to the seats and saw my wife sitting there having a friendly conversation with Don King I about crapped. I just walked up and smiled and sat down nodding at King. My wife turned to me and said, oh honey, I want to introduce you to Don. He is out here for the weekend on business. She had been showing him pic's of our daughters. I just smiled and shook his hand, he was grinning from ear to ear as the whole thing clearly amused him. I said Don my wife does not get into anything much sports wise except football, baseball and basketball. He laughed and said I do believe that Steve. We sat there about 15 minutes chatting and my poor wife was in the dark the entire time. He finally got up and wished us well and moved on. And YES, he could not have been more gracious. When he departed I proceeded to explain to her exactly who this guy was. She had a hard time believing it. Later on when watching some fight coverage on the big screen in the pre-fight coverage on ESPN she saw Don King standing up there and she about died. I said I cannot believe you did not know who this man was. But she honestly didn't. Bright woman with her master degree, no dummy. But beyond Muhammad Ali I am not even sure she could identify a boxer. Anyway, the fight went off and Holyfield cashed in huge for the bettors who took a shot with him and the long odds. He fought a similar fight that Buster had done in Japan and beat Iron Mike. Weird, but I was out in Vegas for many high profile bouts and I think the dog won them all but one. I was out there the night the guy in the parachute dropped into the ring delaying the fight. That was some weird stuff. Always fun because you never know who you will see or run into. Had a nice talk with Michael Keaton once on a fight weekend. But, you learn something every day and that day my wife learned who the hell Don King was.
One free release fellas. On Friday night I like the Vikings laying the 3.5 to the Seahawks.
Good luck with all your action. Exciting time of year.