FLOYD PATTERSON -THE CHAMP

My Dad was a Big fan of Floyd Patterson, he also knew him personally and apparently admired him. Sad to hear of his untimely death, perhaps he's shadow boxing with my Dad!
SOUTHERN ROSE
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Even though Ali was my all-time favorite, I have great respect for Floyd. He was a true gentleman, never an unkind word about anyone.
May God Bless him.
Della
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GROWING UP ON THROOP AVENUE IN BROOKLYN AND KNOWING THAT THE WORLD'S HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION GREW UP JUST A FEW BLOCKS NORTH OF MY HOUSE, WAS QUITE IMPRESSIVE.
I NEVER WANTED TO BE A BOXER, UNLESS THEY CHANGED THE RULES SO THAT I ONLY HAD TO FIGHT: WOMEN -- SMALL, TINY, LITTLE, REALLY SKINNY
FEMALES OR BLIND MEN OF ANY SIZE OR UNARMED PEOPLE, WHILE I WAS ALLOWED A BILLY CLUB & SHIELD
SINCE THESE RULES WERE NOT LIKELY TO BE INSTITUTED BY THE POWERS THAT BE - BOXING, LIKE HARD WORK OR A CONCERN FOR OTHERS, WAS NOT IN MY FUTURE - BUT I FELT A GENUINE PRIDE IN HAVING THE CHAMP COME FROM THE NEIGHBOR.
WHEN FLOYD LOSS THAT NIGHTMARE, SEVEN KNOCKDOWN FIGHT TO INGO -- I WENT TO THE APOLLO THEATRE ON FULTON STREET AND SAT THRU THREE SHOWINGS OF SEPARATE TABLES, AN ENGLISH DRAWING ROOM MELODRAMA, SO THAT I COULD SEE THE NEWSREEL COVERAGE OF THE FIGHT OVER AND OVER.
SITTING THRU THAT PICTURE THREE TIMES, AS A TEENAGER, I FELT I TOOK A BEATING EQUAL TO THE ONE FLOYD ENDURED. I WANTED TO SEE HOW A MAN COULD BE KNOCKED DOWN SEVEN TIMES AND FIND THE STRENGTH OR DISREGARD FOR HIS OWN WELL BEING, TO RETURN TO THE FRAY OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER. WAS IT COURAGE OR STUPIDITY.
FLOYD WAS NOT STUPID.
I RETURNED TO THE THEATRE A YEAR LATER, THEN SHOWING A PICTURE I DON'T RECALL, TO SEE FLOYD THROW THE LEGENDARY LEAPING PUNCH THAT DESTROYED INGO. A PUNCH THAT ALLOWED FLOYD TO BE THE FIRST HEAVYWEIGHT TO REGAIN THE TITLE.
FLOYD WAS NEVER A REAL, FULL SIZED, HEAVYWEIGHT AND THAT IS A TRIBUTE TO HIM - HE WAS ALWAYS OUT-GUNNED BY BIGGER MEN AND YET, HE MOST OFTEN CAME OUT ON TOP.
HE WAS SINCERE, HONEST, MODEST AND INTROSPECTIVE IN A WORLD THAT DOES NOT ALWAYS VALUE THESE QUALITIES IN AN ATHLETE.
NO GLAMOUR - NO SCANDAL - NO DRUGS -- JUST A WARRIOR, GOING ABOUT THE BUSINESS OF MINI-WAR, IN A SQUARED CIRCLE.
AFTER REGAINING THE TITLE, FLOYD TOURED SEVERAL PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN BROOKLYN AND DECATUR JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL # 35 WAS ONE OF THEM -- I FELT PROUD THAT THIS GREAT MAN CAME TO SEE US, DAYS AFTER MAKING HISTORY -- WE HAD A SPECIAL ASSEMBLY AND HE ONLY SAID HELLO AND ASKED US TO DO OUR BEST IN SCHOOL, IT LASTED ALL OF 15 OR 20 SECONDS - BUT AS FAR AS I WAS CONCERNED, IT TOOK SPEAKERS LIKE JFK - MLK - MALCOLM X TO EQUAL THAT BRIEF SPEECH.
THE FACT THAT THE CHAMP CAME TO SEE US WAS VERY POWERFUL.
I WILL HONOR AND SAY A PRAYER FOR FLOYD PATTERSON, A MAN WHO
WAS WORTHY OF ALL THE WORDS WRITTEN HEREIN AND BELOW - AND NOT FOR HIS BOXING SKILLS, BUT FOR HIS BEING - HIS HUMANITY.
GOD BLESS HIM - CHIEF
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Floyd went to JHS 35 (Stephen Decatur) as a teen.
He lived on Chauncey Street between Reid Ave. and Patchen Ave. at the time.
My older sister and he were Classmates.
I not sure but I think I still have her yearbook or class photo somewhere.
Al ("T.Fats")
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Floyd Patterson came once to Harlem Valley HOSPITAL to visit on the units with our patients, it was a great treat for all of us. A real gentleman.
TEXAS LADY
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Class act with a great heart!
R.K.
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Floyd Patterson was definitely unappreciated. As humble and as fine a person as you will ever meet, he was a Champ forever both inside and outside the squared circle long after his fight career was over.
The last time I saw him he was managing a kid on a Golden Gloves card being held ay my parish in Brooklyn, Saint Thomas Aquinas. Before the match, he was walking on Flatbush Avenue looking for a local Drug Store to buy some extra tape for the kids' hands.
The Champ took time out to personally greet all who noticed him on his way to the Drug Store. When I saw him , I told him that my Uncle Joe , then 90 , lived just around the corner and that he had been a life time fight fan having seen Dempsey, Louis et al. fight.
I then asked The Champ if it was too much trouble for him to go around the corner and say a brief hello to my Uncle. The next thing I know he was sitting at the dinner table with my Uncle where they swapped stories for almost a half-hour. When Floyd Patterson left, my Uncle told Floyd Patterson that he could not have been more grateful for The Champ's time.
Patterson responded by telling this great old man and fight fan that the pleasure was all his. A class act, may this true Champ rest in peace.
John D. -- SFC - 67
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When I taught school in East New York, I had his daughter as a student aide in a summer school program, and met him once. He was a gentleman.
PH -SFC -67
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I was a big Floyd Patterson fan. As far as I know, he was a class act. A tough guy but always a sportsman.
Jim McClune
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NEW PALTZ, N.Y. (AP) - Floyd Patterson, who avenged an embarrassing loss to Ingemar Johansson by beating him a year later to become the first boxer to regain the heavyweight title, died Thursday. He was 71.
Patterson died at his home in New Paltz, N.Y. He had Alzheimer's disease for about eight years and prostate cancer, nephew Sherman Patterson said.
Patterson's career was marked by historic highs and humiliating lows.
He emerged from a troubled childhood in Brooklyn to win the Olympic middleweight championship in 1952.
In 1956, the undersized heavyweight became at age 21 the youngest man to win the title with a fifth-round knockout of Archie Moore.
But three years later, Patterson was knocked down seven times in the third round in losing the title to Johansson at the Polo Grounds in New York City.
Patterson returned with a vengeance at the same site in 1960, knocking out Johansson with a tremendous left hook to retake the title.
"They said I was the fighter who got knocked down the most, but I also got up the most," Patterson said later.
Despite his accomplishment, he was so humiliated when he lost the title on a first-round knockout to Sonny Liston in 1962 that he left Comiskey Park in Chicago wearing dark glasses and a fake beard. Patterson again was knocked out in the first round by Liston in 1963.
Patterson got two more shots at winning the title a third time. Battered and taunted for most of the fight by Muhammad Ali, Patterson was stopped in the 12th round in 1965. He lost a disputed 15-round decision to WBA champion Jimmy Ellis in 1968.
Overall, Patterson finished 55-8-1 with 40 knockouts. He was knocked out five times and knocked down a total of at least 15 times. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991.
After retiring in 1972, Patterson remained close to the sport. He served twice as chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission.
His second term began when he was picked in 1995 by Gov. George Pataki to help rebuild boxing in New York.
On April 1, 1998, Patterson resigned the post after a published report that a three-hour videotape of a deposition he gave in a lawsuit revealed he couldn't recall important events in his boxing career.
Patterson said he was very tired during the deposition and, "It's hard for me to think when I'm tired."
Patterson, one of 11 children, was in enough trouble as a youngster to be sent to the Wiltwyck School for Boys. After being released, he took up boxing, won a New York Golden Gloves championship and then the Olympic gold medal in the 165-pound class at Helsinki, Finland.
"If it wasn't for boxing, I would probably be behind bars or dead," he said in a 1998 interview.
He turned pro in 1952 under the management of Cus D'Amato, who in the 1980s would develop another heavyweight champion, Mike Tyson. Patterson fought as a light heavyweight until becoming a heavyweight in 1956.
After regaining the title, Patterson was the verge of losing it again when he was knocked down twice by Johansson in the first round in 1961. But Patterson knocked down Johansson before the round was over, then won on sixth-round knockout.
He made a successful defense, then lost the title to Liston in a fight a lot of people didn't want him to take. In fact, taking the match caused a split between Patterson and D'Amato.
Patterson said in 1997 that another person who didn't want him to fight Liston was President Kennedy.
"I'm sorry, Mr. President," Patterson said he told Kennedy. "The title is not worth anything if the best fighters can't have a shot at it. And Liston deserves a shot."
Patterson retired after been stopped by Ali in the seventh round of a non-title match in 1972 at Madison Square Garden.
Patterson lived on a farm near New Paltz, N.Y. After leaving the athletic commission, Patterson counseled troubled children for the New York State Office of Children and Family Services.
He also adopted Tracy Harris two years after the 11-year-old boy began hanging around the gym at Patterson's home. In 1992, Tracy Harris Patterson, with his father's help, won the WBC super bantamweight championship.