Sports

Buster Douglas: ‘Belief’ Led Him to Stunning Upset of Tyson

Published

9 years ago

February 11, 2015

In this Feb. 11, 1990, file photo, heavyweight boxer James “Buster” Douglas waves his gloved hand to the cheering crowd as he makes his way to the dressing room following a 10th round knockout victory over Mike Tyson in a scheduled 12-round championship bout at the Tokyo Dome. Others are unidentified. It’s been 25 years since one of the most stunning upsets in sports history. (AP Photo/Sadayuki Mikami, File)

RUSTY MILLER, AP Sports Writer

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An uppercut and three follow-up punches made James “Buster” Douglas a household name. And 25 years later, the brief heavyweight champion is still pleased his knockout of Mike Tyson ranks among the biggest upsets in sports.

“Being crowned champion was a dream for me,” Douglas said of his Feb. 11, 1990 upset. “To achieve that was the ultimate. It was awesome.”

A promising if enigmatic fighter, Douglas was given almost no chance of hanging around long with the undefeated heavyweight champion in their title fight in Tokyo. The bout was considered a tuneup for Tyson before an anticipated match with rising star Evander Holyfield.

In fact, the day before Tyson fought Douglas, promoter Don King called a news conference to discuss the dates and terms of that showdown. Douglas took note.

Douglas was a terrific athlete — he played small-college basketball — but was considered less than committed to boxing despite a 29-4-1 record as a professional. The son of club fighter Bill “Dynamite” Douglas, he had shown glimpses of promise but had also displayed a lack of heart and discipline at other times.

But roughly three weeks before the opening bell with Tyson, the person who believed in him the most, his mother, Lula Pearl, died.

Reminded this week that no one had thought he had a chance against Tyson, Douglas hesitated before saying: “Yeah, but she did.”

Tyson was boxing’s hope and its bane, a street tough who stepped into the ring in simple black trunks, black shoes and a sheared-off T-shirt. His temperament was erratic, at best. He could be emotional when he spoke of his late mentor and friend, Cus D’Amato, or he could also be raw, brutal and crude.

In the ring, he was a force of nature, always striding closer, always hurling punches, never yielding.

He was 37-0 with 33 knockouts heading into the fight. Las Vegas oddsmakers made him a 42-1 favorite to do his wrecking-ball thing against Douglas.

They weren’t alone. Ed Schuyler, a boxing writer for The Associated Press, was stopped at customs on his way into Japan. The customs officer asked Schuyler how long he would be working in Japan.

“About 90 seconds,” Schuyler deadpanned.

Just before the opening bell, someone in the crowd shouted to Douglas to win it for his mother.

The 6-foot-4 Douglas, with J.D. McCauley, his trainer and uncle, along with manager John Johnson in his corner, came out inspired. He held his own in the early rounds, holding off the shorter Tyson’s charge with his left jab.

Late in the eighth round, Douglas went down.

“I was kind of, like, admiring my work: Looking at him, taking my time to look at everything that was going on and paying more attention to how he was reacting to the punches instead of continuing to fight,” Douglas recalled. “He ended up catching me with a good shot. When I got up off the ground, I knew I had to get back on focus, on point, with what I was doing.”

King and Tyson would later claim that Douglas didn’t get up in the mandatory 10 seconds as the round came to an end. But by the official’s count, he was standing and in control of his faculties at the count of 8.

“I knew where I was the whole time,” he said. “I could have got up at six, but I had a couple of seconds and I took my time.”

After the fighters returned to their corners, Douglas dominated the ninth. Then in the 10th, he rocked the world.

“I finished him up with a combination,” Douglas said. “I hit him with four terrific shots. He wasn’t able to get up.”

King, seeing a gigantic payday floating away, appealed the outcome but, days later, all of the major organizations recognized Douglas as the champion.

“This makes Cinderella look like a sad story, what Buster Douglas has done here tonight,” HBO boxing analyst Larry Merchant said after the fight.

Through a spokesman, Tyson declined to speak with The Associated Press about the fight.

The two boxers have met each other only once since.

“We only crossed paths once, and that was a few years back down in Cincinnati,” Douglas said. “There wasn’t much conversation. It’s not like we sat down and talked about it and (became) friends, anything like that. He was still kind of short (with me). So I didn’t push it any further.”

Tyson’s life, in and out of the ring, has grabbed headlines for years. Meanwhile, Douglas is content to live a quiet life in a large home near a farming village 25 miles from his hometown of Columbus.

He quickly lost the heavyweight title to Holyfield in October 1990 in Las Vegas. His cut of his lone defense, estimated at $7 million after taxes, set him up for a comfortable existence.

Douglas is past struggles with weight and blood sugar, saying he now “could go a few rounds” at the age of 54.

He has thrown himself into raising his four sons with his wife, Bertha. He spends five days a week coaching young boxers at a local rec center and prides himself on how well they’re doing.

All these years later, he says it was no fluke.

“When I was itty-bitty and I first put on a pair of gloves when I was 10 years old, that was the beginning,” he said. “I just felt I could do anything. It was just a belief. I believed in myself and that I had the ability to do that. It’s something that my mother instilled in me at a very young age: You can do whatever you want.”

___

Rusty Miller can be reached at http://twitter.com/RustyMillerAP

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Oakland WNBA Player to be Inducted Into Hall of Fame

The Multi-Ethnic Sports Hall of Fame (MESHOF) announced that it will induct Dr. Alexis Gray-Lawson, a former WNBA player and Oakland Technical High School graduate at its inaugural Curt Flood Platinum Award Ceremony in February. Gray-Lawson’s Platinum Award is part of the Hall of Fame’s 24th Annual Bay Area induction and award ceremony, where four other retired professional athletes will be honored.

Published

1 week ago

April 20, 2024

Oakland Post

Photo Courtesy of Alexis Gray Lawson.

By Post staff

The Multi-Ethnic Sports Hall of Fame (MESHOF) announced that it will induct Dr. Alexis Gray-Lawson, a former WNBA player and Oakland Technical High School graduate at its inaugural Curt Flood Platinum Award Ceremony in February.

Gray-Lawson’s Platinum Award is part of the Hall of Fame’s 24th Annual Bay Area induction and award ceremony, where four other retired professional athletes will be honored.

The banquet and ceremony will be held from 5:45 to 10 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 24, at the George P. Scotlan Convention Center at Oakland’s Marriott Civic Center Hotel.

“I am truly honored to receive this incredible nomination,” said Dr. Alexis Gray-Lawson, who, along with college teammate Devanei Hampton, lead Oakland Tech to its second consecutive state title in 2005. “It took a village to raise me and get me here, and I truly am excited to continue the legacy.”

Gray-Lawson, a “second team” Parade All-American and an All-State honoree, as a senior in ’05, was chosen for the California Interscholastic Federation sportsmanship award. She only lost one game throughout her four-year career in high school. Her jersey was retired at Oakland Tech and placed in the National High School Hall of Fame as a four-time All-City recipient, averaging 17.2 points per game during her career.

Gray-Lawson received scholarships in volleyball, softball, and basketball before deciding to travel up College Avenue to the University of California, Berkeley. There, she played in more basketball games (143) than any other player in Golden Bears’ history. She finished her career as the Bears all-time 3-point leader (211), and she is ranked third in scoring with 1,982 points.

An All-Pac 10 and honorable mention All-American in 2010, Gray-Lawson also was the top player at 5’8” or under for the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award. Later that year, she was a third-round pick of the Washington Mystics in 2010 and played with the Phoenix Mercury of the Women’s National Basketball Association in 2011 and 2012. She also played professionally overseas in Turkey and Israel.

Other inductees are Clifford Ray (Basketball); Lee Lacy (Baseball); Spencer Haywood (Basketball); and Mohinder Singh Gil (Track & Field).

Organizers say the event promises to be a “historic and celebratory evening,” and iconic personalities from across the professional sports industry and its various disciplines will attend.

The no-host cocktail hour begins at 5:45 p.m.; dinner at 6:45 p.m.; and the ceremony at 7:45 p.m. All times are prompt. General tickets are $250.00; Seniors (65 and older) $150.00, and students $50. This includes dinner and the ceremony. Tables of 10 are available as well, and early purchase is recommended.

MESHOF is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization dedicated to honoring athletes from all corners of the globe who have made significant contributions to the world of sports and broadening the public’s understanding of the contributions people of color have made to professional sports; and to provide educational life skills and mentorship opportunities for deserving youth. Proceeds will help maintain the City of Oakland’s Curt Flood Field, Oakland Parks & Recreation, and MESHOF’s after school and mental health initiatives.

Tickets can be purchased online at www.multiethnicsportshof.com. For additional information, please contact: Arif Khatlib @ afrosportshall@aol.com or India Alston @ india@beamcreativehouse.com

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Entertainment

O.J. Simpson, 76, Dies of Prostate Cancer

Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson, who rose to fame as a college football player who went on to the NFL and parlayed his talents in acting and sportscasting, succumbed to prostate cancer on April 10, his family announced.

Published

2 weeks ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Orenthal James (O.J.) Simpson. Wikipedia photo

By Post Staff

Born and raised in San Francisco, the Galileo High School graduate was recruited by the University of Southern California after he was on a winning Junior College All-American team.

At USC, he gained wide acclaim as a running back leading to him becoming the No. 1 pick in the AFL-NFL draft in 1969 and joining the Buffalo Bills, where he had demanded – and received — the largest contract in professional sports history: $650,000 over five years. In 1978, the Bills traded Simpson to his hometown team, the San Francisco 49ers, retiring from the game in 1979.

Simpson’s acting career had begun before his pro football career with small parts in 1960s TV (“Dragnet”) before “Roots” and film (“The Klansman,” “The Towering Inferno,” Capricorn One”).

He was also a commentator for “Monday Night Football,” and “The NFL on NBC,” and in the mid-1970s Simpson’s good looks and amiability made him, according to People magazine, “the first b\Black athlete to become a bona fide lovable media superstar.”

The Hertz rent-a-car commercials raised his recognition factor while raising Hertz’s profit by than 50%, making him critical to the company’s bottom line.

It could be said that even more than his success as a football star, the commercials of his running through airports endeared him to the Black community at a time when it was still unusual for a Black person to represent a national, mainstream company.

He remained on Hertz team into the 1990s while also getting income endorsing Pioneer Chicken, Honey Baked Ham and Calistoga water company products and running O.J. Simpson Enterprises, which owned hotels and restaurants.

He married childhood sweetheart Marguerite Whitley when he was 19 and became the father of three children. Before he divorced in 1979, he met waitress and beauty queen Nicole Brown, who he would marry in 1985. A stormy relationship before, during and after their marriage ended, it would lead to a highway car chase as police sought to arrest Simpson for the murder by stabbing of Brown and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994.

The pursuit, arrest, and trial of Simpson were among the most widely publicized events in American history, Wikipedia reported.

Characterized as the “Trial of the Century,” he was acquitted by a jury in 1995 but found liable in the amount of $33 million in a civil action filed by the victims’ families three years later.

Simpson would be ensnared in the criminal justice system 12 years later when he was arrested after forcing his way into a Las Vegas hotel room to recover sports memorabilia he believed belonged to him.

In 2008, he received a sentence of 33 years and was paroled nine years later in 2017.

When his death was announced, Simpson’s accomplishments and downfalls were acknowledged.

Sports analyst Christine Brennan said: “… Even if you didn’t love football, you knew O.J. because of his ability to transcend sports and of course become the businessman and the pitchman that he was.

“And then the trial, and the civil trial, the civil case he lost, and the fall from grace that was extraordinary and well-deserved, absolutely self-induced, and a man that would never be seen the same again,” she added.

“OJ Simpson played an important role in exposing the racial divisions in America,” attorney Alan Dershowitz, an adviser on Simpson’s legal “dream team” told the Associated Press by telephone. “His trial also exposed police corruption among some officials in the Los Angeles Police Department. He will leave a mixed legacy. Great athlete. Many people think he was guilty. Some think he was innocent.”

“Cookie and I are praying for O.J. Simpson’s children … and his grandchildren following his passing. I know this is a difficult time,” Magic Johnson said on X.

“I feel that the system failed Nicole Brown Simpson and failed battered women everywhere,” attorney Gloria Allred, who once represented Nicole’s family, told ABC News. “I don’t mourn for O.J. Simpson. I do mourn for Nicole Brown Simpson and her family, and they should be remembered.”

Simpson was diagnosed with prostate cancer about a year ago and was undergoing chemotherapy treatment, according to Pro Football Hall of Fame President Jim Porter. He died in his Las Vegas, Nevada, home with his family at his side.

He is survived by four children: Arnelle and Jason from his first marriage and Sydney and Justin from his second marriage. He was predeceased son, Aaren, who drowned in a family swimming pool in 1979.

Sources for this report include Wikipedia, ABC News, Associated Press, and X.

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Arts and Culture

Gov. Newsom and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom Host 2024 Hall of Fame Ceremony

Former Assembly Speaker and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and three other African Americans were among 10 luminaries inducted into the 2024 Class of the California Hall of Fame on Feb. 8. The 17th Annual California Hall of Fame ceremony was held at the California Museum.

Published

2 months ago

February 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Willie Brown, Former California Assembly Speaker and San Francisco Mayor, was proud to be among the Hall of Fame inductees. CBM photo by Antonio Ray Harvey.

By California Black Media

Former Assembly Speaker and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and three other African Americans were among 10 luminaries inducted into the 2024 Class of the California Hall of Fame on Feb. 8.

The 17^th Annual California Hall of Fame ceremony was held at the California Museum.

“The California Hall of Fame is one of our families’ favorite traditions as it is a time to come together to celebrate remarkable Californians as well as their loved ones because we know that it is about partnerships,” Siebel Newsom said. “The governor likes to say that California is a dream factory because it doesn’t matter what zip code or background you come from, the California dream is alive and well to everyone who calls this state home.”

The other Black honorees were filmmaker Ava DuVernay; Federal Judge and civil rights leader, the Hon. Thelton Henderson; and basketball Hall of Fame player and broadcaster Cheryl Miller.

“It’s what I’ve been waiting for and to be among a great group of individuals that also deserve the honor,” Brown told California Black Media on the event’s red carpet before the ceremony began. “No, I never thought someone from Texas would be recognized this way. But here I am, and it all happened in the great state of California. It’s a fantastic feeling.”

Other 2024 inductees are: master chef and “mother of fusion cuisine” Helene An; computer scientist and “father of the internet” Vincent A. Cerf; all-female pop punk band The Go-Gos; Chicano Rock band Los Lobos; former U.S. Secretary of Defense and Congressman Leon E. Panetta; and artistic director and choreographer Brenda Way.

This year’s honorees join a history-making club with over 150 inspirational Californians previously inducted for their groundbreaking achievements and personifying the state’s innovative spirit.

“It’s just a humbling experience. I want to thank the Governor and First Partner. Who would have thought 100 years ago (that I would be inducted?) It’s incredible,” Miller said after her induction. “I want to thank the governor and First Partner for an incredible event.”

During his acceptance speech, Henderson said he was deeply honored.

“You know, it really would have been a really big deal to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in the area where I grew up, for example, South Central Hall of Fame, or the Watts Hall of Fame, or the Straight Out of Compton Hall of Fame,” he said. “But being inducted into the California Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame of the greatest state in the country in this great nation is something else.”