“DEATH IN THE RING’” and “JAGRMEISTER”
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764. BENNY PARET VS EMILE GRIFFITH
WELTERWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP FIGHT
MARCH 24, 1962
MADISON SQUARE GARDEN
QUALITY OF PLAY—6.44
DRAMA—8.99
STAR POWER—6.52
CONTEMPORARY IMPORT—6.69
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE—8.14
LOCAL IMPACT—7.33
TOTAL: 44.11
“DEATH IN THE RING’”
In 1951, five fighters died in the boxing ring, including a plugger named Georgie Flores, killed in the most famous squared circle of them all, the one at Madison Square Garden. It was the second sweet science fatality ever at MSG—in 1933 the giant Italian Primo Carnera smashed a left into Ernie Schaaf, who died almost instantly (serenaded by screams of “fake!” from the fans).
After the death of Flores Time Magazine noted that the statement issued by the boxing powers-that-were following the tragedy had become sadly routine—“We all express our deep sorrow and regret over the unfortunate accident which resulted in boxing losing one of our most promising aspirants.” Much as with mass shootings in this day and age, the horrifying had become so commonplace as to elicit scarcely any outrage.
But in 1962, thoughts and prayers were not enough. A ring death broadcast live across the country from the Garden horrified fans and sent the sport into a brief decline, one that was lifted only thanks to the inimitable charisma of Muhammad Ali.
We’ve encountered Emile Griffith before on the list—when he outclassed the dangerous Dick Tiger in 1966, and when he moved up to middleweight and was upset by Italian heartthrob Nino Benvenuti. Both of those took place well after Emile’s infamous trilogy of fights at welterweight with Cubano Benny “Kid” Paret. It is a credit, of sorts, to Griffith that he was able to continue such a prolific career after killing a man in the ring.
The first two Griffith-Paret fights were epics; bloody, close wars that fueled much of the discord that existed between them. The 25-year old Paret was the new welterweight champ in 1961 when he gave Griffith a title shot on April Fools Day, and the challenger took the belt in a split decision in Miami. Five months later they tangled again, this time at the Garden, with Paret sneaking out a split decision to recapture the title. Paret fought yet again in ’61, and it was a disastrous decision—he moved up to middleweight to fight Gene Fullmer, who knocked Paret out in the tenth round of another savage battle in December.
The Kid was still welterweight champ, but he had taken plenty of punishment over the previous year (he also lost a non-championship fight before tangling with Griffith). So many were surprised—and alarmed—when he agreed to fight Emile for a third time, and in March of 1962, just ten weeks after the Fullmer battering. It might have been a good time for Paret to lay low, concentrate on a dedicated training regimen, and find a way to defeat Griffith, a fighter intimately familiar with his style.
But infamously, Paret did not stay quiet.
Griffith was bisexual in a time when that was frowned upon, at best. Years later he told Sports Illustrated, “I like men and women both. But I don't like that word: homosexual, gay or faggot. I don't know what I am. I love men and women the same, but if you ask me which is better ... I like women.” Though he had been married it was well known in boxing circles that Emile was homosexual, or least dabbled in same-sex encounters. Paret never mentioned anything about this before the first two fights (at least not publicly), but he went out of his way at the weigh-in before the third bout to provoke Griffith in the most personal of ways.
Paret grabbed and stroked Griffith’s buttocks, and repeatedly called him ‘maricon,’ a Spanish slur for gays. Emile was incensed, ready to rumble right then and there. Times may have changed, but calling anyone gay in the Latino boxing culture remains the ultimate insult. Griffith, a native of the U.S. Virgin Islands but having lived in New York for much of his life, may not have been fluent in the language but he got the meaning, for sure.
Griffith practically sprinted to the ring for the fight, held Saturday afternoon, March 24, 1962, at MSG. ABC telecast it to a nation of fight fans eager to see the rubber match between these two gladiators. Griffith immediately began beating Paret up. He smashed the Cuban challenger from all angles, dominating the action enough so that many wondered if the fight would be halted, and if Paret had lost a step or two after his exhausting 1961 slate.
But Paret rallied, and took control of the middle rounds. He nearly knocked Griffith out with a combination in the sixth, as Emile took a standing eight-count. But once Griffith got his breath back, he resumed punishing Paret, inflicting “more damage than any normal person could withstand,” to the eyes of Robert L. Teague in the Times. Paret was so battered in the tenth he sat on the ring ropes for a long minute, but Griffith, winded himself, couldn’t apply the finishing blow.
By the 12th round, the only mystery left was how the fight would end. For a minute or so not much happened, and Don Dunphy on the ABC broadcast said, “This is probably the tamest round of the entire fight.” Seconds later, Griffith nailed Paret with a pair of right uppercuts that sent the Cuban into the corner, and began a blitzkrieg of blows that had Paret out on his feet. “The 23-year old Griffith punched faster than most observers could count,” wrote Teague. “Paret’s eyes were closed. His hands dropped at his sides. His head snapped to the left and to the right as Griffith pounded away.”
The referee, Ruby Goldstein, a veteran who had been a fighter out of the Lower East Side known as the “Jewel of the Ghetto” and had been the third man in the ring for multiple championship fights, had a reputation of ending bouts early. Whether that influenced him in the fateful 12th round is unknown, but one thing is for sure—Goldstein stood as if paralyzed by curare while Griffith pummeled Paret with a string of twenty or so unanswered uppercuts. At long last, Goldstein stepped between the fighters, ending the bout and transferring the welterweight crown back to Griffith.
Paret was clearly insensate, and he slumped down the apron, lifeless. The roaring crowd quickly hushed. The last rites were administered right there in the ring.
He was carried out as Manuel Alfaro, Paret’s manager, berated Goldstein. “The referee should have stopped it sooner,” he said. “I was shouting to him to stop it, but he didn’t hear me.” On the broadcast, Griffith said, “I’m very proud to be the welterweight champion again. I hope Paret is feeling very good.”
AFTERMATH:
Paret was rushed to Roosevelt Hospital (now known as Mount Sinai West) on Tenth Avenue between 58th and 59th, and underwent emergency brain surgery. One of the surgeons told the media Paret’s condition was “poor.” Griffith attempted to visit Paret’s room, but was kept waiting for hours. Rebuffed, Griffith left the hospital and ran through fans gathered outside, many of whom yelled at Emile and accused him of attempting to murder Paret.
Ten days after the fight, Paret passed away, never having regained consciousness. Ruby Goldstein was ostracized after being so slow to end the fight, and would only ever referee one more time.
As mentioned above, the death of Paret on national television was a body blow to the sport of boxing. Coming on the heels of revelations of mafia penetration of the sport in the 1950s, boxing, for the first time in decades, diminished in popularity. But a loud, immensely talented heavyweight from Louisville rescued the fight game for another couple of generations.
Emile Griffith, as we have seen, shrugged off the incident in the immediate aftermath of Paret’s death, and continued a fine career. But upon retiring from boxing Griffith reportedly suffered nightmares and visions of the dead Paret for years. In 1992, Griffith was viciously beaten and almost killed on a New York City street after leaving a gay bar near the Port Authority Bus Terminal. He was in the hospital for four months after the assault. But he hung on, and lived more than twenty years after the horrible incident, finally passing at age 75 in Weehawken, New Jersey, in 2013. The cause, as with so many of his fistic brethren, was dementia pugilistica.
In 1979 a fighter named Willie "Macho" Classen as killed in a fight in the Felt Forum inside MSG. He is the last boxer to perish in the World’s Most Famous Arena.
WHAT THEY SAID:
“I kill a man, and most people forgive me. However, I love a man, and many people say this makes me an evil person.”
—Emile Griffith
FURTHER READING:
A Man’s World: The Double Life of Emile Griffith by Donald McRae
VIDEO:
763. NEW YORK RANGERS VS PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
PATRICK DIVISION FINALS
GAME FIVE
MAY 11, 1992
MADISON SQUARE GARDEN
QUALITY OF PLAY—7.04
DRAMA—7.83
STAR POWER—8.53
CONTEMPORARY IMPORT—7.25
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE—6.11
LOCAL IMPACT—7.36
TOTAL: 44.12
“JAGRMEISTER”
The 1992 Pittsburgh Penguins were defending Stanley Cup champions, but tragedy beset the team. Months after hoisting Lord Stanley’s trophy the head coach, “Badger” Bob Johnson, died of cancer. His replacement was extraordinary—Scotty Bowman, five-time champ as head coach of the dynastic Montreal Canadians. But even Bowman couldn’t prevent the hangover that afflicted the team early in the season, as Pittsburgh got off to a horrendous start, punctuated by an 8-0 blowout loss at home to the Capitals. A back injury to superstar Mario Lemieux didn’t help, either.
It seemed the Pens were waving the white flag when they dealt defenseman Paul Coffey at midseason, but a quieter trade that brought Rick Tocchet to the team helped spur them to a strong finish, and got them into the playoffs as the third team in the Patrick Division. The Rangers were 18 points better than the Pens, winners of the President’s Trophy with the best record in hockey.
For New York, the Age of the Messiah had dawned. Mark Messier immediately showed he wasn’t just Wayne Gretzky’s sidekick but a star in his own right by winning the MVP Award and leading the Rangers to the top of the league. He was joined by star defenseman Brian Leetch, the Norris Trophy winner, and the sterling goaltender combo of John Vanbiesbrouck and Mike Richter. Fans across the City salivated; here was at last a team that could surely break the hex and win the franchise’s first Cup since 1940.
The first round was highly competitive in 1992—six of eight series went the full seven games, and there were 54 games played in total of a possible 56. The Rangers and Penguins both survived their opening encounters, with New Jersey and Washington, respectively. That brought a galaxy of stars—Messier, Leetch, Lemieux, Mike Gartner, Kevin Stevens and, youngest and perhaps most talented of them all, Jaromir Jagr— together for the highly anticipated second-round matchup.
The teams split the first two games in NYC, and the next two (both in overtime) in Pennsylvania, leaving the series tied 2-2. Injuries to the stars defined the first few games. A back injury to Messier caused him to miss Games Two and Three, and cough up the puck before the OT game winner in Game Four. Meanwhile, in Game Two, an infamous two-handed slash by Adam Graves broke Lemiuex’s left wrist, knocking him from the playoffs and engendering much bad blood. The teams returned to Madison Square Garden for Game Five, held on Monday night, May 11, 1992.
The Rangers had lost only 8 games at home all season, but had already lost twice on MSG ice in the playoffs, and they got off to a horrid start. Joey Kocur was sent to the penalty box for roughing Tocchet just 13 seconds into the game, and Tocchet made the Rangers pay, slipping undefended into the crease and ramming home a pass from Ron Francis to open the scoring just a minute into the fray. Sans Super Mario, it was the kind of mistake that the Pens needed to beat the league’s best team.
Six minutes later, another defensive error by the Rangers hurt them. Jeff Beukeboom aggressively dove to attempt to keep the puck in the offensive zone—but he missed, allowing Jagr to scoop up the loose puck and break in on Vanbiesbrouck. Before he could shoot, Leetch tackled him from behind, and the referee awarded Jagr with a penalty shot, the first in Penguins postseason history. Was the call, a borderline one, influenced by the slash on Lemieux, at least subconsciously? Rangers fans insisted “Yes,” and Vic Ziegel in the Daily News wrote, “Every move the Rangers make, the refs are watching,” but who can say for sure? Whatever the case, Jagr bore in and whipped a shot past Beezer’s right glove to make it 2-0, and a heavy moan filled the Garden.
The Rangers needed a break, and they got a big one midway through the second period. They were on the power play, but Pittsburgh’s Phil Bourque scored a shorthanded goal. It was waved off, however, with Penguins forward Troy Loney ruled to have interfered with Vanbiesbrouck. Instead of being down 3-0, the Rangers had a 5-on-3 advantage, and Darren Turcotte scored to halve the lead. Early in the third period, the Rangers tied it when Gartner, who led the Rangers in goals, stuffed in a rebound off a Messier shot. It was 2-2, and the joint was jumpin’. The Cup dream was alive and well, and the Pittsburgh attack stuck in neutral.
For the Penguins to advance they needed something extraordinary. And it was Jagr, just 20 years old and despite his immense talents and youth already dogged by whispers of underachievement, who provided it. With five and a half minutes left he took a pass just outside the blue zone, broke the ankles of Beukeboom with an inside-outside swerve, stickhandled past Vanbiesbrouck and whipped the rubber into the yawning net. It was a marvelous individual display by the young Czech.
“It was easy because Beukeboom stood still,” said Jagr.
Messier had a late chance to match Jagr’s brilliance but flipped a shot over the net. The Pens escaped with a 3-2 win and now needed just one more win to continue their hopes of a repeat title.
AFTERMATH:
Jagr continued to develop into a superstar right before the eyes of the hockey world, scoring the go-ahead goal in Game Six as the Pens took out the Rangers, ending New York’s dream season and propelling Pittsburgh toward another Cup. Indeed, the Pens went on an incredible run after Jagr’s game-winner, not losing again as they swept Boston and then Chicago to win a repeat championship despite Lemieux’s absence.
WHAT THEY SAID:
“What balance! What puck control! What hockey sense and savvy!”
—Ed Westfall on the SportsChannel America telecast, lauding the great winning goal from Jaromir Jagr.
FURTHER READING:
If These Walls Could Talk by Phil Bourque with Josh Yohe
VIDEO: