“TAMING THE TIGER” and “18 AND COUNTING”

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808. DICK TIGER VS EMILE GRIFFITH

MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP FIGHT

APRIL 25, 1966

MADISON SQUARE GARDEN

QUALITY OF PLAY—8.87

DRAMA—7.45

STAR POWER—7.22

CONTEMPORARY IMPORT—6.82

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE—6.66

LOCAL IMPACT—6.67

TOTAL: 43.69

“TAMING THE TIGER”

Just a couple of blocks south of Washington Square Park downtown on MacDougal Street is the famous club Cafe Wha? Immortalized for being one of Bob Dylan’s early breakout spaces, the small Wha? space was still relatively new in the spring of 1966 when another folk singing regular, Richie Havens, called the club’s owner, Manny Roth, and told him to expect a guitar player he knew to come by and audition. Said guitarist had been struggling to find an identity amid generic uniformed bands, and was hoping to use the Cafe as a place to break free. His audition was a rollicking success, and Roth offered him a regular stint, playing five sets a day for six dollars a pop. 

That guitarist was Jimi Hendrix, and his work swiftly became a Village sensation that spring. He found his psychedelic, hard-riffing, somewhat androgynous style that made him a legend right there on the MacDougal Street stage. 

At the same time, 25 or so blocks north, another black man was trying to put any sense of flamboyance behind him. The great welterweight Emile Griffith, born in St. Thomas but raised and trained to box in Manhattan, was still struggling with the aftermath of his deadly bout with Benny Paret four years earlier, when Griffith had killed Paret in the ring. Griffith’s bisexuality and outre behavior (by 1960s boxing standards) had apparently been a factor—Paret had called Griffith “maricon” before the fight, and Griffith was enraged enough at the homosexual slurs to beat Paret to death in front of a shocked crowd at MSG. 

Griffith tamped down his showy persona after that, and many felt he was never quite as aggressive in the ring. But that didn’t mean he was shying away from challenges, as proven when he challenged Dick Tiger for his middleweight title belt, a step up in weight class that was difficult to overcome. Only all-timers Sugar Ray Robinson and Carmen Basilio had won titles at 147 and 160 pounds to that point. 

Tiger was the original “Nigerian Nightmare,” coming out of Africa after serving in the Biafran army during the Nigerian civil war to bash his way to the title in Stateside rings. A ring ruffian who only came forward, Tiger (born Richard Ihetu) was the victim of bad management and small purses for most of the 1950s, before breaking out in 1962, taking the middleweight crown from Gene Fullmer several months after Griffith killed Paret in the ring. 

The great A.J. Liebling described Tiger in The New Yorker: “A chest like an old-fashioned black office safe, dropping away to a slender waist, big thighs, and slender legs; he boxed classically, his arms tight against his sides at the beginning of a punch, his savagely methodical blows moving in short arcs and straight lines.” It would be an interesting clash of styles, with the rampaging Tiger trying to find the slick Griffith. 

Both fighters, though based in the City, trained in the Catskills for the bout, Tiger at Grossinger’s, Griffith at the Concord Hotel. The older, heavier, more experienced (this would be his 73rd pro fight) Tiger was an 8-5 favorite, in part because people liked wagering on a guy named Tiger. “I will have to be at my best to defeat Griffith,” Dick admitted. Emile, at 27 nine years younger than the champ, was confident. “When you see me stepping up the pace and moving in to punch, you’ll know that I know he’s losing the snap to his blows.” The bravado belied the fact that Griffith weighed in at just 150 1/2 pounds, well shy of the 160 middleweight limit. Tiger was 160 on the dot. 

Fight night was Monday, April 25, 1966 at the Garden, with just shy of 15,000 paying customers in the house, a very large crowd for the times, as boxing was coming off a recession began in the late-50s as a result of public dissatisfaction with underworld control of the sport. From the opening bell Griffith forced Tiger to chase him around, doing his best to avoid tight spots where the larger champ’s muscle power would be telling. For seven rounds he jabbed and stayed away from Tiger’s punishing left hook. The crowd booed the style, hoping for more action. 

Then, abruptly and as promised, Griffith changed his tactics, as smoothly as Hendrix changed chords downtown. He got notably more aggressive in the eighth, and in the ninth dropped the champ with a hard right to the chin—the first time in his 14-year career Tiger had ever felt the canvas. He was up immediately but took the mandatory standing-eight. Griffith was on him like a dropped curtain and sent Tiger sprawling, but not down, with another right hand. The stocky Nigerian kept his feet and survived the round. “At the bell, Tiger nodded his head at Griffith as if to say, ‘well done, old chap,’” wrote Gene Ward in the Daily News, bestowing upon the Nigerian brawler an English lordship.

Figuring his best chance was gone, and that he was ahead on points, Griffith got back on his bicycle to kill off the remainder of the fight. Tiger stalked and stalked, but could never fully grasp his prey. He did land the occasional hard shot, and the crowd, baying for action, howled with joy when he did. Many ringside felt Tiger claimed the laurels with the last five rounds of relentless advance. But Griffith saw out the final third without damage, having worked his game plan to perfection. 

The decision was tight, with one judge calling it even and another barely favoring Griffith. An informal poll of boxing writers at ringside gave the fight easily to Tiger. And the large throng jeered mightily when Griffith’s arm was raised as the new champ. But Griffith had clearly won it, his way. There was a noticeable undercurrent of disapproval of Griffith’s lifestyle in the coverage of the fight. “As the verdict was announced,” wrote Ward, “the crowd sat in stunned silence. Only when Griffith went gazelling across the ring to throw his arms around the defrocked king of the middleweights did the fans render an opinion of the official result—a prolonged chorus of Bronx cheers.” 

The challenger had moved up in class, knocked down the stalwart champ, and outmoved and outthought him through fifteen rounds—but to the old guard, he hadn’t done nearly enough to earn the title.

They didn’t seem to realize that the times they were a’changin’.

AFTERMATH:

The crowd and press may not have seen the fight like the judges, but for Tiger it was an awakening—he was too slow and old for the new and faster middleweight division. He moved up to light heavy and by the end of 1966 was champ there, besting Jose Torres for the belt. In his third defense however Tiger was sandblasted by Bob Foster in a brutal one-punch knockout that effectively ended his career. He retired, and worked security at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. One day in 1971 he felt a searing pain his his back. Liver cancer. He died in his native Nigeria before the year was out. 

A couple of months after the fight, the bass player for the rock band The Animals, Chas Chandler, walked into Cafe Wha and was blown away by Hendrix. “I thought immediately he was the best guitarist I’d ever seen,” recalled Chandler. Chas invited Jimi to play in London. In September Hendrix borrowed $40 and set off across the pond, and the rest is history. 

WHAT THEY SAID:

“You’ve heard the term ‘house fighter’—he’s the one who can’t lose in his home arena. Emile Griffith was the ‘house fighter’ last night at the Garden…believe me, it was a stinker of a decision.”

—Gene Ward, New York Daily News

FURTHER READING:

Dick Tiger: The Life and Times of a Boxing Immortal by Adeyinka Makinde

VIDEO:

807. NEW YORK ISLANDERS VS WASHINGTON CAPITALS

PATRICK DIVISION FINALS

GAME FIVE

APRIL 18, 1984

NASSAU COLISEUM

QUALITY OF PLAY—6.42

DRAMA—6.31

STAR POWER—6.45

CONTEMPORARY IMPORT—7.95

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE—8.56

LOCAL IMPACT—8.01

TOTAL: 43.70

“18 AND COUNTING”

Seventeen straight series victories. That was the landmark set by the Boston Celtics, who were unbeaten across eight remarkable postseasons in the 1950s and 60s. It was considered an unbreakable standard, until the New York Islanders of the early-80s came along. 

After winning four consecutive championships, the “Drive for Five” began in the 1984 season. New York was the top seed in the east, but were forced to fight off a determined challenge from their hated midtown rivals, the Rangers, to advance out of the first round. That victory, in overtime in the deciding game, tied Boston’s record at 17 straight series wins. The Islanders would now take on Washington in the division finals to keep their dream for a fifth straight Stanley Cup alive, and set a new mark for postseason excellence.

The teams split tight games on Long Island, but the Isles seized control in Landover, taking both road games for a 3-1 lead. That brought them back to the Nassau Coliseum for a potential wrap, on a drowsy and cool Wednesday night, April 18, 1984. ”We’re not taking them lightly at all,” insisted Isles sniper Pat LaFontaine. 

The Islanders would have to play without their captain, Denis Potvin, missing a playoff game for the first time in his career to attend the funeral of his father. It showed early as the Caps stormed out of the gate, taking a 2-0 lead and holding NY to just five shots. But the Islanders showed their championship mettle in the second period, scoring four times, thanks in part to some shaky play by Caps goalie Al Jensen. A meek one-handed attempt by Bryan Trottier wormed between Jensen’s skates and into the net to make it 2-1 early in the period, Trot’s fourth goal in as many games. Midway through the period some confusion between Jensen and his defensemen allowed Pat Flatley to whack home a rebound to tie the game. 

Moments later, with LaFontaine in the penalty box, the Isles cleared it behind Jensen’s net. The goalie seemed unsure what to do, and belatedly handed the puck off to teammate Bobby Carpenter. But New York’s Anders Kallur, behind the play, flew in, lifted Carpenter’s stick, and in one smooth motion swiveled and banged the puck into the open net. The crowd went bananas at Kallur’s nervy, backyard goal, and New York had the lead. 

Flatley scored again to make it 4-2, and though Washington grabbed one back late in the period, they would never threaten again, not even after Clark Gillies, New York’s menacing winger, sliced open Lou Franceschetti’s face with his stick. Gilles received a five-minute major, but almost immediately, the Caps were called for a penalty of their own, blunting any chance they had of tying the game. 

New York won, 5-3, and the series with it, 4-1. They had broken Boston’s record with their 18th straight series win, and even Rangers fans could appreciate seizing the mark away from Beantown on this occasion. 

AFTERMATH:

The Isles took out Montreal in six to advance to their fifth straight Cup finals. But this time, alas, they were defeated by the ascendant Edmonton Oilers, and the Drive for Five skidded into a ditch, along with the franchise’s fortunes for the next several decades. 

WHAT THEY SAID:

“There were a lot of broken legs by people jumping off the bandwagon after we lost the first game. But we did the little things we needed to win.”
—Islanders coach Al Arbour

FURTHER READING:

Dynasty: The Oral History of the New York Islanders by Greg Prato

VIDEO: