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By Cliff Rold - Deep in the south of Texas, Harlingen to be exact, in one of America’s poorest counties, sits the non-profit Foundation for Valley Sports. For the kids that walk through its doors, it can be a home for dreams.
Dreams, after all, aren’t wasted on the young. Dreams that don’t come true sometimes can be.
Everybody knows somebody that meets that sentiment. The guy who would’ve, could’ve, should’ve. They’re still stuck at the moment where it didn’t go their way, existing without living. They symbolically hang around on street corners, or in the high school parking lot a few years too long after they’ve graduated. Dreams didn’t come true realized as bonds.
Thankfully, it’s the exception to the rule. Most move on, often finding a new path, the one always meant to be weathered. Others stay on the same path, finding their dreams by viewing them through a different prism. This is one of those stories, a story about two men making dreams that didn’t come true into new dreams for young people that need them.
For me, the story starts when I get an e-mail from former Light-Heavyweight contender “Iceman” John Scully in early September of this year, looking around for someone who might be interested in doing a story on an Amateur program being spearheaded by 1988 178 lb. Olympic Gold Medalist Andrew Maynard.
For Maynard and Scully, the story started twenty years ago at an Olympic trials tournament taking place when Cosby ruled TV, Reagan ruled the nation, and Tyson ruled the (fistic) world.
Those Olympic trials built a generation of American stars. A future World Heavyweight champion (Rid**** Bowe), a Jr. Flyweight Hall of Famer (Michael Carbajal) and one of the most debated pound-for-pound kings in boxing history (Roy Jones) began their rise at those trials, and through medals at the Olympics that followed. Maynard joined them, exceeded them even, on the medal stand but both he and Scully fell short of the others professional standing. That didn’t change the personal standing they built with one another.
“As one of only two Caucasian members of an elite USA Boxing training camp that included guys like Bowe, Michael Moorer, Terry McGroom and Anthony Hembrick,” Scully recalled, “Andrew kind of took me under his wing that week and since he was ‘the man’ of amateur boxing in this country at the time it helped a great deal in me getting accepted and breaking the ice with all the other top guys in camp.”
The two would stay in touch from there forward, through professional careers that began in 1988 and ended just shy of one year apart between 2000 and 2001. Each would fight their share of big names across that span.
Maynard burst out of the gate at Light Heavyweight with 12 straight wins before being matched, probably too soon, with veteran Bobby Czyz in 1990. A seventh-round knockout loss was followed by six more wins before another stoppage loss, this time to 1984 Olympian Frank Tate in 1992. It was the beginning of the rest of the uneven rest of a career for Maynard, which included a shot at the WBC cruiserweight title against Ancalet Wamba later in the same year and a tough 1993 knockout loss to the legendary Thomas Hearns. He retired with a mark of 26-13, 21 wins by knockout. [details]
Dreams, after all, aren’t wasted on the young. Dreams that don’t come true sometimes can be.
Everybody knows somebody that meets that sentiment. The guy who would’ve, could’ve, should’ve. They’re still stuck at the moment where it didn’t go their way, existing without living. They symbolically hang around on street corners, or in the high school parking lot a few years too long after they’ve graduated. Dreams didn’t come true realized as bonds.
Thankfully, it’s the exception to the rule. Most move on, often finding a new path, the one always meant to be weathered. Others stay on the same path, finding their dreams by viewing them through a different prism. This is one of those stories, a story about two men making dreams that didn’t come true into new dreams for young people that need them.
For me, the story starts when I get an e-mail from former Light-Heavyweight contender “Iceman” John Scully in early September of this year, looking around for someone who might be interested in doing a story on an Amateur program being spearheaded by 1988 178 lb. Olympic Gold Medalist Andrew Maynard.
For Maynard and Scully, the story started twenty years ago at an Olympic trials tournament taking place when Cosby ruled TV, Reagan ruled the nation, and Tyson ruled the (fistic) world.
Those Olympic trials built a generation of American stars. A future World Heavyweight champion (Rid**** Bowe), a Jr. Flyweight Hall of Famer (Michael Carbajal) and one of the most debated pound-for-pound kings in boxing history (Roy Jones) began their rise at those trials, and through medals at the Olympics that followed. Maynard joined them, exceeded them even, on the medal stand but both he and Scully fell short of the others professional standing. That didn’t change the personal standing they built with one another.
“As one of only two Caucasian members of an elite USA Boxing training camp that included guys like Bowe, Michael Moorer, Terry McGroom and Anthony Hembrick,” Scully recalled, “Andrew kind of took me under his wing that week and since he was ‘the man’ of amateur boxing in this country at the time it helped a great deal in me getting accepted and breaking the ice with all the other top guys in camp.”
The two would stay in touch from there forward, through professional careers that began in 1988 and ended just shy of one year apart between 2000 and 2001. Each would fight their share of big names across that span.
Maynard burst out of the gate at Light Heavyweight with 12 straight wins before being matched, probably too soon, with veteran Bobby Czyz in 1990. A seventh-round knockout loss was followed by six more wins before another stoppage loss, this time to 1984 Olympian Frank Tate in 1992. It was the beginning of the rest of the uneven rest of a career for Maynard, which included a shot at the WBC cruiserweight title against Ancalet Wamba later in the same year and a tough 1993 knockout loss to the legendary Thomas Hearns. He retired with a mark of 26-13, 21 wins by knockout. [details]
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