26.12.06 – By Craig Parrish: Over the years, I have written many articles about fighters from the golden era of boxing. I have been fascinated all of my life with fighters like Henry Armstrong, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Jake LaMotta, Willie Pep, and many, many others. One of my all-time favorites though has to be Rocky Graziano. I own a copy of the terrific movie of his life starring Paul Newman, “Somebody Up There Likes Me”, and have watched it many, many times. The true story of Rocky’s rise from the meanest streets to the Middleweight Championship of the world and his epic trilogy with Tony Zale is the stuff of legend, and a natural for the silver screen.
My Wife has tolerated my passion for boxing history very well, God bless her, and didn’t even protest when I bought my then 3 year old son a punching bag last year (which he asked for). I am the Father of a terrific set of twins, a boy and a girl. The children really bring the joy of Christmas, and this year we had a full house with my parents, my Sister and her Husband, and my new baby Niece staying with us for the holiday.
After a busy weekend of Church activity and large dinners, we confirmed that the children were sleeping on Christmas Eve and began the hefty tasks of assembling the Barbie castle and horse and carriage, the Polar Express train, the monster truck, and many others. “Santa” then had a few cold beers and went to bed. To a 4 year old, 3 AM on Christmas morning is wake up time.
However, the kids slept until a decent hour and we all gathered to the sounds of tearing paper, cries of joy and astonishment as we read the note from Santa and witnessed that indeed the cookies had been eaten and the milk drank, and the busy hum of children playing. As the morning settled in, we slowly began to unwrap the presents that the grown ups had bought for each other.
There were many nice gifts, many clothing and books, DVD’s and jewelry. Then my Wife handed me a rather heavy package. “This is your big gift”, she said. I was clueless. So I unwrapped the package and looked down on a framed 8 X 10 photograph of the aforementioned Rocky Graziano. “Wow, this is great” I thought to myself. I collect the old photos and display them on my office wall. “Look closer” my Wife said. On the top left corner of the photograph there was some writing. As I looked I realized it said:
“Hello Zale. Rocky Graziano”
I was speechless. Was this a photo that the Rock had sent to Zale? Was it a real signature? Where did this come from?
It turns out not to have been anything quite so historically significant. The gentleman who my Wife purchased the photo from was an autograph collector, and in fact not much of a boxing fan at all. But years earlier, he had been to an event where Graziano was present and signing photographs. He knew enough about boxing history to recall that Rocky had fought Zale and asked him if he could say something about Zale in the autograph. Rocky obliged with “Hello Zale” and his signature.
As I write this piece, I am looking at the photgraph hanging on my office wall, right next to the picture of Marciano knocking out Walcott with what some historians have called the hardest punch in heavyweight history. Every time I look at it and see those words “Hello Zale”, it brings to mind the rich history of boxing, the greatest sport in the world. The thoughts of my Wife spending hours on the internet, emailing this gentleman back and forth, negotiating and validating this little picture makes me smile, simply because she knew it would bring me so much pleasure. It is the nicest, most thoughtful Christmas present I have ever received, not just for the item itself (which is magnificent), but for all of the thoughts and love that went into it. It was the icing on the cake for a great Christmas spent with family and little children, and a baby crawling across the floor seeking her stuffed monkey. What a great day.
Happy Holidays.