Boxing champions recall Steward’s impact

DETROIT - Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward was celebrated by boxing royalty and the Queen of Soul at a star-studded memorial service Tuesday in the Motor City.

Steward, the man who made the Kronk Gym famous, died of colon cancer last month at the age of 68.

His family took its time to plan a memorial befitting a beloved public figure - and it was a hit.

Champions he trained - including Thomas Hearns, Lennox Lewis, Wladimir Klitschko and Evander Holyfield - one he worked out only briefly - Sugar Ray Leonard - and another he didn't train at all - Roy Jones Jr. - paid their respects.

"What a spectacular turnout of support," HBO Sports commentator Jim Lampley said. "Over here, you have a section that I would call the Hall of Fame section. You would have to go to Canastota (N.Y.) in midsummer to the Hall of Fame to see anything even remotely approaching this group.

"There are five legitimate heavyweight champions sitting in the first two rows and the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world."

And if that wasn't impressive enough, Aretha Franklin sang a stirring rendition of "I'll Fly Away" in front of a few thousand witnesses at Greater Grace Temple. Franklin, a friend of Steward's in Detroit for decades, said she wouldn't have missed the memorial for anything.

"He had a million-dollar smile you couldn't deny," Franklin said from her front-row seat. "I'm so glad he made the Kronk Gym what it was, helping countless young boys become men and many amateurs become champions."

The city closed the original Kronk Recreation Center - a hot, sweaty basement gym - after vandals stole its copper piping in 2006. It was allowed to remain open, but it put Steward in a difficult financial situation, and he later rented space at a gym in Dearborn, Mich., so his young fighters could train.

Now, there isn't a Kronk Gym anywhere - and his family is hoping to change that.

"We closed it after he passed, but we're going to restructure it, and we want it done correctly," Sylvia Steward-Williams said from her father's second-floor office at his brick home on Detroit's west side. "We want to get a good foundation, like it was in the beginning, and build it back up."

Steward, who was born in West Virginia in 1944 and moved 11 years later to the Motor City, trained boxers born and raised in Detroit such as Hearns. But boxers from all over the globe hired him.

Steward trained Lewis from 1994 to 2004, a period that included victories over Holyfield and Mike Tyson.

"He is the greatest trainer that ever lived," Lewis said.

Steward was an accomplished amateur boxer who chose to become a coach in the ring, starting in 1971 with a part-time position at Kronk for $35 per week.

Hearns put the gym - and the trainer affectionately called Manny - on the map. Hearns was the first man to win titles in four divisions, and he won five overall.

The boxer known as Hitman lost some of his most famous bouts. Hearns was knocked out in the 14th round by Leonard in 1981 in what Steward later said was the most painful experience of his life and was on the short end of a three-round fight with Marvin Hagler in 1985 that is considered one of the best bouts in history.

On an emotional day, which started in the morning with family, close friends and former fighters gathering at two homes Steward owned, Hearns was so overcome with emotion when he stepped to the pulpit that he had to step back, wipe tears off his cheeks and gather himself.

"If it wasn't for Emanuel Steward, it would be very difficult to be where I am today," Hearns said. "He wasn't just a trainer to me; he was like a dad."

Jones was trained by his father, and he said he wished his mother hadn't talked him out of hiring Steward to be his trainer when he turned pro.

When Jones got behind the microphone at the memorial, he compared Steward to Michael Jordan and Barry Sanders - one-of-a-kind talents that can't be replaced - and said he always has carried a red-and-yellow Kronk Gym bag to every fight.

"There was no other gym on the planet that produced that much talent," he said. "I may not be a Kronk fighter by contact, but by heart I am."