Jamaica: The passing of three good men (29 December 1998)

29 December 1998

Jamaica: The passing of three good men

By Jimmy Carnegie

And the best for the New Year to all, especially readers, and other members of the sporting community.

Next week, all things being equal, one hopes to take a look at the International Sportswoman and Sportsman of the Year. One must first note though the passing from this plane of an international stalwart and two local ones.

Beginning at home, the current Third cricket Test in South Africa between that country, and the West Indies would have been of especially passionate interest to Gladstone "Gladdy" Neil. Gladdy Neil's name has been noted of course at his old school, Kingston College, by their associating it with that of the superb coach Roy McLean, in connection with the cricket nursery that has very largely been their creation over the past several years.

Kingston College is indeed along with Wolmer's Boys School, one of Jamaica's two great cricketing schools in terms of its products.

With schools like St. Elizabeth Technical and Holmwood also coming on most creditably in recent years. At KC we can of course think of such as J.K. Holt Jnr, Easton McMorris, Collie Smith, Marlon Tucker, Mark Neita, Robert Samuels and most notably, the great Michael Holding, among several others.

Gladdy Neil on the managerial side and such as McLean, the late Foggy Burrowes and Jimmy Richards as coaches have deserved a great deal of credit for players such as these and the achievements of the school in the sport.

Vivian Rochester, like Neil a man of several parts, fought his long illness in the best of sporting traditions.

His special services were as a most diplomatic chairman of the Institute of Sports some years ago and particularly to the sport of swimming where he was for years the man who held the deceptively difficult job of announcer at many of the meets.

Viv was also a very good example of "the Mico man" extended outside the formal classroom. Both these stalwarts will be missed.

The late Archie Moore, one of the all-time great fighters, was missed from the sport long before he passed on.

He fought everybody, and fought everywhere, and persisted until he won the light-heavyweight title in his 170th fight, when he was almost certainly already in his 40's, after several champions had dodged him for many years.

The current issue of "The Ring" magazine, available locally, describes him, in also ranking him as the 29th best heavy-weight, as perhaps the best light-heavyweight ever.

Moore who had more knock-outs than any other boxer, 131, had good claims to this description in addition to being one of the most colourful characters in a colourful sport before Muhammad Ali came along.

He had a better head to head record for instance in his several fights with Harold Johnson, who was also a very great fighter, and he also beat the classy Joey Maxim, one of the very best boxers in terms of skill that the heavier ranks of the sports have seen.

Moore also was in one of the most famous fights of all time at any weight when, after being floored several times in the first two rounds by the Canadian Yvon Durelle, one of the men who defined the word "toughness", he came back to knock him out in the fifth round.

Archie Moore called himself "The Old Mongoose" as a fighter, but he was probably more like the deadly grizzly bear. The sport has changed and they do not really make them like him anymore.

Source :: The Jamaica Gleaner (https://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/)