Bert Sugar

Bert Randolph Sugar (June 7, 1936 – March 25, 2012) was a boxing writer and sports historian recognizable by his trademark fedora and unlit cigar.[1][2]

Bert Sugar
Sugar in 2010
Born
Herbert Randolph Sugar

June 7, 1936
Washington, D.C., U.S.
DiedMarch 25, 2012(2012-03-25) (aged 75)
Mount Kisco, New York, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Maryland,
University of Michigan
JD, MBA
OccupationBoxing writer, sports historian
Years active1968–2012
Spouse(s)Suzanne Sugar
Children2
AwardsInternational Boxing Hall of Fame, Ellis Island Medal of Honor

Biography

Early years

Sugar was born in Washington, D.C. on June 7, 1936 to Harold Sugar and Anne Edith (née Rosensweig) Sugar.[3][4]

Education

Sugar graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1953, where he was a reporter and columnist for the school's newspaper. His entry in the high school yearbook for that year predicts he "will become a radio announcer or sports writer." Sugar graduated from the University of Maryland. He earned a JD and MBA from the University of Michigan in 1960.

Career

After passing the bar Bert worked in advertising including the McCann Erikson agency. He was Publisher-Editor of Baseball Monthly magazine in 1962, Sugar bought Boxing Illustrated magazine in 1969 and was editor until 1973.[5] From 1979 to 1983 he was editor and publisher of The Ring magazine. In 1988 he again became editor of Boxing Illustrated. In 1998 he founded Bert Sugar's Fight Game.

Sugar wrote more than 80 books, focusing on his favorite sports of boxing and baseball. Among his boxing books are Great Fights, Bert Sugar on Boxing, 100 Years of Boxing, Sting like a Bee (with José Torres), The Ageless Warrior (Preface, with Mike Fitzgerald) and Boxing's Greatest Fighters. Sugar was ranked as "The Greatest Boxing Writer of the 20th Century" by the International Veterans Boxing Association.[6]

In May 2009 Sugar published Bert Sugar's Baseball Hall of Fame: A Living History of America's Greatest Game through Running Press.[7]

With James Randi, Sugar co-wrote a book about Harry Houdini, titled Houdini, His Life and Art.

Along with Lou Albano, he helped write The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pro Wrestling.[8] He wrote a regular sports column for Smoke Magazine, a quarterly cigar lifestyle magazine. Sugar was described by sportscaster Bob Costas as being "Runyonesque" (in reference to Damon Runyon).

Representation in other media

Sugar appeared in several films playing himself, including Night and the City (1992), The Great White Hype, and Rocky Balboa. Interviews with Sugar feature in the documentary Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson.

Honors
  • In January 2005, Sugar was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
  • In May 2010, he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
  • In 2011, he was featured on The Pentagon Channel's Armed Forces Boxing Championships. Sugar had been scheduled to broadcast the 2012 matches, but his declining health prevented him from doing so.
  • The Boston Globe ranked him as "one of the foremost historians alive." .

Death

Sugar died from cardiac arrest on March 25, 2012 at age 75. His family was at his bedside at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, New York. Prior to his death, Sugar had been battling lung cancer.[2]

References
  1. Mathews, Wallace (March 26, 2012). "We'll never see another Bert Sugar: Iconic writer always had a cigar in mouth, a fedora on head and a joke on his lips". ESPN.
  2. "Iconic Boxing Writer And Historian Bert Sugar Has Died". Newyork.cbslocal.com. 25 March 2012. Retrieved March 25, 2012.
  3. US Census 1940 U.S. Census, Retrieved June 17, 2018.
  4. "Bert R Sugar in Social Security Death Index".
  5. Magno, Paul (March 26, 2012). "Boxing writer Bert Sugar, 75, dies". The Boxing Tribune. msn.foxsports.com. Retrieved March 27, 2012.
  6. "HBO boxing commentator profile". Retrieved November 11, 2011.
  7. Nemec, David (5 May 2009). Bert Sugar's Baseball Hall of Fame: A Living History of America's Greatest Game (9780762430246): Bert Randolph Sugar, Bruce Curtis: Books. ISBN 978-0762430246.
  8. Albano, Lou; Sugar, Bert (1999). The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pro Wrestling. Alpha Books. ISBN 0028623959.
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