Bert Randolph Sugar is a writer sports historian who has written over 50 books, mostly about baseball and boxing. He was the owner and editor of of Boxing Illustrated magazine[…]
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The longtime sportswriter talks about his personal style and who he’d want to step into the ring with.
Question: Why the hat?
rn
rnBert Sugar: It’s a panama in the summer. It’s a fedora in the rnwinter. So I change my hats with the season, also my drinks. But it’s rnfun. I’m now identified by my hat, which means less people are wearing rnthem, and have been really since John Kennedy didn’t wear one at his rninauguration in ’61.
rnQuestion: What's your drink?
rn
Bert Sugar: It’s vodka or tequila in the summer, a white rndrink, white liquor. And Scotch, a good Scotch in the... I’m sorry, in rnthe summer, and a good Scotch in the winter; both of which taste good.
Irn mean, I went to law school, I tell people I passed the Bar, it’s the rnonly bar I’ve ever passed.
rnQuestion: Were you in your prime, which boxer would you most want torn fight?
rn
Bert Sugar: Well, if I could fight one person I could rntake, I’d take somebody I could beat. If I were to take one person I rnjust want to watch them hit the hell out of me, it depends on if I want rnthem to rat-a-tat me like Willie Pep, who’d probably be behind me beforern I look around, or if I wanted to see a star in the ring and stars in rnthe sky because they hit me so hard, Joe Lewis. I used so spar with rnAli. All I proved was my nickname as a kid when I boxed in college; I rnwas called “The Great White Hopeless.” I was terrible, but I loved it. rn
If I don’t make the last payment on these teeth, the dentist isrn going to repo them, you know... I just love sports. And I love boxing rnand baseball because it’s individual effort. I know there are eight rnother men in baseball, but it comes down to one man, the pitcher, and rnone man, the batter. And they’re competing. The same in boxing, rnmano-a-mano. That way, I love both sports probably for the same rnreason. And I know a lot of fans, baseball players who are boxing fans,rn and vice versa because there is that similarity to the two, that’s it’srn a one-person achievement.
Recorded May 4, 2010
Interviewedrn by Austin Allen
rn
rnBert Sugar: It’s a panama in the summer. It’s a fedora in the rnwinter. So I change my hats with the season, also my drinks. But it’s rnfun. I’m now identified by my hat, which means less people are wearing rnthem, and have been really since John Kennedy didn’t wear one at his rninauguration in ’61.
rnQuestion: What's your drink?
rn
Bert Sugar: It’s vodka or tequila in the summer, a white rndrink, white liquor. And Scotch, a good Scotch in the... I’m sorry, in rnthe summer, and a good Scotch in the winter; both of which taste good.
Irn mean, I went to law school, I tell people I passed the Bar, it’s the rnonly bar I’ve ever passed.
rnQuestion: Were you in your prime, which boxer would you most want torn fight?
rn
Bert Sugar: Well, if I could fight one person I could rntake, I’d take somebody I could beat. If I were to take one person I rnjust want to watch them hit the hell out of me, it depends on if I want rnthem to rat-a-tat me like Willie Pep, who’d probably be behind me beforern I look around, or if I wanted to see a star in the ring and stars in rnthe sky because they hit me so hard, Joe Lewis. I used so spar with rnAli. All I proved was my nickname as a kid when I boxed in college; I rnwas called “The Great White Hopeless.” I was terrible, but I loved it. rn
If I don’t make the last payment on these teeth, the dentist isrn going to repo them, you know... I just love sports. And I love boxing rnand baseball because it’s individual effort. I know there are eight rnother men in baseball, but it comes down to one man, the pitcher, and rnone man, the batter. And they’re competing. The same in boxing, rnmano-a-mano. That way, I love both sports probably for the same rnreason. And I know a lot of fans, baseball players who are boxing fans,rn and vice versa because there is that similarity to the two, that’s it’srn a one-person achievement.
Recorded May 4, 2010
Interviewedrn by Austin Allen
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