Wharton professor Kenneth Shropshire was just a teenaged boy selling hot dogs in a park in California when he first saw Sugar Ray Robinson.
Though at the time he wasn't familiar with Robinson's achievements, almost 38 years later, Shropshire has come to believe that Robinson is one of the greatest boxers of all time, and he recently wrote a book describing the life of this extraordinary athlete.
Shropshire presented this book, Being Sugar Ray, last evening at Du Bois College House to an excited crowd full of students and faculty.
"Why Sugar Ray Robinson?" began Shropshire. "Because he was truly the first real global athlete-celebrity. He won the title of world middleweight champion five times, owned a block in New York City and drove a flamingo-pink Cadillac."
Born Walker Smith, Sugar Ray Robinson was introduced to boxing in New York City at the age of 14. Because he was so young and could not yet join the gym, he would borrow a friend's card in order to get in. That friend was Ray Robinson.
After winning the New York Golden Gloves championship in 1940, people began to notice Robinson's talent. They called his style "sweet as sugar," and from there, the name Sugar Ray Robinson was born.
By 1951, he became the world middleweight champion, and he earned that title four more times between 1951 and 1960.
Robinson also tried out show business: He began singing and tap-dancing during a brief retirement in 1952, and although initially everything went well, his business declined after three years and he decided to make a comeback in boxing.
Today, he is remembered not only for being a great boxer but also as someone influential who "transcended race and sport in a way that no one - white or black - had accomplished before him," according to Shropshire's book.
"I've seen a few documentaries on Sugar Ray and came today because I believe that he is a true icon in a pre-Civil Rights era" said Engineering senior Tahmid Mannan.
