See Rest of Article HereMOBERLY, Mo. — To identify Darrin Imbler and Sharon Haak as the face of boxing would be a lie. Outside this town of roughly 13,000, there aren't many who could pick them out of a crowd.
Sharon Haak, preparing a pair of gloves for shipment, approves every glove that leaves the factory.
By H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY
To say they are the hands of the sport would be more accurate.
The 26-year-old Imbler and 53-year-old Haak work at Everlast, which makes the boxing gloves used by fighters from heavyweight Jack Dempsey in the 1920s to middleweight Felix Trinidad last month. From Sugar Ray Robinson to Sugar Shane Mosley, from Joe Louis to Muhammad Ali.
Gloves don't make it out of the factory unless Haak says they do. She is in quality assurance and has been with Everlast for 31 years. A cement plaque honors her in the outside entrance walkway just above the one shared by Dempsey and Louis.
Imbler began on the glove line about six months ago and is the sole worker to stuff and shape the gloves with foam and animal hair.
"If it says Everlast, I know I stuffed it," Imbler says when jokingly asked if he recognizes the gloves used last month in the Trinidad-Ricardo Mayorga fight.
Haak and Imbler are two of the 138 employees in this union shop, where it is quickly apparent the Everlast factory is much more than a labor of glove.
At a time when presidential candidates are asked about outsourcing of jobs, Everlast, founded in 1910 as a sporting goods company, is one of the biggest and most iconic names still making sports products in the USA.
"Trinidad and Mayorga were wearing our gloves, and I knew they were made right here. That is a great feeling," says Angelo Giusti, president of the equipment division. "The outfits were also made"That, to me, says something. We have some people here doing some wonderful things. I think we've come to this point in America because of people like that."
Boxing equipment, all made in Moberly, is about 5% to 10% of the Everlast business that produces about $500 million in worldwide revenue. Other items with the Everlast name are produced outside the USA through licensing agreements.
But boxing is the engine that drives the train.
"It is our roots; it is our history," says CEO George Horowitz, a former New York City high school history teacher who bought the company in 2000, keeping the headquarters in New York City.
"Our tradition comes from Dempsey and Louis and Ray Robinson and Ali. It comes from Marciano and all the present-day guys continuing the tradition. And that helps us in all our other businesses."
At a retail outlet such as Sports Authority, a pair of gloves can sell for $20 to $35. A 100-pound heavy bag is about $100. Other equipment and clothing is custom-made and unavailable to the public.
Moberly is about 2 1/2 hours from Kansas City and St. Louis. It was founded in 1866 when transcontinental railroad officials were intrigued by an area with the Mississippi River on one side and the Missouri River on the other.
According to J.W. Ballinger III, the executive vice president of the Moberly Area Chamber of Commerce, the first train robbery in the state was here in Randolph County as was the first JCPenney store west of the Mississippi.
Moberly is a medium-sized town, but Everlast has a small-town feel to it, with many workers either neighbors, related or longtime co-workers.
"I learned that the hard way on one of my visits," Giusti says of how close-knit the workforce is. "Sometimes something I said at the beginning (of a visit to the factory) would be (talked about) at the end before I got there."
Everlast is not the largest employer in town; the Orscheln Group and Dura Automotive are bigger. But since it acquired Narragansett in 1966, Everlast has been among its most prestigious.
"The fact that we are the headquarters for Everlast, with their history of boxing, that is a great thing for us to say," Ballinger says. "It is kind of unique to central Missouri. You don't have that type of employment everywhere."
No assembly line here
Highway 24 is the easiest route to the 310,000-square-foot factory, but a right at Bob's Tires will take you the back way. Sitting on 20 acres, with 20 more available for expansion, is a plant that not only makes gloves but boxing rings, heavy bags and the custom-made trunks and robes worn by many top amateur and professional boxers.
Well, not just boxers.
"We just did a whole outfit for Nelly," says Ray Stewart, the director of operations who added that the making of boxing clothes "is more of an art than an industrial process."
The star-spangled banner outfit Gary Hall wore before his gold medal swim in Athens was designed and sewn in Moberly.
"Gary said he loved our stuff and would be willing to use it so we worked out some kind of small endorsement deal, you know, nothing giant," Giusti says. "When he walked out wearing our robes, it was amazing."
The company also produces a "Tiki Bag," named for New York Giants running back Tiki Barber, who uses boxing as a cross-training exercise. Everlast designed a 100-pound heavy bag with handles that Barber could run with over his shoulders or use in other exercises.
But boxers are the main reason sewing machines hum from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. There is no assembly line; all the work, whether clothing or equipment, is touched by human hands. That includes checking the leather for branding marks or barbed wire scratches.
"I'm a machine junkie with an engineering background, but this has to be done by hand," says Stewart, who began in the Japanese auto industry. "This is not something you can stomp out on an automatic press."
What Stewart needs most has become a dying art.
"Finding somebody who has sewing skills is tough," he says. "The skill sets are not here anymore."
If boxing is the "sweet science," then the manufacturing of boxing equipment is the exact science.
"If you tell people you're giving them a 100-pound heavy bag, it better be a 100-pound bag," Giusti says.
But in cutting, sewing and stuffing satin, leather and canvas, machines can only take it so far.
"These are not toys; these are weapons and tools of the trade. These guys understand that," Stewart says of the workers. "But it is not always something you can measure. It is something you have to feel when you make the equipment. There is a lot of tactile sense needed."
That is why Imbler doesn't stray far from his power base.
"I can sew a little, but these ladies do a great job," he says of the crew stitching the leather. "I don't mess with them."
Taking pride in the U.S. label
Stewart and Giusti have a jingoistic pride as they stroll through the factory. They stop and tell how a ceiling-to-floor-length flag came to hang after Sept. 11, 2001. Both make their pitch for "made-in-America" products while acknowledging the problems that come with it.
"I'm not sure there is even a competitive advantage to say that it's made in the USA," Giusti says. "We need to level the playing field so we don't have to do the inevitable. We want to hire more people. We obviously want to make it work here in Missouri.
"We are hoping this (presidential) election will bring something to help us. We are competing against people who employ people for practically nothing. We want to supply a decent wage so people can live decently."
Stewart is as pragmatic as Giusti. He says whether the plant is in Asia, Mexico or elsewhere, they are all competition.
"I look at it this way: I have to do a better job than they do," he says. "And this is where I want to do it. The boxing headquarters of the world is right here in Missouri. I grew up in Missouri. This is home to me. This is where Everlast is. I can sign my name to this, and I'm proud of that."
Because workers can actually see their products being worn and used, many have become boxing fans.
"Sure I watch boxing," says Julie Martin, a department supervisor in the sewing department.
"That's my stuff on TV."
But even non-fans are loyal to the product.
"Oh, I like it when I see our stuff on television and newspapers. I know it came from what we do," Haak says. "But I really like baseball. I'm a Cardinal fan.
"Besides, my family had only little girls. We fought, but mom didn't let us use gloves. ... But if she did, they would have been Everlast."
MOBERLY, Mo. — As a New York City high school history teacher in the 1970s, George Horowitz never thought of becoming CEO of a company with one of the oldest and most recognizable logos in sports.
As a 5-year-old sitting in the top row of Madison Square Garden watching the Golden Gloves with his father "and seeing that little logo," he probably didn't figure he would be the one to revive the Everlast brand.
Yet in 1992, as an apparel manufacturer pitching a women's line to the company and then exceeding earnings expectations by 1,200%, Horowitz had to figure to have a future with the company.
"I felt we could make an empowering line of products that women would love, that they could work out in, and it would be edgy," Horowitz says about his 1992 pitch. "I got the license from Everlast, and they said, 'Can you do a half-million dollars in business the first year?' We did $6 million."
He got into the apparel business after being laid off as a teacher. "I was taking classes to be a principal when the city went through a financial crisis in the mid-'70s. Anyone who didn't have tenure had to go into a different career."
In 2000, Horowitz's Active Apparel Group, producing men's and women's sportswear and swimwear for the company, bought Everlast in a deal valued at $60 million and extended the brand to fragrances and nutritional items.
Started in 1910, with Jack Dempsey as the first fighter to use its equipment, the company was in decline when Horowitz took over.
"We were in danger of losing the brand," says Angelo Giusti, president of the equipment division.
"George's job was to get boxers to wear our stuff again. For a while it wasn't happening. The old-time boxers wore it as a rule. But the boxers of the early '80s and '90s weren't wearing us. We changed that."
Horowitz is no longer surprised to see magazine spreads where everyone from R. Kelly to Academy Award winners Halle Berry and Hilary Swank wears his brand.
"Its incredible to me," Horowitz says. "It is happening so much lately that we're scratching our heads. We give away a lot of our product, and people embrace it. But when we look in Newsweek and Cheney and Bush's (faces) are (superimposed) on Everlast gloves, or when we see our stuff on CNN or in the movies, it is unbelievable.
"Yes, we are surprised, amazed and delighted."
together>
By JEFF McNIELL ~ Assistant
Sports Editor
Marquis Adams and James Moore believe in destiny. That's the only
logical explanation they have for their paths crossing.
Adams, an inspiring professional boxer, established a boxing facility
in the middle of seemingly nowhere. He couldn't pry a coach to come to
Southeast Missouri. Coincidentally, it was the same place a nationally
renowned trainer had supplanted himself years earlier to get way from the
sport.
"I distinctly remember praying one weekend, 'Lord if this is your will,
bring someone. Let me find some coach or something,'" Adams said. "It was
the very next Monday I got a call from a guy telling me how he used to
coach and the past tournaments he'd been in.
"How he got my number, I don't know. He told me who he was affiliated
with, the organizations, and he started naming off the people who had been
calling me, telling me I needed to be sanctioned. That's what impressed
me. He knew these people on a first-name basis."
Boxing was the furthest thing from Moore's mind until he saw a boxing
logo on the window of a downtown building. He left the sport heartbroken
nearly a decade earlier and had no intentions of returning. But memories
of all the teenagers he had saved from the streets and the fighters he had
molded into national champs returned. He saw the opportunity to touch
lives again and couldn't pass it up.
He contacted Adams and just like that, boxing was back in Poplar
Bluff.
"We set down and immediately we clicked," Adams said. "You see those
old movies where the boxing coaches look a certain way, to me he fits the
profile. By sight alone I thought, 'Yeah, he's a boxing coach.'"
Behind Moore, boxing became a main event in the small community of
Copan, Okla.
In a town with a population of 783, Moore produced nationally-ranked
fighters and two national champions. His boxers fought professionally
against the likes of Sugar Ray Leonard, Tommy Hearns and Tommy Morrison.
But he's most proud of the ones who turned their lives around to become
accountants, teachers and respectable citizens.
"He's knowledgeable, knows how to talk with young people and he doesn't
put up with any bologna. Kids really want that," said Jim Beasley,
national director of The Golden Gloves of America. "Young people need that
discipline. If you draw a mark in the sand, young people have a tendency
to want to test that mark. Trust me, if James makes that mark, that mark
means something.
"He has a rough, tough demeanor. But he has a realness inside.
Everybody knows in his heart he's doing it because he really, truly
cares."
Of all the boxers who stepped into his ring, Moore had a favorite. It
was his son, Bo.
Voted the outstanding athlete of Oklahoma in 1979 and '80, Bo Moore had
a bright boxing future. It started with a fight against an undefeated
world military champion. Several boxing figures urged James Moore to take
his son out of the fight to avoid injury. Instead, Bo pulled off a huge
upset.
"We went out there that night a 100-1 underdog and in the second round,
he knocked him out," James Moore said. "That was the most excited I've
been. The whole place was in shock. Nobody could believe it."
Bo was just two weeks away from the 1995 national tournament when it
was his family that absorbed an horrific shock. Working alongside his
father for their powerline company, Bo was electrocuted and died. James
Moore renamed his boxing facility in Bo's honor and coached for another
year, but the absence of his son eventually became overwhelming.
Moore moved his company to Poplar Bluff, and got even further away from
the world of boxing.
"The trauma of it all was just too much," Moore said. "I tried to stay
in it, but I just wasn't tough enough."
Adams was a 'backyard boxer' as a teenager, but it wasn't until last
year that he began actual training. He soon discovered, though that there
isn't a single boxing facility between St. Louis and Memphis.
Pursuing the sport meant Adams had to travel every other weekend to St.
Louis. He stayed with family there but for the most part kept his pursuit
of boxing a secret.
"I didn't want my immediate family here and relatives here to know
because I don't have the appearance of a killer or what everybody expects
a boxer to look like. But I knew I could do it. I've always been able to
box," Adams said. "I wanted to tell them after I proved I could last in
the sport and be a contender in it."
Tired of the back-and-forth travel for weekend workouts, Adams pursued
the idea of a club in his hometown. He rented a building on 9th St. and
hired an artist to paint a picture and the words 'KO Fight Club' on the
front window. That was the easy part.
Adams began receiving calls from various boxing commissions informing
him that he needed to be sanctioned. He also needed a coach registered
with the state. He joined those governing bodies, but an Internet search
for coaches left him empty. Instead of opening immediately, Adams closed
the doors on his club.
As he grew increasingly discouraged, Adams wondered if his dream would
ever be realized.
"There was so much hype about it. For months people are driving by
going bananas," Adams said.
"It wasn't until James Moore called me. It was like my prayers were
answered. It was him."
At the Golden Gloves tournament in May, Adams realized exactly who
Moore was. Although Moore's red hair is gone and he now sports a gray
goatee, everyone recognized the man they hadn't seen in nearly 10 years.
Adams was star-struck by the promoters, trainers and boxers who took turns
hugging him.
"When I got a chance to meet some of the stars on my video game," Adams
said, "I knew he was the real deal."
The KO Boxing Club opened on the corner of 9th and Maud in May. Since
then, more than 100 people have walked through the doors. Some came from
as far as Doniphan and Campbell. A group of about 20 boxers, including two
women, are regulars from 5:30 to 8 p.m. every weeknight.
Moore and his son Jimmie, a former five-time Oklahoma state champion,
volunteer their time. In fact, they and Adams have invested thousands of
their own dollars into the non-profit organization. In just over a month,
they've been able to purchase $20,000 of equipment and a $6,000 ring.
"I told Marquis I'm just an average guy who wants to work with kids,"
James Moore said. "I don't want people thinking I'm some big hero.
"I've been lucky. I've had some good kids who have turned out, we've
built a name and have good credentials. But I'm just another guy coaching
boxing. I'm no different from anybody else."
The response to the sport had exceeded Adams' wildest expectations.
Boxing aerobics has already been added for those who want the conditioning
of boxing without being hit and a fitness center is in the works. The club
even added a new trainer last week to meet its growing population.
Adams has already been contacted from men in East Prairie interested in
starting a gym like his and rumors of a facility in Sikeston are
spreading. If he finds the right non-profit suitor and with Moore's help,
Adams said a show could happen in Poplar Bluff as early as this
summer.
"You don't have to be in Chicago, Miami or Los Angeles to have a good
boxing program," Beasley said. "If anybody ever proved that, it was James
Moore."
It's a sweltering 91 degrees outside as Moore takes his boxers through
their daily workout. Inside, it's even more miserable. Moore cut one of
the air conditioning lines when the gym opened to make the environment
more desirable for boxing.
Boxers warm up with a series of jumping jacks and jump rope before
hitting the speed and heavy bags. Moore, a hand and footwork coach, gives
individual attention to the boxers one-by-one inside the ring.
A row of photographs and posters line the inside wall of the facility.
Most of the photos are of Adams and Moore alongside famous boxers and
actors. One particular photo above the ring, though, carries special
significance. It's of Bo Moore.
"That's my crutch," James Moore said. "When I have a bad time, when I
get weak, that picture gives me strength. I remember him."
Moore knows he has little time to whip his boxers into shape. He plans
to have a handful of contenders ready for the World Championship Amateur
Tournament in August. That event brings some of the world's best to Kansas
City.
One of his best should be Adams, who already owns a professional
license and hopes to turn pro after the tournament. Moore said he has at
least three other boxers ready to fight today.
"We've fought world champions, we've fought national champions. We've
fought the guys that are the real contenders in the sport and that's what
we intend on doing here," he said. "We intend to turn out national
champions."
And he's doing it all for free.
"When you've got a kid standing up there at the national tournament in
the quarterfinals, semifinals or the finals with his hands up," Moore
said, "it's all worth it."
Joplin, MSSU land championship fight
By Jim Ellis
Miami News-Record
JOPLIN, Mo. — Miami native Tony Holden will stage a world championship boxing match at Missouri Southern State University’s Leggett & Platt Athletic Center here June 5.
Kassim “The Dream” Ouma (19 wins, 1 loss, 1 draw, 12 knockouts) will battle Verno Phillips (37-9-1-19) for the vacant International Boxing Federation junior middleweight championship in a match that will be televised as part of the Showtime Championship Boxing series.
Holden originally wanted to stage the fight in Miami — using the Coleman Theater as a backdrop like he did two years ago when ESPN came to town.
“This is too big of a presentation for Miami,” Holden said Monday afternoon, noting that production requirements and lack of adequate backup facilities worked against Miami.
Production costs will be over $1 million, with Showtime picking up the tab.
Holden said over 500 motel rooms have been booked here for the week.
The title was vacated when champion Winky Wright refused to fight Ouma, the IBF’s No. 1-ranked junior middleweight (154 pounds). Phillips was ranked No. 2 in the latest IBF rankings.
“This event is going to be the biggest boxing show in Missouri in 10 years ... bigger than St. Louis and bigger than Kansas City,” said Steve Bashore, former Oklahoma boxing commissioner who now lives in Miami. He’s worked for the Peoria Tribe since January.
The bout is a rematch of a Sept. 7, 2001, fight that saw Ouma post a unanimous decision over Phillips.
“It is going to give everyone in the area a chance to see a Las Vegas- style show, to see a world title fight,” Holden said. “This isn’t a third- rate belt — this is a world title bout.”
Seven fights will be on the card, with two televised by the premium cable network.
The other televised fight is expected to pit a pair of unbeatens: Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy (16-0-0-13), a 2000 U.S. Olympian, and Ukranian Vitali Tsypko (14-0-0-8).
Zahir Raheem, a fighter Holden raves about (“He’s got the fastest hands you will ever see”), also is tentatively scheduled for the card. Raheem (16-0-0-17) received an offer from HBO Monday morning for a July fight against Olympian Rocky Juarez.
Doors at the Leggett & Platt Center, located on the east end of the MSSU campus, will open at 5 p.m. with boxing starting at 6 p.m. Showtime will take to the air at 8 p.m.
Ticket prices and locations were to be finalized today. The MSSU ticket office and Peoria Gaming Center east of Miami will begin sales Thursday.
The Peoria Gaming Center is one of the major sponsors of the fight.
“I will have a reasonably priced ticket for this because I want everyone to be able to make it to the show,” Holden said. “It will be much less expensive than it will cost in Vegas.”
The athletic center, which has a combination of bleachers and chair- back seats, will hold about 3,100, but the capacity could be bumped up to as much as 4,500 with ringside seats.
“The ring will be at center court, and we have the ability to dim the lights around the perimeter and its going to look like a boxing ring when you walk in here on June 5,” MSSU director of athletics Sallie Beard said.
Kristy Follmar (11-1, eight KO) of Cedar Lake will be taking on Liz Drew (8-6) of Bloomfield Park, Mo.
Drew�s record, though, is a bit deceiving because she has fought some tough competition, resulting in a top 10 ranking.
�I�ve seen her on ESPN a few times. This is going to be a good fight and a great test of where I�m at in my career,� said Follmar, who has won nine straight contests.
Follmar�s only loss came to another ranked opponent, Mia St. John, who was 24-1 at the time when she earned a controversial decision over Follmar in a bout in Mississippi.
Besides her boxing career on the side, Follmar will begin a new career next week when she will be on Fox-TV 59 in Indianapolis for the morning show. She earned a major in telecommunications at Ball State University. "
Super Middleweight Warren Moore V Mike Jackson
Lightweight Lamar Murphy V Damian Fuller
Welterweight James Webb V Xavier Tolliver
Welterweight Johnny Novak V Hosea Smith
Super Middleweight Jimmy Holmes V Matt Short
Super Featherweight Kristy Follmar V Liz Drew
Heavyweight Malachy Ferrell V James Porter "
Post-Dispatch Sports Columnist
04/16/2004
Sports Columnist Bernie Miklasz
For his next fight, undisputed welterweight boxing champion Cory Spinks could realize a dream: to defend his title in his hometown, St. Louis.
Kevin Cunningham, who manages and trains Spinks, tells us that promoter Don King is willing to book Cory's next fight at the Savvis Center. With this stipulation: The fight must make money. Of course.
No dough, no go. It's believed that a Spinks-led boxing card would need to draw about 12,000 paying customers to Savvis Center to turn a decent profit. So there'd probably have to be some guarantees before King committed to St. Louis. At this point, the most likely opponent for Spinks is Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Spinks is in New York City this weekend; he's attending Saturday night's pay-per-view card at Madison Square Garden. The featured bouts match Chris Byrd vs. Andrew Golota for the IBF heavyweight championship and John Ruiz vs. Fres Oquendo for the WBA heavyweight title.
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The Cardinals have invited Spinks to Busch Stadium on April 30 to throw out the ceremonial first pitch before the 7:10 p.m. game vs. the Cubs. "
After agreeing to fight Kali Meehan(28-1 22KO's) in Las Vegas, Nevada, 2 weeks came and gone with no contract. 'We have heard through one of Don King's matchmakers that Meehan's people have chose not to fight Rob, fearing a loss, after doing a background check and viewing tape on Rob.', said Jason Redmond. However, last week Calloway was contacted by an American Promoter who will be co-promoting a bout in Abuja, Africa, the capital city of Nigeria. The bout is to be held on May 1st with plans to be televised on a CSI SPORTS NETWORK here in the United States. Rob has officially signed the contract to fight in Africa today. Further details will be released soon...."
