In undertaking this project, I was fortunate to have access to a considerable body of outstanding writing about Patterson, most of it in the form of newspaper and magazine pieces. As a young reporter on the New York Times in the 1950s and ’60s and as an innovative magazine writer for Esquire in the 1960s, Gay Talese wrote thousands of impeccably crafted words about Floyd Patterson; collected in a volume, his four dozen or so bylined Times pieces about Patterson plus the articles from Esquire would have in themselves made for an insightful book. In addition, Talese was generous in sharing his time with me at a period during which he faced his own pressing deadlines. I want to express a special thanks to him.
Another part of my good fortune was being able to draw from the mostly superb, although at times self-serving, Patterson autobiography, Victory over Myself, coauthored by the late Milton Gross. I want to thank Milton Gross’s children, Michael and Jane, for their help with this project. The late W. C. Heinz took an interest in Floyd Patterson, and his writings about him, collected in Once They Heard the Cheers and elsewhere, are golden; Bill Heinz was great at that, spinning literary gold. I want to thank his daughter Gayl for her help with this project. The late Mark Kram composed prose poems about boxing—his account of the Ali-Frazier Thrilla in Manila fight remains the best boxing essay I’ve ever read—for Sports Illustrated and other magazines. Just as Gayl Heinz went through her father’s papers prospecting for any unpublished Patterson tidbits I could use, Mark Kram Jr. did the same with the material his father left behind, all of it disorganized and stored away in boxes, some of it notes scribbled on bar napkins or matchbook covers. I thank Mark Kram Jr. for his digging through that on my behalf.
As a writer living in the greater Austin area, I’m fortunate to have access to the libraries and collections of the University of Texas, in particular the Harry Ransom Center and the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. The staffs at both did their usual stellar jobs when I came requesting help for my research on Patterson. As always, I was amazed at what I found in their collections. For instance, who might have guessed that the morgue (clip file) for the late, great New York Herald Tribune would be in the Center for American History deep in the heart of Texas? The Norman Mailer Collection at the Harry Ransom Center was a gold mine. Of course, no one could take on this sort of project without the assistance of the staff of the New York Public Library, who were helpful and courteous. Likewise, I received much help from the staffs of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, the Nixon Library and Museum, and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library. Finally, my special thanks to Archival Television Audio Inc., from which I was able to obtain rare audio tracks of Patterson fights as well as of appearances of Patterson and his contemporaries on programs aired during TV’s golden era.
SOURCES
The following people acted as sources for this book, either through interviews for citations, through background interviews, or by providing suggestions, contact information, or other valuable material, or by providing advice and offers of help. The interviews and contacts were either in person, by telephone, by e-mail, or by traditional mail: Lonnie Ali, Cliff Arnesen, Joe Louis Barrow Jr., Michael Barson, Julian Bond, Jim Brewer, Hillary Cosell, Anthony M. Cucchiara, Peter De Pasquale, Liz Darhansoff, Ginny Foat, Phil Gries, Jane Gross, Michael Gross, the Reverend Mark Hallihan SJ, Roy “Cut ’n Shoot” Harris, Thomas Hauser, Gayl Heinz, Paul Hemphill, Montieth Illingworth, Kathryn James, Jeanie Kahnke, Dave Kindred, Mark Kram Jr., Jim Lehrer, J. Michael Lennon, Ron Lipton, Doug Lord, A. J. Lutz, Patricia Moore, Bill O’Hare, Geri D’Amato Olbermann, Dwayne Raymond (Prickett), Jan Reid, Ron Rich, Sara Rosen, Andrew Schott, John Schulian, John Shoonbeck, Edwin “Bud” Shrake, Jessica Sims, David Smith, Gay Talese, Jen Tisdale, Kim Vidt, Zach Vowell, Scott Waxman, Marc Weingarten, and Vic Ziegel.
PERIODICALS
American Weekly, Atlanta Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, Baltimore Sun, Berkshire Evening Eagle, Billings Gazette, Boxing Illustrated, Bridgeport Post, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, Corpus Christi Times, Ebony, Esquire, Florence Morning News, Harper’s, Inside Sports, Jet, Life, Look, Los Angeles Times, Lowell Sun, Miami Herald, Miami News, Modesto Bee, Montana Standard, New York Daily Mirror, New York Daily News, New York Herald Tribune, New York Journal-American, New York Magazine, New York Post, New York Times, The New Yorker, Newsday, Newsweek, Nugget, Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy, Ring Magazine, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Saturday Evening Post, Sport Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Stars & Stripes, Time, and Tucson Daily Citizen.
VIDEO
Muhammad Ali: The Whole Story. Turner Home Entertainment, 1996.
Sonny Liston: The Mysterious Life & Death of a Champion. HBO Home Video, 1995.
WEBSITES
BoxRec, a reliable website containing information on fights and boxers’ records, was a godsend. The same is true of YouTube, which contains many videos of significant fights. Other websites consulted were Ancestry.com, the Civil Rights Digital Library (http://crdl.osg.edu), ESPN, the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, and Newspaper Archive.
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Notes
PROLOGUE: NOTHING SHORT OF MIRACULOUS
1. Budd Schulberg, Ringside: A Treasury of Boxing Reportage, 43.
2. Lewis Burton, “The Lowdown: Lamb Stew on Friday’s Menu,” New York Journal-American, September 3, 1952.
3. Red Smith, “The Once and Future Floyd Patterson,” New York Times, July 17, 1972.
4. Joyce Carol Oates, “Floyd Patterson: The Essence of a Competitor,” 1988 Summer Olympics Viewer’s Program.
5. Thomas Hauser, Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times, 326.
1. I Don’t Like That Boy!
1. North Carolina birth records as well as US Census and Social Security Death Index data list his actual name as Thames Patterson, but he seemed to prefer Thomas, and his son Floyd referred to him that way.
Floyd Patterson Page 27
