"Sugar" Is The Spice of McKay Party
posted 2008-11-20

By Molly Lauryssens

The servers offer up golden brown mini crab-cakes, succulent shrimp and juicy tenderloin on silver platters. A table, decorated with leaves and fall colors, offers various hors d’oeuvres. Another table draped in white linen serves as an open bar. Framed in gold, vintage pictures of iconic sports broadcaster Jim McKay and his family are prominent on one of the walls. It’s a gala event where Olympic athletes gather and mingle with fans and friends to commemorate the life of McKay, who passed away in June at the age of 86.

The lobby and other meeting rooms in Baltimore’s Sports Legends Museum transform from ordinary picturesque into chic sophistication while hosting the VIP cocktail hour for this “Champion’s Tribute.” With athletic greats such as gold medal Olympians Michael Phelps, Dorothy Hamill, and Dominique Dawes and others set to be in one place, there’s a palpable energy floating around.

There’s Katie Hoff (pictured below), who swam in six events in the 2008 Games, being dazzled by a magician with small stuffed bunnies. In another corner, Kimmie Meissner (pictured, bottom, between her parents), who figure skated her way to sixth place in the 2006 Olympics and who won a World Championship one month later, poses for pictures. And then legendary boxer Sugar Ray Leonard, a gold medalist in the 1976 Games, enters the room. Looks of awe and reverence accompany him. It doesn’t take long for a picture request from a fan and Leonard gracefully agrees. There’s a definite air of warmth about him. Perhaps it’s his famous smile or the way he carries himself. Before long, “Sugar” is whisked away for a press conference.

For Leonard, whether his audience consists of adoring fans or a bunch of media types, his regal appearance commands attention. Even just sitting and smiling while he awaits Hamill for a dual press conference, you can tell that this is no normal ex-athlete. Quite the contrary, for Leonard is an icon of the post-World War II 20th century, more than an athlete – a pop culture figure the world over. And the way the folks in the room stare at him proves it.

Sugar Ray is lean and mean in his svelte black jacket and silk tie and looks like he could still bob and weave in boxing’s “squared circle.” But absent any knowledge of his career in the ring, it’s difficult to imagine this smooth, cool cat having, at one time, been one of the fiercest fighters of his time. Not only fierce but successful: Sugar won seven boxing titles in five different weight classes, a record that still stands today as far as being champion in so many weight categories.

Wanting to get every sound bite, I place my compact recorder down in front of Leonard.

“Is that a recorder?” Sugar asks, perplexed.

“Yes.”

“It’s cute. Is it good…Is it clear?” he wonders aloud. “Who makes it? Olympus?”

“I’m not sure,” I say, reaching for it. As I pick it up, my hand shakes slightly. Leonard laughs, clasping his hands over mine as if to say, “You’re nervous about me?” His humility is stunning and knocks the uneasiness right out of me.

As an amateur boxer, Leonard won three national Golden Gloves Titles, two AAU Championships and a 1975 Pan-American Games Crown. Yet he wanted to get his college degree, so he enrolled at the University of Maryland. However, after his father’s diagnosis of cancer, Leonard turned professional so he could contribute to the mounting medical bills. College got shoved to the back burner.

Just because he made a living beating people up doesn’t mean that Sugar doesn’t have a soft side. A prime example occurred during a recent radio talk show, when a caller lauded Leonard for an act of kindness that occurred way back on May 9, 1982, when Leonard was at Johns Hopkins University, being treated for a detached retina.

The caller explained that his brother was at Hopkins with renal kidney failure and requested to meet Leonard. The meeting was supposed to last five or ten minutes because it was happening the day Leonard was getting discharged. Turns out, the meeting lasted more than an hour, per Leonard’s request. The caller went on that “even though my brother died six months after that…the impact you had on him meant a great deal.”

Leonard was struck by both the caller’s recollection and the obvious impact it had on the caller. “It’s just amazing and humbling when you can make a difference – whether it’s five hours or five minutes – in someone’s life,” Leonard said of the phone call.

Today, Leonard is still flashing that famous smile before the cameras. He hosts "The Contender" – a reality-type boxing series on ESPN. He’s also a gifted (and busy) motivational speaker. His themed speeches are collectively entitled POWER, which stands for Prepare, Overcome, Win Every Round. Sugar Ray may not have won Every Round as a boxer, but he’s clearly a winner in life.