Authors discuss new Pavlik bio

By Joe Scalzo

When Kelly Pavlik transferred to Lowellville in middle school, his new teacher, Cathy Russo, took a look at the roster and recalls being anxious to meet her newest student: Miss Kelly Pavlik.

“Wow, was I ever wrong,” she told Greg Gulas, co-author of the forthcoming Pavlik biography “Kelly ‘The Ghost’ Pavlik: The Pride of Youngstown.”

Stories like that help explain how the South Side native kept his humility even after emerging as boxing’s middleweight champion — and there are plenty more in the 200-page book, which will be released Friday.

The book, co-written with Akron Beacon Journal sports writer David Lee Morgan, is filled with behind-the-scenes gems and other insights culled from more than 100 interviews over the past 18 months.

“The thing that shocked me was how down-to-earth and humble he is,” said Morgan, a 1984 Warren Harding High and 1993 Youngstown State University graduate. “He is exactly what people say he is.”

The Pavlik camp got the idea to do a book soon after Pavlik won the middleweight title with a seventh-round knockout of Jermain Taylor in September 2007. Pavlik’s lawyer, Lou Schiavoni, approached Morgan — who wrote a biography of LeBron James soon after he was drafted by the Cavaliers — and asked him if he’d be interested in writing it.

“I said, ‘Um, yeah,’” Morgan recalled while chuckling.

Morgan then approached Gulas, his former baseball coach at YSU who wrote a biography of George “Shotgun” Shuba, to co-author the book. From the start, they knew they wanted the book to focus on Pavlik’s personality and impact.

“Here’s the thing I want people to understand,” said Morgan. “This isn’t a book where we’re boxing experts, and we’re looking at each of his milestone fights and critiquing them and analyzing his boxing.

“This is a celebration book more than anything. It’s a book about Kelly’s rise to the top of the boxing world and all the hard work it took to get there. It’s about what he means to the Mahoning Valley and, more importantly, what the Mahoning Valley means to him.”

Gulas, who called the book “a labor of fun,” said people will come away with a better understanding of Pavlik’s human side.

“People know he’s an excellent boxer, but I don’t think people realize how freely he gives of his time,” said Gulas, a Vindicator correspondent. “He does a lot of things under the radar.”

During a brief stint as a reporter for WYTV, Morgan actually lived a few blocks from the Southside Boxing Club on Erie Street, so he understands what boxing means to this area and he knows a little bit about book writing, too.

He’ll soon have four books on sale, including a forthcoming Jim Tressel book called “More Than a Coach: What it Means to Play For Coach, Friend, and Mentor Jim Tressel,” which will be released in July.

Morgan said he treasured the opportunity to reconnect with his Valley roots.

“Kelly really is a simple person,” said Morgan, who wanted to thank the Pavliks, Lou and Joe Schiavoni, and Amy Neral at Barnes & Noble for their help. “You have to be an elite, elite, elite athlete to be at the top of your respective sport and to be as humble and down-to-earth as he is. It was shocking.

“I’d meet him for an interview, and he’d walk into the restaurant like he was ready to go into the kitchen. He looked like the dishwasher, like he was there for the lunch crowd, and they were going to throw him an apron and tell him to bus the table.”

The book retails for $14.95, with photographs taking up about 80 of the 200 pages. Renowned boxing analyst Bert Sugar wrote the forward.

“It’s an affordable book and it’s an easy read,” said Gulas. “It’ll just be a read that will make you smile.”

scalzo@vindy.com