Saturday, April 18, 2015
YOUNGSTOWN
On the ground floor of the Tyler Mahoning Valley History Center on West Federal Street, one of Youngstown’s favorite sons was home and loving it.
He brought some of his championship belts with him, but already on the walls and in cases in a corner of the cavernous room were so much of his history.
There were gloves. Shoes. A gym bag. Boxing shorts. Posters.
In one case, a green, red and white robe with an Italian flag on its back was hung carefully. It was the championship robe, the card next to it explained, that Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini had worn in fights against Jorge Morales, Jose Luis Ramirez, Alexis Arguello and Arturo Frias.
Standing not far away from what he says is one of his favorite pictures, a closeup of Mancini with a puffy, mangled eye and big smile, was the World Boxing Association 1982-1984 lightweight champion himself.
That picture, Mancini explained, was taken after his last fight when he retired, in February 1985. He was 24 years old.
The kids had picked it out, he said — 12 ninth-graders from the Youngstown Early College, in collaboration with the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, who worked to bring the Youngstown Boxing Hall of Fame to reality.
Mancini looked up and around.
“I love these old buildings — plus, I’m a history buff,” he said.
He spied an old Isaly’s sign across the room.
“I’m getting flashbacks about going to the top of my street to get that hot fudge sundae,” he said. “I used to go in there with my mom and dad after church to get breakfast.
Mancini grew up on Youngstown’s South Side.
He has lived out of the area for many years, but is back now. He and his wife, Tina, who is from Campbell, live in Poland.
Upstairs above the museum, a crowd had gathered. Fellow boxer Craig Snyder of Austintown was there too. He has autographed some gloves for display.
“Since we live in Youngstown, we decided to focus on the city’s legacy,” explained Lanay Merriwether. “And a big focus is sports,” she continued.
“Let me tell you something,” Mancini told the crowd, “these kids are wonderful for them to do this. I appreciate it, honest to God, I can’t tell you how excited I am about being here.”
Mancini said he hopes the museum becomes a home for reminders of the great and all-but-forgotten boxers of the past his father told him about. His father, Lenny Mancini, was a boxer whose career was cut short because of a war injury.
“Jack Trammell was an African American, and he couldn’t get a title shot,” Mancini said. “Number three contender in the world. My father used to tell me all about him. These are the fighters people don’t know about.”
Snyder, who was IBC Junior Middleweight Champion from November 1994 to April 1996, said he agrees Youngstown should do more to promote the fighters it’s had.
He said he’s writing a book “about every single fighter that’s ever been out of Youngstown, Ohio, and I’m looking for a publisher.”
As Snyder and Mancini mingled with the crowd, with Mancini drawing laughs by graciously making himself available for “autographs, pictures and baby-kissing,” Lanaypronounced them “very interesting.”
“It’s exciting to know you can hang out with a person who’s been famous,” she said.