by Mitch Albom | Sep 23, 1985 | Detroit Free Press
Try to remember
A time in September When heavyweights Were oh, so mellow . . .
LAS VEGAS — You should have seen it. Larry Holmes, cracking jokes, looking like he was ready to go out for dinner, 25 minutes after he’d lost the heavyweight championship of the world.
And Michael Spinks, the man who’d taken his title, giggling, showing his muscles, looking like he’d just taken his morning shower and was fresh for a day at the office.
Fight?
What fight?
And that about says it.
by Mitch Albom | Sep 22, 1985 | Detroit Free Press
You laughed. You scoffed. You rolled up the newspaper and stuffed it in the cat’s litter box.
And then the Lions beat Dallas — just as I predicted one week ago — and you felt pretty bad, didn’t you? Really ashamed. You wanted to send me flowers, but you didn’t know the address. It’s OK. All is forgiven. Really. Don’t worry about it. It’s all right. No problem.
321 W. Lafayette, Detroit, Mich.
OK. Here we go again . . .
by Mitch Albom | Sep 22, 1985 | Detroit Free Press
LAS VEGAS — By the time you read this, history will have been made here in the Nevada desert.
Some sort of history, anyhow. Either Larry Holmes will have equaled the record 49 straight victories set by Rocky Marciano, or his younger opponent, Michael Spinks, will have destroyed the belief that a light-heavyweight cannot steal a crown off the head of a heavyweight champion.
by Mitch Albom | Sep 21, 1985 | Detroit Free Press
LAS VEGAS — Well, the people “in the know” out here are saying Michael Spinks will get his head taken off tonight. They liken the fight to an ant and a boulder. The ant moves around, real quick-like, and, oh, my, see how fast it scurries, how quickly it darts, left, then right, and yes, oh yes, it sure is quick, and then plop! the boulder squashes it dead.
The boulder is Larry Holmes. But you probably figured that out.
by Mitch Albom | Sep 20, 1985 | Detroit Free Press
LAS VEGAS — Larry Holmes was a nobody. Just some name. “Get down here by 8 p.m. and you can have a fight with him,” the promoter said. Rodell Dupree looked at the clock on the gym wall. He had four hours. “OK,” he said, and hung up. He...
by Mitch Albom | Sep 18, 1985 | Detroit Free Press
You might have thought about it, looking into the two dugouts Tuesday night.Sparky Anderson. Billy Martin.A year ago, the former was hanging ten on victory, riding the September waves with his first-place Tigers, headed for the big splash, a World Series...
by Mitch Albom | Sep 16, 1985 | Detroit Free Press
Zip a dee doo dah, zip a dee ay.
My, my, my, what a wonderful day.
Burn those gee-tars. Torch those pickup trucks. Melt those Willie Nelson albums into a ball of hot wax, and mold it into a Lion.
A roaring Lion.
Detroit 26, Dallas 21.
Wow.
Hot damn.
Sounds so good, I’m gonna say it again.
Detroit 26, Dallas 21.
Like gunning down Billy The Kid. Like knocking out Muhammad Ali. One punch. Like taking on the IRS and finding out they made the mistake.
by Mitch Albom | Sep 15, 1985 | Detroit Free Press
ANN ARBOR — Unranked, my foot.Call those pollsters. Wake them up this morning. Let the phone ring 100 times if you have to.And when they finally grunt a “hello?” let ’em have it full blast, in your loudest shish-boom-bah voice:Michigan 20,...
by Mitch Albom | Sep 15, 1985 | Detroit Free Press
When it comes to predicting pro football, there is The Scientific Way, The Computer Way, The Points Versus The Minimum Spread Coefficient Of X Way. And then there is My Way, which consists of taping the teams’ names to the kitchen wall and throwing a butter...
by Mitch Albom | Sep 13, 1985 | Detroit Free Press
Midnight. Forty young black men get on a bus in Mississippi. Their coaches follow. Then the assistants. The trainer. They are all black. Eddie Robinson, the head coach, gets on last, still in the suit he wore on the football field hours earlier.The air is cold and...
