A STRANGE THING HAPPENED

***** They say that life changing events happen . You reach a fork in the path of life .

Robert Frost says sometimes it is the road not taken that makes the difference . Like when I didn't run away with that band of Gypsies when I had the chance .

My life changer came 40 years & two months ago . Yes , & 100 pounds ago . I won a boxing tournament . Here is what made the difference .

I was 19 & in my second year at JSCC . Daddy made me go to stay out of the war . I wasn't much of a student sporting a 2.56 GPA.

I had been a complete failure at everything at this juncture . I loved sports but was terrible at all of them .

I was the last one chosen in all the playground games . Sometimes my team got an extra player to make up for taking me .

I did bat over 400 in the Medina League one year . I hit 206 left-handed & 199 right - handed . I think that adds up to 405 . I want it understood that I was a switch- hitter in baseball only.

In football I was a triple threat back . I threatened to quit at least 3 times every practice .

Basketball was the worst . We won't go there .

I had only had a handful of dates . Mostly taking girls to stock car races

I was on a fast dark train to nowhere.

You can not imagine the shock & amazement when I won that tournament . I was shocked myself .

It was like if Pee - Wee Herman had whupped bad Mike Tyson . I was the first person from our community to win the tournament . And the last one anyone would have expected to . A couple of months later I won another one .

Six months earlier I had wandered into the Jackson Boxing Club. Coach Rayford Collins used me to prove he could take anybody to the title .

My whole life changed . I was the Champ . I was a 3.52 student the rest of the way .Where I had no confidence , I now had a mega - load of it .

I discovered the girls loved you when your name & picture were in the paper . I loved them right back . It was a real high when the men around town came to the fights & cheered .

My life changed . I used the success in boxing to carry over to many other areas . I was not a great boxer . There were many fighters in the gym better than I. They didn't have Rayford & were not willing to pay the price I paid .

Not everyone thought the changes were good . Some said I became an over - confident intimidating person . That might be fair .

I learned that I could do anything if I was willing to pay the price & had the opportunity .

All of the success I have had in my life is rooted in what I learned in the Jackson Boxing Club . Thank you Rayford .

THANK YOU FOR READING .