Angelo Dundee died last week. He was Cassius Clay’s boxing trainer.
What does this have to do with me? In 1958 my 15-year-old brother was almost killed in a motorcycle accident in Miami. He spent 34 days in a coma and when he came out of it, he was completely paralyzed on the right side of his body and lost all ability to speak.
We brought him home in a wheelchair and had no idea what to do. It was 1958 and there was not much in the way of physical therapy or rehabilitation of any kind. We were on our own. After more than a year, he was able to walk but that was all. His right arm just hung down, with no movement at all.
My dad knew Dundee and brought my brother to the gym where he trained the champ. He asked Dundee, “Can you help my son?” Dundee found a new pair of the smallest Everlast trunks he had, put them on my brother and laced up a pair of boxing gloves.
“Hit this bag,” he said. My brother lifted his right arm and took a swipe at the bag. He missed, but it was a start.
My dad took him there every week for “training” and also set up a bag in his room. It was the only physical therapy my brother ever received.
Kathleen Garry McCord,
Encinitas, Calif.
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