George Chuvalo

In Early January at the request of my good friend Ron Lipton I posted the following piece on the 'Site Index' Page. The piece was to help publicise George Chuvalo's 'War Against Drugs' tour.

Special Anouncment.

Canadian heavyweight legend George Chuvalo will appear at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. on Tuesday 2/11/03 to give an anti-drug lecture.

George has had first hand experience of the damage drugs can do, he has sadly lost two sons through drug overdoses, one through suicide and his wife through suicide after that. Despite all this George has stayed strong and is now happily remarried and is now waging his own war against drugs and the evil that they do. George now tours Canada and the U.S.A. giving lectures and trying to warn people about the damage that drugs cause.

Also on the previous day, Monday 2/10/03, George will be present at Chianti's Ristorante in Newburgh to sign autographs and have dinner.

Both of the above events were arranged by George and his good friend Ron Lipton, when Ron told me of these events we decided that my site, which Ron has contributed heavily to would be a good place to gain some publicity. Drugs are a cancer in today's society and can destroy many lives, it is not just the people who take drugs but also their family's who suffer. People like George who stand up and fight against drugs deserve respect and support for fighting such a worthy cause.

George Chuvalo Battles Muhammad Ali For The World Heavyweight Title On 29th March 1966, Ali Won A Tough Fifteen Round Decision.

Hopefully anyone who reads this and is in the area at the time of the above events will attend and give George support. You can also visit George's 'Fight Against Drugs' Website by clicking Here The website gives details of George's anti drugs campaign as well as information about his boxing career and other interesting bits of information and is a site that is well worth a visit.

George Celebrates One Of His Many Ring Victories, During His Magnificent Ring Career George Compiled An Outstanding, 73-18-2 (64 KO's) Record And Fought Twice For the World Title.

Click Here For George Chuvalo's Complete Career Record.

All Ring Records Courtesy Of boxrec.com.

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As a follow up to the above piece i have posted a newspaper article that was written after George's Anti-Drugs speech.

February 12, 2003

A knockout anti-drug speech
POUGHKEEPSIE: Former boxer George Chuvalo delivered an impassioned talk at Marist College about the heartache caused by drug abuse.

   By Kevin Gleason
   Times Herald-Record
   kgleason@th-record.com

   The fight never ends. Ninety-seven professional boxing matches - ring wars against all-time greats named Ali and Frazier and Foreman - and the fight never ends.

   George Chuvalo had retired before most of last night's crowd had been born. Outside a few fathers steeped in boxing history, who had heard of Chuvalo before arriving at the Marist College auditorium?
   Oh, but they know Chuvalo now.
   They know in excruciating detail, in imagery more forceful than any of his jackhammer left hooks. They know the intimate details of Chuvalo's hell.
   By the end, it mattered not if anybody in the room had heard of George Chuvalo. It mattered not, even, that he's a former Canadian heavyweight champ, that he not once touched the canvas in shaping a 78-18-1 record.

   Chuvalo's anti-drug message crossed generational lines and athletic resumes. When it was over, college kids bellied up to the stage, shook his hand, thanked him.
   How, Chuvalo was asked, could he freely discuss the loss of three sons and his first wife to suicide and lethal doses of heroin?
   "If I didn't talk about my sons and my wife,'' Chuvalo said, "than their deaths would have been in vain.''
   And so Chuvalo, 65, has spent the past 6½ years sharing his anti-drug theme around the country. "If you are a fighter, you fight,'' he said. "We all fight on different levels.''

Chuvalo's real fight began when his son Jesse got hooked on heroin. One day in 1985, Jesse lay on his bed, shoved a .22 caliber into his mouth and pulled the trigger.
He was 20.

Eight years later George Lee Chuvalo died of a heroin overdose.
Two days after the funeral, his mother, Lynne, shattered by grief, penned a suicide note before overdosing on pills. George found his wife on George Lee's bed.

The fighter and his remaining son, Steven, decided they would take their story on the road. A videotape of Chuvalo's story played last night showed Steven to be well-spoken and clean cut, not your stereotypical addict.
But nine months after the taping, Steven was found dead at home, a syringe sticking from his left arm and a cigarette dangling between the first two fingers of his right hand.

"I think my sons would want me to tell you what a horrible life it is to be a drug addict,'' Chuvalo told the audience. "I think what Steven wanted to talk to you about is how easily it was to try heroin.''
His eyes moist, his audience sadly captivated, Chuvalo spoke of using love to endure through hardships.

"He's known far and wide in the boxing community as perhaps the nicest guy it's ever produced,'' said Ron Lipton of Newburgh, a longtime boxing referee who helped bring Chuvalo from his Toronto home to Marist.
The fighter is a lover. That's what happens when the fight never ends.

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