A visit to the Holmes home

FROM KEITH GROLLER

My high school buddy Mark Schenk and I rooted for different teams.

He rooted for the Oakland A's, and I rooted for the St. Louis Cardinals.

He rooted for the Eagles, and I rooted for the LA Rams.

But I do remember that we were both Larry Holmes fans. I remember us watching the fight -- for some reason this one was not on pay-per-view but was shown live on regular TV -- the night almost exactly 32 years ago (June 9,1978) that Larry beat Ken Norton in a thriller in Las Vegas for the heavyweight championship.

I remember we were yelling at the TV, rooting for Larry. We were really into it. A picture of that fight is below.




And when he won we were so thrilled that we decided to drive out to the airport and be part of the welcoming party when Larry flew back home with the heavyweight championship belt. I remember we got a brief glimpse of the championship belt when Larry returned.

I was thinking about that on Sunday as I drove to Larry's home for a special fundraising barbecue. Even though I've been in the local media for 30 years, I don't know Larry very well and have done very few stories on him. I certainly had never been to his home before.

Perhaps it's still the high school kid coming out in me, but I still think it's neat that we had the heavyweight champion of the world right here in the Lehigh Valley and despite his flaws, and despite some comments that made me cringe over the years, I've always admired Larry.

I was a Joe Frazier fan in the early 70s because I always thought Muhammad Ali was too cocky. And Larry, in my mind, took over for Joe as the guy who didn't get enough respect.

Anyway, it was a unique experience for me to visit Larry's home for this event on Sunday and while I also talked to Heisman Trophy winner Mike Rozier and former NBA star Rick Barry and there were other big-time people there, I got a big kick out of talking to Larry himself as he was the king for a day in his own home.

I can tell that this statue they want to put up along the river in Easton is a big deal to him. He wants it to be something that people can admire and use to inspire. He wants it not so much for himself, but as a chance to show everybody that "somebody who comes from nothing can become something."

Perhaps the timing isn't the best for this project.

The Easton Area School District is going through a hard time and coming to grips with a bitter budget crisis that is forcing the loss of teachers and programs, including athletic teams.

Some may wonder if we really need a statue of Larry Holmes when we're losing so much in the same community.

But after meeting his family and spending time in his house on Sunday, I'm even a bigger fan of him than I was in June of 1978 and I'd like to see this happen.

I see a good family guy, a proud father and husband; and a guy concerned about his community and the people around him. I see a guy who could have gone and lived anywhere, but chose to stay here and give back to a community that gave so much to him.

He said it himself, telling me: "When people make it in this world, they leave town, they move away because they don’t want people to bug them and ask them for help. But no matter where you go, people need help. I had a lot of people help me in my life, people helped to make me who I am. I didn’t do it by myself. So, I am happy to open my home to others and help others."

Larry gave me a lot of names of people who helped him; one was Earnie Butler, his trainer, who I once did a story on. He was sincere in his appreciation.

But as the fundraising goes on and this project comes to fruition, Larry know also knows he's going to take some slings and arrows. It comes with the territory no matter what he does.

“I know some people are going to say bad things about me," Holmes said. "With the Internet now, people say a lot of things whenever they want. You hope the good outweighs the bad. But I don’t give a damn. If I had to do it all over again, I’d do things the same way.”

FROM KEITH GROLLER