Bert Sugar

Herbert "Bert" Randolph Sugar (June 7, 1936 – March 25, 2012) was a boxing writer and sports historian recognizable by his trademark fedora and unlit cigar.

Early years

Sugar was born in Washington, D.C.on June 7, 1936 to Harold Randolph Sugar and Anne Edith (Rosensweig) Sugar.

Education

Sugar graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1953, where he was a reporter and columnist for the school's newspaper.His entry in the high school yearbook for that year predicts he "will become a radio announcer or sports writer."Sugar graduated from the University of Maryland.He earned a JD and MBA from the University of Michigan in 1960.

Career

After passing the bar Bert worked in advertising including the McCann Erikson agency. Sugar bought Boxing Illustrated magazine in 1969 and was editor until 1973. From 1979 to 1983 he was editor and publisher of The Ring magazine. In 1988 he again became editor of Boxing Illustrated.In 1998 he founded Bert Sugar's Fight Game.

Sugar wrote more than 80 books, focusing on his favorite sports of boxing and baseball. Among his boxing books are Great Fights, Bert Sugar on Boxing, 100 Years of Boxing, Sting like a Bee (with José Torres), The Ageless Warrior (Preface, with Mike Fitzgerald) and Boxing's Greatest Fighters. Sugar was ranked as "The Greatest Boxing Writer of the 20th Century" by the International Veterans Boxing Association.

In May 2009 Sugar published Bert Sugar's Baseball Hall of Fame: A Living History of America's Greatest Game through Running Press.

With James Randi, Sugar co-wrote a book about Harry Houdini, titled Houdini, His Life and Art.

Along with Lou Albano, he helped write The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pro Wrestling. He wrote a regular sports column for Smoke Magazine, a quarterly cigar lifestyle magazine.Sugar was described by sportscaster Bob Costas as being "Runyonesque" (in reference to Damon Runyon).

Representation in other media

Sugar appeared in several films playing himself, including Night and the City (1992), The Great White Hype, and Rocky Balboa. Interviews with Sugar feature in the documentary Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson.

• In January 2005, Sugar was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
• In May 2010, he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
• In 2011, he was featured on The Pentagon Channel's Armed Forces Boxing Championships. Sugar had been scheduled to broadcast the 2012 matches, but his declining health prevented him from doing so.
• The Boston Globe ranked him as "one of the foremost historians alive.".

Sugar died from cardiac arrest on March 25, 2012 at age 75. His family was at his bedside at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, New York. Prior to his death, Sugar had been battling lung cancer.