By Rick Farris
These are the tunnel's right below Dodger Stadium, connecting the Pasadena Freeway with Downtown Los Angeles. My heavyweight friend, Kit Boursse' and I, would drive thru these tunnels going to and from the Main Street Gym. Kit had a Model "A" Ford, 1932 I believe it was. When you turned the ignition key "off" and then back "on" while driving, the engine would backfire. The backfire made one helluva explosion inside the tunnels.
We pissed a lot of people off doing that trick in the tunnel, but none worse than one of our passengers on a ride home from the gym, legendary trainer, Teddy Bentham. Bentham was in his 70's, and thought Kit was crazy after backfiring the car as we gave him a ride home to the San Fernando Valley shortly before his death. At the time, Bentham was training Jerry Quarry and Kit was his chief sparring partner. Teddy was staying in the Valley at the home of one of his friends, the late Eddie Foy III.
As we drove thru the tunnels with Teddy, Kit backfired the car with no warning, Teddy would go crazy and yell out, "Jesus Christ, you're out of your F__cking mind! What in the Hell is wrong with you?" I was sitting in the back, in the rumble seat behind the cab, so I got none of the heat. But I could hear him screaming, even outside the cab with all the noise of traffic.
A few weeks after the Model "A" incident, Teddy didn't show up in the gym one day for Quarry's afternoon workout. It wasn't like Teddy to be late. The next day his body was discovered in his bed. He had been dead a couple of days. Besides Quarry, I remember Teddy in the corner of the great lightweight champ, Carlos Ortiz.
There's a name from the past, Teddy Bentham. To Teddy, and my late friend Kit Boursse' . . . Rest in Peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.