Boxing for unity

Boxing for peace and unity
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A fighter and a dreamer

Virgil Love dreams of a world filled with happiness, peace and love.

A professional boxer and world-class boxing coach, Love decided to use the sport as a vehicle to promote self-identity, teamwork and cultural unity.

A 1965 graduate of Delone Catholic High School, New Oxfor, PA, Love, a native of Gettysburg, PA, enrolled in the journalism department of the University of South Carolina. After a few years in journalism, Love became involved in boxing.

(Funny thing, he graduated four years ahead of me -- "Beer, Sex, Sin & Wine -- I'm from the Class of 69." Didn't say I graduated exactly).

“I got hooked up with Mohammed Ali,” Love said. “I met Ali at the University of South Carolina during one of his college tour speaking engagements.”

At the time, Ali was to face heavyweight boxing champion, Joe Fraser in a match in South Carolina. Ali invited Love to sit in the front row, beside Ali’s mother, Dolly, Love said. He also was invited to the first Ali-Fraser fight in Madison Square Gardens in New York City, he said.

Promotes match between Teofilo Stevenson and Mohammed Ali

Love also met and became friends with Cuban boxing legend, Teofilo Stevenson, “the icon fobr machismo in Cuba,” Love said. As a result of his friendship with Stevenson and Ali, Love attempted to promote a boxing match between them.

“It was called the fight that never was,” Love said. “Despite the politics, I got Stevenson out of Cuba without a sports team … he stayed with me for three weeks in Gettysburg.”

The "match that never was"

Touted as the “Match of the Century” between the two heavyweight champions of the world, the fight became a political football, Love said. Ramsey Clark, U.S. Secretary of the State became involved, Love said. Even Bill Bradley of CBS’ 60 Minutes did a segment on the debate. Because of the strained relations between the two countries, the fight never materialized.

Love said Ali and Stevenson were friendly rivals. Ali was even quoted as saying that if the fight had happened, it would have ended in a tie. The match, Love believed, would have been a step in normalizing relations between Cuba and the US.

Many believe they were the best -- Ali was a professional boxer, while Stevenson still maintained an amateur standing. Love said that promoters saw the possiblity of making a great deal of money and attempted to make it a reality.

Cassius Clay

Ali, whose give name was Cassius Clay, won the gold medal in the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome Italy. His rise to fame in the professional boxing world came about four years later, when fought Sonny Listen, and claimed the world heavy weight title in a six-round bout. Shortly after his win, Clay converted to Islam and took the name, Mohammed Ali.

Love said Ali was famous for predicting the round when he would knock out his opponent. When Love, met the champ, Ali had already made a name as an advocate for civil rights. While the promoters saw a change to reap a fortune in an Ali-Stevenson fight, Love saw an opportunity to broaden racial and international harmony.

Ali's symbolic act of tossing his gold medal in the Ohio River after he was not allowed to enter a cafeteria, was the precursor to a much more courageous action when he was drafted into the Army in 1967 and he refused to go as a protest to the Vietnam War. He was sentenced to three years in prison and stripped of his title and his boxing permit. He later appealed to the US Supreme Court and recaptured his right to box.

Teofilo Stevenson

Teofilo Stevenson of Cuba also went down in Olympic history with the capture of three Olympic titles. Amidst the terrorist attack in Munich 1972, Stevenson defeated Duane Bobick - known in the US as the “white hope.”

Stevenson went on to capture two other Olympic medals -- Montreal 1976, and Moscow 1980. Because of continuing political tensions between the US and Cuba, Teofilo did not compete in the Olympic games held in Los Angeles.

$4 million offered to fight Ali

Teofilo was offered $4 million to become a professional boxer and fight Ali after the Munich games. He declined the offer, saying he preferred living in Cuba. That did not deter promoters and in 1978, the push was on to promote three, three-round figths in the US. That never happened, Love said.

“Ali told me it didn’t make sense to fight because we were the best in the world. He in professional boxing, and me in amateur,” Stevenson was quoted as saying in an interivew around that time. As Love said, Stevenson and Ali became friends. Stevenson visited Ali in the US in 1995 and Ali went to Cuba as part of a delegation in 1998, which brought more than $1 million in medicine and other health care items.

Glory Gym is dream realized

The Glory Gym is the culmination of a 20-year dream, Love said. A former boxing coach at Gettysburg College, he also taught boxing at Camp Hill Correctional Center and Graterford Prison, near Philadelphia, Love has coached boxing in Pakistan and Turkey.

For three years, the gym was located in a room of the American Legion building on Baltimore Street, Gettysburg. His new gym is located in the former H&H Pontiac Garage at South Washington Street, at the intersection of West Middle Street, and is in the last stages of renovation.

“I do it for the kids,” Love said. “There are so many kids running the streets with no direction or no purpose. We opened up the program to keep the kids off the street.”

Founded in 1993, Love wanted to develop a world-class boxing program. In 2001, Glory Gym became a non-profit organization. Its program is designed to work with at-risk youth. Love uses boxing and other martial arts training as a way to help youth learn about their strengths and weaknesses and to develop positive self-images.

Intergenerational inspiration

Love is currently working with Steven Neibler, director of the Adams County Office on Aging and a member of the Glory Gym board to develop an intergenerational program. Love said many at-risk youth do not have extended families with grandparents.

“The seniors will learn do to floor exercises,” Love said. “They will learn timing and balance and train together with the youth. They will have a chance to bond with them through the sport.”

For more information, contact Love at http://www.glorygym.org or call 717-334-9293.


Glory Gym’s Mission

Glory Gym, founded by Virgil Love, a world-class boxing coach, and a native of Gettysburg, became a non-profit organization in 2002. Its mission is to “produce healthy, well-rounded, drug free athletes” by teaching them respect and self-discipline, Love said.

Programs offered include amateur boxing, junior Olympics, Olympic boxing and Golden Gloves, boxerobics, yoga, Tai Chi, pilates, Hispanic dance and voice and African dance and voice.

“When I was 38-years-old, I decided to get into the ring again,” Love said. “I should have known that I had no business in the ring, but I did it, which was no big deal in itself. Then it became a symbol for me that anything’s possible. That is what I try to teach the kids.”

Love said the emphasis of the programs is to promote health through exercise related activities. It is also designed to stimulate personal growth, teamwork and cross-cultural interaction with other members of the community.

“We want to work with kids who have no one to pay attention to them,” he said.