About Nashville Podcast with Mike Rodgers & Dan Whitehurst

GOLDEN GLOVES/SILVER GLOVES/CUTMAN Ray Rodgers, who was born in Oklahoma but grew up in Conway, was inducted into the Silver Gloves Hall of Fame in 2001, the Golden Gloves Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2007. The late Billy Bock, a 1996 Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame inductee who was a well-known amateur boxer and later was among the pioneers of high school baseball in the state, told the Arkansas Democrat in 1990: “If it weren’t for Ray Rodgers, there would not be boxing left in Little Rock.” Silver Gloves is for amateur fighters ages 10-15. Golden Gloves is for amateur fighters ages 16 and older. Based in part on the Golden Gloves’ tie back to the Chicago Tribune, newspapers long have been among the main sponsors of amateur boxing events. The New York City Golden Gloves tournament, which has been around for 85 years, is sponsored by the Daily News. Rodgers told an interviewer in 2008: “It has a natural attraction to kids who are basically adventuresome and want to do something no one else does. That’s a lot of it. The dynamics of it hooked me in the fifth grade, and I’ve never been out of it one day. “In boxing, as in life and everything else, desire is half the deal. ... I’m a great believer in amateur boxing. I think it’s one of the greatest sports ever devised. It’s a cliche, but it’s true. In boxing, you don’t have anybody to hand off to or to lateral or pass it off to. You’re on your own, brother. “The only discipline that lasts is self-discipline. You can stand a kid in a corner and whip his butt with a paddle. But once he learns self-discipline and the desire to do better in the ring, that sticks with him all his life.” Jermain Taylor is the most prominent example of the hundreds of boys (now men) Rodgers has helped through the years. Born in Little Rock in 1978, Taylor and his three younger sisters were abandoned by their father when the future champion was 5. Taylor began boxing at age 13 with Ozell Nelson as his trainer. Taylor’s Olympic bronze medal came in 2000 and his professional boxing debut was on Jan. 27, 2001, at Madison Square Garden against Chris Walsh. As noted in yesterday’s post, Rodgers has served as the cut man in Taylor’s corner throughout Taylor’s professional career. Taylor once said of Rodgers: “He’s the type of guy who comes in the dressing room and makes you feel comfortable. I’ve never seen him mad, not one time, and I’ve known him since I was 12. I’ve never seen him with a mean face. He’s the type of guy who always wants to see you smiling.” Rodgers’ father, who worked for 49 years for an oil company that eventually became part of Mobil, moved the family from Oklahoma to Conway so he could serve as a pump station engineer in Arkansas. Young Ray was already addicted to boxing at the time of the move. Ray Rodgers’ office at the Golden Gloves Education Center, which is adjacent to the Junior Deputy baseball fields just off Cantrell Road in Little Rock, now serves as sort of a museum of this state’s boxing history. There is, for example, a photo of Bock and Rodgers in 1959 at the state AAU boxing tournament with Miss Arkansas in between. “We were her escorts,” Rodgers says. Famous names in Arkansas business, sports and politics crop up as you look at the programs and bout sheets Rodgers has collected through the years. For instance, Buddy Coleman of Little Rock was the state AAU boxing chairman one year. Rodgers delights in talking about his 14-year amateur boxing career, delivering pithy quotes such as this one: “My left jab was so good the judges thought the other guy was sucking my thumb.” The Arkansas River Valley — from Fort Smith all the way down to Little Rock –was a boxing hotbed in those days. Rodgers tells of going across a low-water bridge to make it to a boxing tournament at Oark (not Ozark!) in the Ozark Mountains north of Clarksville. Places like Clarksville and Coal Hill produced good amateur boxers. The Subiaco Abbey, built in 1878 and associated with the Benedictine Order, was the home of many talented boxers. Wherever amateur tournaments were held across the state, you knew the boys from Subiaco Academy would be there and compete hard. Rodgers’ home ring was at the National Guard Armory in Conway, where he boxed for a coach known as “Slow John” Cole. Rodgers went by the nickname “Butterball.” He continued to box competitively through graduation from Conway High School and Arkansas State Teachers College, now the University of Central Arkansas. “I had deceptive speed in those days,” Rodgers says. “I was slower than I looked.” At age 16, Rodgers also began coaching younger boxers. In 1958, he sent his first boxer to the national Golden Gloves tournament in Chicago. Rodgers graduated from college in August 1960, becoming the first member of his family to earn a degree. He got married two weeks after graduation and moved to Little Rock to take a job with Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. Rodgers fought his last fight in 1961 at the ...

BOXING MANAGER/PROMOTER/DON KING BUSINESS PARTNER Today’s guest is Jimmy Adams who is a Don King business partner and former boxing manager. Jimmy managed the boxing careers of Ernie Shavers, Bert Cooper, Oliver McCall, Greg Page, Riddick Bowe, Tony Tucker, and many, many others. Jimmy actually promoted several of my own pro bouts in the beginning of my boxing career with his “Mix Factory Boxing Series” in Nashville. The interview with Jimmy Adams was so good that I’m making it a two part series. This was a completely exclusive interview because he rarely speaks to the press, and when he does it’s to promote something and not discuss it. If you’re a fan of boxing and have wondered what happens behind the scenes of the fight game then this episode may very well blow your mind. Specific details that have never before been revealed to the press or to the fans of Boxing about the great careers of the many boxers I’ve mentioned and what eventually happened to all of them might leave you speechless or possibly bring you to tears. I was also able to debunk several myths regarding Don King and his operations in our conversation with another side of the story that sets the record straight for the listeners. Mike and Holly talk about a couple of special events going on in Nashville this week, the controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton’s health, and what the Football protests mean to Holly being a woman of color. They also provide the listeners with their new About Nashville Feedback Phone Line to interact with them on the show. Follow the show on Twitter & Facebook @AboutNashville Email the show at [email protected] Call the About Nashville Feedback Phone Line (615) 852-5552 to ask questions or provide feedback that will be played and responded to on the show. QUESTION OF THE WEEK Are Hillary’s health problems worse than reported or politically exaggerated? Let’s hear what you have to say about it. Call the About Nashville Feedback Phone Line at (615) 852-5522 and leave us a message. State your name, where you’re from, and your answer to this week’s question.

MIDDLEWEIGHT & LIGHT-HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION Today’s guest on About Nashville is former world boxing champion Reggie Sweet Johnson who held both the WBA Middleweight and IBF Light-Heavyweight titles. His tie to Nashville is his boxing manager, Bob Jordan, who also managed me for a short time in my own boxing career. We talked about how he got into boxing, his winning two world championships, how he dealt with bad politics in the sport, his showdowns with legendary boxers like James Toney and Roy Jones Jr. and he spoke candidly about his 12 year prison sentence for a crime he says he didn’t commit.

COMEDIAN/ACTOR/PODCAST HOST Bubba Bradley talks about launching his new podcast next week called 'All Things Country', his new movie 'Shark Exorcist', and his recent comedy tour. They also discuss 'The Walking Dead', 'The Howling', dating apps, and how little they really know about topics like politics and religion.

AUTHOR/ATTORNEY/BOXING JUDGE David Hudson talks about how he became a boxing judge, writing 40 published books, being an attorney in Nashville, and how they met almost 20 years ago.