A troubled Brooklyn teenager sent to a reform school...saved from a life of crime by boxing trainer Cus D'Amato...the youngest heavyweight champion in history. If Floyd Patterson's life story sounds familiar, it's because it repeated itself, at least the first act, in Mike Tyson. But upon acheiving the most coveted title in sports, Patterson and Tyson's lives diverged. Tyson ended up in prison on a rape conviction. Patterson ended up helping juvenile delinquents reform themselves. Patterson even adopted one troubled youth, Tracy Harris Patterson, who became a boxing champion himself. And it is these years after boxing that made Patterson a real champion. "They said I was the fighter who got knocked down the most, but I also got up the most," Patterson once remarked on his boxing career. One could apply the same words to Patterson's life: he got knocked down, but he got up--got up to win a gold medal at the 1952 Olympics, got up to become heavyweight champion, got up to become a gentleman. Circumstances defeat some men. Better men defeat circumstances. Floyd Patterson, who started life in a bad place but ended it somewhere far better, rest in peace.

Dan, Thanks! I think I became a boxing fan after listening to a heavy weight bout of Floyd's on the radio.

Chris, you're dating yourself!

Boxing on the radio is something that I've never experienced. And although I don't find baseball, or basketball, or football on the radio weird, for some reason I find boxing on the radio strange.

This is the kind of success story you love to hear about.

No whining about 'the man' keeping him down. No whining about being a poor under privileged kid. He 'Just did it' baby!

RIP