CLASSIC DON ELBAUM By Joe Santoliquito
D on Elbaum was an affable leprechaun and a living fount of stories – some real, some not. In the world of boxing, he was able to thrive and become a Hall of Famer. Elbaum always seemed to do things with a mischievous, amicable wink, and it is probably why he was so embraced by those who knew him and why his passing at the age of 94 on July 27 reverberated throughout the boxing world. His death and impact were eulogized in everything from the Erie Times-News to The New York Times. In a sense, that was Elbaum, someone who covered a wide swath of boxing with his earthy wit and shenanigans. His eight-decade-long career was compared to Don Quixote tilting toward boxing windmills. He had the bombast of P.T. Barnum, always looking for an angle to attract attention, and was an iconoclast when it came to the conventional ways of doing business. “But Don never meant any harm to anyone, and I think it’s why everyone had a tendency to look the other way when it came to Don,” said Hall of Fame promoter Lou DiBella, the former head of programming for HBO Sports. “He was able to hold your attention through these wonderful, incredible, remarkable stories, and a percentage of them were true. I loved talking to him. I refuse to tell one Don Elbaum story, because Don’s entire life was telling a story. Don was a lovable, colorful scoundrel – a well-intentioned scoundrel, I would say. Every fighter he had had some crazy backstory, and they really wouldn’t. He would show up to my HBO office all the time with the shoe-polish black hair claiming he
a big trophy with a check. The fight took place. Someone won, someone unknown. Don gets into the ring, announces the heavyweight champion of Michigan, and it’s all very exciting. The fighter, knowing he’s not going to get the full amount promised by Don, says to him, ‘Don, I want my fucking trophy. Me and all my guys, Detroit guys, aren’t leaving this ring until I get my fucking trophy, and neither are you!’ “Don, being Don, promised the fighter that the trophy was back in the locker room. The fighter says, ‘No, I want my fucking trophy now! Right here!’” So Elbaum left and came back 15 minutes later with the biggest trophy anyone ever saw: a two-foot- tall bronze award. The fighter was excited. The fans were excited. The attending local media descended on the ring taking photos of the fighter with the trophy for the next day’s newspapers. The fighter never received the promised purse – but he did receive a garish prize for his effort. Early the next morning, there was pounding on the fighter’s apartment door. He got up groggy and answered. “It was the cops, who came bursting into the fighter’s apartment,” Borges continued, laughing. “‘Where the hell is Gordie Howe’s MVP trophy?’ The fighter had no idea what the cops were talking about. It turns out, Don smashed the Joe Louis Arena trophy case, grabbed the biggest trophy he could find, which was Gordie Howe’s trophy, which had a hockey player on the top. No one noticed. They were just happy to get the trophy. Later, Don would say, ‘Hey, look, I was just trying to make the kid happy.’” That was Don.
found the greatest heavyweight and I should come and see him at his show. I would go to the show and I couldn’t tell who his guy was. (laughs) “That was Don.” Hall of Fame boxing writer Ron Borges recalls a classic Elbaum yarn. “He had to walk both sides of the street, like a lot of people who tried to make it in the world of boxing,” Borges said. “At one point – I don’t recall the specific time frame, but Don decides to set up a tournament for the heavyweight championship of Michigan. There were a number of fighters fighting here and there. The fighters weren’t making much money, and several times they weren’t getting paid at all. They did get to a final, which was held at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. “The two fighters realize that they weren’t going to get their full purses, though the winner was supposed to get
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