Boxing builder named to Niagara Falls Sports Wall of Fame
This past Sunday at the Gale Centre, Sonny Pascuzzi may have delivered the shortest ever acceptance speech at a Niagara Falls Sports Wall of Fame induction ceremony.
“I am very nervous and I thank you very much,” the 88-year-old Niagara Falls native said at the end of his 24-second speech.
Although his speech was short, his appreciation for the honour was immense.
“I am really proud and happy and so is my family,” the retired General Motors employee said after the ceremony. “I never expected it but Mikey Strange told me I should have got it when Ray McGibbon got in.”
Pascuzzi, McGibbon and John Degazio started the Niagara Falls Boxing Club in the late 1970s. Pascuzzi taught the fundamentals of the sport and helped the Niagara Falls club win the outstanding team at the 1983 Roddy McDonald Provincial Championships. His coaching career lasted until the mid-1980s and he coached three provincial junior champions and senior provincial champion Rob Fortuna. Fortuna would go on to place second at the 1984 Olympic Trials.
Pascuzzi got his start in boxing thanks to his son, Marty.
“He wanted to start boxing a little bit and I talked with Ray McGibbon and John Degazio at the Niagara Falls Boxing Club and got involved with that. I enjoyed it and Ray and Johnny were good trainers and they taught me everything they knew.”
He ended up coaching at the club for about eight years.
“I loved the competition, I liked teaching the boys things and they listened well. If you taught them properly, no one would get hurt. I really enjoyed working with them.”
The highlights of Pascuzzi’s career were dominating performances at the provincial championships by Niagara Falls fighters.
“We had 12 golds and a silver one year and the next year we had 12 golds and a bronze. We did really well and we had a good club.”
He credited McGibbon and Degazio for all the successes he had as a boxing coach.
“I learned it all from those guys. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t know that much,” he said. “I taught the jab and left hand and right hand. I worked them out good.”
Pascuzzi is still passionate about the sport and continues to follow boxing.
“I am on YouTube all the time and I really like it. I enjoy it when there are two good boxers and nobody gets hurt. When you get a good one and a bad one I don’t like that too much.”
Before he started at the Niagara Falls Boxing Club, he helped coach boys 16 and older at the YMCA.
“They would go in the gym very Wednesday night and I liked working with them. We did basketball, floor hockey and stuff like that.”
BPSN is looking for a Niagara Falls business or individual to sponsor our continued coverage of the Niagara Falls Sports Wall of Fame. Please email bpuchalski@cogeco.ca for more information.
