Tale of the tee: Pennsylvania Packs a Punch
Pennsylvania is ‘The Mid-Atlantic Mauler’
It must have come from far back in my mind, a dark and strange place whose inventory includes a 1984 television commercial for what was then known as Federal Express.
It featured John Moschitta Jr., the world’s fastest talker.
“I know it’s perfect Peter that’s why I picked Pittsburgh Pittsburgh’s perfect Peter may I call you Pete?” he said.
Forty years later, in the spirit of that creme de la commercial, I submit our own alliterative tour de force: Pennsylvania Packs a Punch.
This design isn’t so much about boxing as it is a metaphor for the commonwealth’s rich history, character and fighting spirit.
Stay has celebrated Pennsylvania in myriad ways, with designs including Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful and Pennsylvania Polka, Pennsylvania Craft Beer and Pennsylvania Bigfoot Believers.
Pennsylvania Packs a Punch is just the next round.
Hallowed history
The verbiage came first, then the image of a classic boxing poster, and finally a reckoning of the Keystone State’s hallowed history with the sweet science, for there’s no denying Pennsylvania’s pugilistic prominence:
“Smokin’ Joe” Frazier, born in South Carolina, arrived in Philadelphia as a teen-ager. Known for his loaded left hook, Frazier won a gold medal at the 1964 Olympics and was a heavyweight champion as a pro.
Frazier trained at Joe Frazier’s Gym at 2917 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, prior to championship bouts against Muhammad Ali and George Foreman and trained other boxers there after his 1975 retirement from the ring. The gym, which closed in 2008, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Ali bought land and built a training camp in Deer Lake, Schuylkill County, in 1972. He trained there prior to 1975’s “Thrilla in Manila,” his third and final bout against Frazier. Known as Fighter’s Heaven, the camp was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2023 and operates as a tourist destination.
One of Ali’s sparring partners at Deer Lake was Larry Holmes, a Georgia native who grew up in Easton, Pa. Known as the “Easton Assassin,” Holmes was heavyweight champion from 1978-85 and is the only fighter to have defeated Ali by stoppage.
And then there’s “Rocky,” the 1976 movie written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It’s the tale of a South Philadelphia club fighter and Mafia enforcer who ascends to the heavyweight title. (Stallone was ringside when Holmes stopped Ali at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.)
Less than two miles south of Joe Frazier’s Gym stands the former Blue Horizon gym at 1314 N. Broad St., Philadelphia. What began as row homes in 1865 later became a Moose Lodge and, in 1961, what Sports Illustrated hailed as the last great boxing venue in the United States before its closing in 2010.
“From the rickety balcony, an overexcited spectator can practically reach down and slug the participants. The degree of intimacy is both upsetting and illuminating. It conveys not only the brutal side of the fight game but also its cardinal virtues: the supreme courage of the boxers, say, and the physical beauty of the action. … Indeed, if boxing has a soul, it might well be located in the City of Brotherly Love,” according to the magazine.
Pennsylvania as a whole has soul. It brings its best day in and day out. Through triumph and tragedy, good days and bad, the commonwealth is a fighter.
It’s 67 counties of fistic dynamite, the Mid-Atlantic Mauler, the Keystone State of the US of A.
Pity who or what’s on the receiving end because Pennsylvania Packs a Punch.