Book focuses on the man behind the boxer
cording to Snyder, was to be a motivator. He was a constant voice in Ali’s corner, working 44 of his 61 professional bouts. He worked with Ali at all his training camps, waking him up for morning roadwork and shadowing him in the gym for every workout.
“Bundini and Ali had this tremendous friendship through the years. They were similar in so many ways. They were both survivors and both were great optimists. They each had a very personal relationship with God and always felt God would be there for you when you needed Him.”
The story of Bundini seems to be something made up by an author like Charles Dickens. “Here was a guy with a thirdgrade education who could barely read and yet not only did he achieve all of this in boxing, but he also acted in Hollywood movies like ‘The Color Purple’ and the ‘Shaft’ movies, and he knew James Baldwin and George Plimpton.”
Snyder's favorite parts of the book are about Bundini's childhood in Sanford, his time in the Merchant Marine and the early days of his marriage to Rhoda Palestine, a white woman from an Orthodox Jewish family that lived in Brighton Beach near Coney Island.
Together they had a bicultural son, Drew Brown III, who was raised Jewish, was given a bar mitzvah and even spent time at a kibbutz in Israel. “Bundini was very proud of his son who went on to become a college basketball player, a Navy jet pilot and later a pilot for Fedex. I had over 50 recorded interviews with the son and discovered how genuine their love was for each other.”
Many people loved Bundini despite some flaws, like his drinking and how he often sold Ali memorabilia. He would even occasionally be fired by Ali for the latter and other reasons. “I was able to interview some hard to reach people like heavyweight champions Larry Holmes and George Foreman, and what I discovered was how much everyone liked Bundini and wanted to talk about him. Khalilah Camacho-ali, the champ’s second wife even said
‘The two men were best buddies like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.’”
Snyder said characters like Bundini can often be found in the world of boxing. “These are people who come from difficult backgrounds, sometimes make it all the way to the top and often end up back where they began. It reminds me of most of the kids my dad coached. They were often in alternative schools. They didn’t play basketball or football, and my dad helped a lot of these kids by keeping them away from drugs and gangs.”
Looking back Snyder is also so happy that he fell in love with hip-hop music. “It just opened my mind to the world of words. It made me love poetry and literature. I began reading Langston Hughes because his name would often show up in hip-hop recordings. I wouldn’t be a writer today if not for hip-hop.”
In the acknowledgements section at the end of the book Snyder thanks people who helped in his research and he also thanks Nate Leslie, who once taught at Siena College and died from cancer in 2013. “This book would have never happened if not for Nate. He was the person who encouraged me to write my first book, and if I had not written that book the people from the publishing company would not have found me.”
When Snyder first came to Siena he put up some boxing photos in his office and when Leslie walked in the two of them began talking about boxing. “I told him about my dad and how he loved Ali and how everyone called my dad coach and would show up at our house and want to see him, and it would make me jealous because my dad was so beloved and how boxing was my life as a kid and how most weekends I’d spend my days at local amateur fights with my dad.”
Snyder said Leslie encouraged him to write a book about all of that. “Nate inspired me to begin writing. He believed in me, and I’ll never forget that.”