Boxer’s life like Hollywood script
Heinz History Center gets his memorabilia
Wally Kuzma was scouring eBay when something glossy caught his eye.
It was a sleek blue robe, old but in good condition.
Embroidered on the back, in the city’s traditional gold, read “Pittsburgh,” and under that read “Freddie Lenn.”
The robe belonged to his uncle, a Pittsburgher, a boxer, an Olympic coach, a Marine. There was no hesitation. Kuzma found out that the vendor had purchased the robe at a yard sale, as Lenn had given the garment away long ago.
He immediately contacted his cousin, Fred Lenn Jr., letting him know he had found his father’s garb. It was shipped from Massachusetts and added to the family’s trove of Lenn’s memorabilia.
As of July 18, that robe, along with an extensive personal collection of trophies, medals, photographs, newspaper clippings,
magazine covers and more, all belong to the Heinz History Center, as a contingent of the Lenn family — daughter Kathy and Fred Jr. and Fred Jr.’s wife, Denise Allen Lenn — donated the talented boxer’s collection to the museum.
Lenn did more in life than most men could do in two, so much that Fred Jr. and his wife half-joked/half-pitched that Hollywood should consider making a movie about him.
Born Frederick Lenkoski on Dec. 29, 1914, on the South Side of Pittsburgh, back when the air was filled with smog, Lenn began boxing at an the age of 14, eventually becoming a pro. There would be weeks where he would box two or three times and would spar with legends of the area such as Billy Conn.
As a fighter, he was known for his devastating left hook and spry athleticism, tiring opponents then overpowering them. According to BoxRec.com, he finished his career with a 33-9 record, but his family estimates his total number of bouts is closer to 200. Former Steelers owner Art Rooney was one of his promoters, and the two became good friends.
As a military man, his career was long, varied and all over the map. He enlisted in the Marines in 1933 and continued to serve until 1968, a span that included stops in China, the South Pacific, Korea and Hawaii.
And as a coach, Lenn worked with the best of the best. He trained Muhammad Ali — then Cassius Clay — at the Pan-American Games in 1959 and later Joe Frazier in the 1964 Olympics. He also did work with underprivileged children, teaching them the sport that had treated him so well.
Ever the Pittsburgh native, Lenn ended up retiring to the Steel City. He died Jan. 23, 1993, at the age of 78 and was buried with honors at the Quantico National Cemetery in Virginia.
There are a couple of crucial factors that contributed to the completeness of the collection the Lenns donated. According to Denise Allen Lenn, her father-inlaw was often singled-out to be used on covers, advertisements and articles, saying that the military had him “everywhere” due to how photogenic he was.
Lenn also was an organized collector of his personal relics with recaps of his fights, profiles, military memorabilia and more.
“He was like his own press agent,” Fred Lenn Jr. said.
Allen Lenn said the scrapbook, which she began reading about nine months ago, was the biggest motivation to start preparing the donation, hoping to preserve the veteran’s accomplishments.
“No one had read it for probably 25 to 30 years,” she said. “I started reading it and I said, ‘What a story.’”
She got in contact with the Heinz History Center through a friend, who eventually connected her to curator Emily Ruby.
Ruby said there was immediate interest.
The thoroughness of the collection was impressive — the family provided the scrapbook, the robe, trophies, medals, photographs, his full military uniform and a detailed timeline of his life, among other items — and the fact that it told the story of both an athlete and a military member made it stand out from the handful of weekly donation offers the museum receives.
“It’s not always this complete,” Ruby said. “This is the type of collection that we hope for where we have a lot of information and we can tell a complete story.”
Ruby said that the collection still needs to be processed and inventoried, and will temporarily stay in storage. But with the museum’s sports exhibit set to undergo restructuring within the next year or two, Lenn’s story will likely make its way into the exhibit’s boxing section.
She said that Lenn’s story fits in with the exhibit’s mission of telling more local and intimate stories.
“In our sports museum, we don’t want people to think that it’s just about the Steelers and the Penguins,” Ruby said. “It’s about Pittsburgh’s history. It’s about neighborhood leagues and community sports.”
Allen Lenn said that the exhibit will be a good opportunity for people to learn about an unsung hero of a sports-crazed city.
“I have a tagline for him,” she said.
“An ordinary man living an extraordinary life.”