THE SMITH BROTHERS: DC’S FIRST FAMILY OF BOXING!
“WE ARE FAMILY-HAROLD-GENE AND NORMAN.”
NORMAN SMITH-MR. PERSONALITY AND GOLDEN GLOVE CHAMPION
I first met Norman Smith in the 1950s at Turner’s Arena. My cousin and next-door neighbor Sylvester ‘Monk’ Stevens, introduced us at Turner’s Arena. We were in our teens, and would hang out on the weekends on Black Broadway, Turner’s Arena, Howard Theater, Bannecker Field, etc.
Monk later became a professional boxing referee. He is seen here declaring Jerry Ballard the winner as House of Champions CEO, the late Norman Smith proudly looks on. Sylvester ‘Monk’ Stevens belongs in the DC Boxing Hall of Fame.
You could find us at the Howard Theater, Turner’s Arena, or the Bannecker Field on Georgie Avenue across the street from Howard University. Bannecker plaground was the home of great teams and great athletes. There was the Stone Walls AC Football team on the weekends, I could watch my Parkside Housing Project hero and homeboy, Maury ‘Sonny’ Wills play baseball and football on a field that today is named after him.
On the basketball court I could watch future NBA Hall of Fame players like Elgin Baylor and Earl Lloyd trade baskets. For a young teenager like me, I lived for the weekends, Black Broadway, and the Georgia Avenue corridor were popular hangout spots. They could be trouble spots-without guns!
Turner’s Arena was the name given to the 1,800 seat arena, located at 1341 W Street, NW, originally owned by a local wrestling promoter named Joe Turner. This venue was an early home to the Capitol Wrestling Corporation a precursor to the WWE which was started by Vincent J. McMahon, Sr.
McMahon in January 1953 took over the arena from Gabe Menendez, who had succeeded Turner after his death in 1947. In addition, the arena hosted top professional boxing matches promoted by James Dudley (the first black boxing promoter) featuring fighters, Holly Mims, Jimmy Cooper, B.B. Washington, Little Dynamite, Gene Smith, and Sonny Boy West.
It was also the birthplace of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) annual basketball tournament, as well as the host to top country music acts and jazz artist from around the country.
In 1956 Capitol Wrestling Corporation began broadcasting a syndicated weekly wrestling show from the arena every Thursday night. The arena had several names before it was demolished in 1965. It was Capitol Arena, and Turner’s Arena.
When the arena became so busy, Mr. McMahon hired my mentor James Dudley to become the first black General Manager of a Corporate Arena in America. Mr. Dudley was honored again when Vince McMahon, Jr. personally inducted him into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1994, making him the first black inducted.
Holly Mims was one of the most talented and feared fighters to ever come out of DC. He ducked no one. He had 102 pro fights: Record: 68 wins-28 losses and 6 draws. He was stopped only two times. He was so feared, the great Sugar Ray Robinson wished he had avoided him when he thought the 22 year-old would be just a tune-up fight in 1951.
Robinson just had fought a brutal 13 rounds with rival Jake LaMotta to win the middleweight title. Holly Mims would prove to be anything but a tune-up (see story below). Ray spend the rest of his career avoiding Holly Mims (see story below).
Sugar Ray Robinson was a party animal. He would travel anywhere for a good party, avoiding DC, thinking he might run into Mills. Ray never gave Mims a title fight and neither did anyone else in pro boxing.
He died at the young age of 42 of kidney failure in 1970-a lost treasure in the annals of DC boxing history.
The sports media never captured the greatness of Washingtonians like Holly Mims and Gene Smith. The legendary Sam Lacey was the Afro-American Newspaper sports editor, the sports pages were devoted to Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, Jackie Robinson and, Negro League baseball.
The greatness of fighters of the ‘Sweet Science’ like Mims and, Gene Smith never made it on to the sports pages of the Washington Post, Star News and Afro-American news papers.
In 1972 “INSIDE SPORTS” made its debut on W-O-O-K Radio in Washington, DC, sports reporting and sports talk would never be the same.
Harold Bell takes his seat at the table among sports media boxing legends.
I remember having breakfast one morning at Florida Avenue Grill and Ham Johnson, a Youth Advocate and boxing coach came over and sat down. Ham and I had high school history together-Spingarn and Phelps.
He made me an offer I could not refuse–breakfast was on him. Ham was the leader and Godfather of Ham AC Boxing Club in NE DC. He congratulated me on my new talk show and explained the goal of his boxing club.
The offer included, he wanted to help me save some kids and he needed me to help him save some kids! He made it clear the business of boxing was being neglected in our community and he wanted to use my talk show Inside Sports as a platform to promote boxing in the inner-city.
He said, “I have a couple a of sons, James, and Mark who I think have the potential to be World Champions.” It never got to “Deal or No Deal.” It was a done deal.
No one else in boxing had written anything on the local boxing talent before Inside Sports. James Brown (CBS) worked for Don King, he was a contributor for REAL SPORTS (INSIDE SPORTS) and Bryant Gumble. He never uttered a word about the local boxing talent in his hometown of Washington, DC.
INSIDE SPORTS’ SPOTLIGHT ON DC LEGENDS
INSIDE SPORTS TRIBUTE-DC native and NFL Hall of Fame player Willie Wood
INSIDE SPORTS TRIBUTE TO DC boxing legends-Keith Holmes-Ken Scribling-Jim Finley-James Dudley-Johnny Gant and Mark ‘Too Sharp’ Johnson.
I remember Adrian Davis was preparing to meet the popular Johnny Gant for a fight at the DC Armory. He turned to Ham to train him. I was at ringside when he knocked Johnny out in the 3rd round.
Turner’s Arena, the first home of the WWE, CIAA, boxing and black entertainment in DC
JAMES DUDLEY HANGING OUT WITH ME IN FRONT SAM K’S RECORD STORE ON 7 & T STREETS
Once I became the first black to host and produce my own radio sports talk show on W-O-O-K, Turner’s Arena pioneering promoter and WWE Hall Famer, James Dudley guilded me through the media and the DC community.
He was my first guest. Frauds in the media and the community were a dime a dozen. Dudley and Ham had my back. They could not protect me from all the frauds, I was a sucker for a kid with a sad story.
Sugar Ray Leonard was a kid in trouble in 1976 when I took him under my wing.
The sad stories include Leonard. When he came home with his Gold Medal from the 1976 Olympic Games expecting a ticker-tape parade. The news media made him a front-page story regarding him having a baby out of web-lock with girlfriend Juanita.
Ray hid out in his house thinking he could escape from the glare of the media. He had lost his self-esteem. Janks Morton did not seek out his brothers, head cheerleaders, Juice, J D Brown, Dave Jacobs, Mike Trainor, Charlie Brotman, etc. He came looking for Harold Bell. He found me in Anacostia playing my favorite game-tennis.
I could not believe my ears when Janks told me the reason for his visit. He said, “Ray has lost his self-esteem and won’t come out of the house. I need you to go and talk to him-he will listen to you.”
I got him out of the house and drove him to Harrison Elementary School at 14th and V Streets NW to speak to a group of children. I made him my co-host on Inside Sports and the rest is boxing history-he forgot.
I played no role in Ray signing with Mike Trainer and no role in trying to get him to sign with Don King. Neither one was worth writing home about. Morton, thought, Mike Trainer’s ice was colder!
The media gives Mike Trainer credit for steering Ray away from the Don Kings and Bob Arums to become the “Cash Cow” of boxing. Trainer and cheerleaders like J D Brown and Juice also deserve credit for Ray becoming a drug and domestic violence abuser. They were there every step of the way.
After Janks Morton and Mike Trainer understood I was not going along to get along, they planted stories in the media trying to tarnish my name. Joe Brody, his ‘Best Man’ in his wedding, called me fearing that Ray was going die as a result of a drug overdose.
Ray avoided me, once I was told he was beating up on Juanita, I called him out on Inside Sports. I hoped it would save his life. He left Joe Brody, his best man and best friend in the hospital to die alone–Brody was the only one who really cared.
The Washington Post finally decided to follow my lead and wrote a front-page story on Ray’s drug use and womanizing. The story got national coverage and he finally sought some help. His lies will be much more difficult to overcome. Ray Jr. is now an eye-witness.
He was the only one in the family who refused to sign a non-disclosure Agreement not to discuss anything negative about his fathe’s pro boxing career. Ray, Jr. reminded me, “I am not my father.”
I was exiting from Black Men in America” an online magazine and podcast after 20 years as the No. 1 writer of the most popular read content/blog on the websie for FREE. The founder, Gary Johnson stabbed me in the back as a favor (rumor) to Sugar Ray Leonard, the cost $10,000. Against All Odds, I have survived.
This is a story Janks Morton and Mike Trainer planted in the L A Times after I saw Ray slap Juanita in the back of a Las Vegas hotel before his second fight with Thomas Hearns. I found out later she discovered Ray had his other women sequestered in rooms on the strip.
The story was written by legendary sports columnist Earl Guskey, “Harold Bell was left behind (like I was a member of his entourage), because he asked Ray for a job and a donation to his favorite charity!”
Nothing could be further from the truth; I have never asked Ray for a job or a dollar. Money was the first thing he offered me when he arrived back home after beating Wilfred Benitez for his first title.
He called me live on the air at WYCB during my radio talk show with my co-host, comedian Chris Thomas in studio. He said, “I am the welterweight champion of the World today because you were there when no else was.” When I needed some financial help, he never answered the phone. He is still living that LIE!
It is impossible to ignore his lies because they were written in a national newspaper and read by millions who had no clue who I was, except I was another jealous player-hater. The TRUTH will never be written in the L A Times–Earl Guskey the writer is dead and gone.
Ray Leonard seems to have forgotten when Trainer disrespected his parents during a training session, I pulled him aside and reminded him he should remind Trainer and Janks Morton, those were his parents.
He also seems to have forgotten, when I discovered that Mike Trainer was seeing his checks before he was, I reminded him that should never happen. I suggested that he put his sister Bunny in Trainer’s office to open all of his mail. He followed through on my suggestion, Bunny had an accounting background.
My wife Hattie, Bunny Leonard and I together in the Bowie Town Center Mall. She and brother Kenny were always class acts.
A LIE will change a thousand times–the TRUTH never changes.
Boxing greats, the late Kronk Gym founder, Emanuel Steward, Larry Hazzard, NJ Boxing Commissioner and Jones during my annual Kids In Trouble “MAN OF THE YEAR GALA” at the Grand Hyatt in NW DC.
The frauds are too many to mention in this story but I would be remised if I did not mention a recent one, Discobobulating Jones.
I became a friend in the early stages of his ring announcing career. He was employed by the DC Government as a social worker. I introduced him to all my boxing contacts, reaching out to promoter Don King asking him to consider giving Jones an opportunity to be on his boxing card as an announcer.
Jones and I use to sit around and discuss the naysayers and backstabbers in the business and how difficult it was to get a foot hole. I invited him to all my community endeavors, toy parties, celebrity fashion shows, Police and Community Youth forums. Our families broke bread together!
It was much easier for me to crossover, Inside Sports ruled the sports talk radio ‘NEST’, it changed the way we talked and reported sports in America and beyond.
The active media benefactors read like a Who’s Who, James Brown, Mike Wilbon, Cathy Hughes, Dave Aldridge, Kevin Blackistone, Monica McNutt to name a few.
Inside Sports was a sports talk and political format that had never be used before. I broke the mold. Inside Sports is now copied around the globe.
The only thing Jones brought different to a boxing ring, is a black face and an imitation of Michael Buffer-nothing ORIGINAL.
Sugar Ray Leonard, Janks Morton and Rock Newman, did not lift a finger or good word to support him. They spoke no evil, heard no evil, and saw no evil when it came to Jones’ chosen profession. For whatever reason, Don King, Bob Arum, Mike Trainer and Rock Newman, were all locked into Michael Buffer-his ice was colder!
King, Newman, and Morton could all teach Trainer and Arum lessons in racism. King, had no blacks in position power on his press-relations team for decades. It was not until I confronted him about his racist PR staff, he relented and hired New Amsterdam Newspaper Sports Editor, Howie Evans to run the office.
I am hanging out at the CIAA Basketball Tournament with the great Howie Evans
Howie and I both knew it was not for long, Don would eventually disrespect him with his plantation mentality and Howie would tell him to take the job and shove it.
Boxing historian, Bert Sugar and I had a bet on how long Howie would last. Bert guessed a year, I guessed one week. Howie, did not last the year.
In December 1995 Mike Tyson fought Buster Mathis after returning home from jail at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. I arrived at the hotel on Friday evening the night before the fight. Media colleagues were congratulating me of a story I had written in the program. I had no clue to what they were talking about.
I went to the media press room and found a program for the fight. I could not believe my eyes. There was a story in the program I had written in the Afro-American Newspaper.
The story spoke on the double standard major media was using to write on Don King. Their stories exposed and highlighted his criminal past and nothing about how he had brought a flamboyancy and BIG paydays for himself and sometimes his fighters to boxing. It had never seen or done before. Criminals and the Underworld had always run boxing-Don King was a perfect fit.
As I got on the elevator back to the lobby, there is King. I asked, “DK who gave you permission to add my column from the Afro-American newspaper to the program? He laughed and said, “Harold baby, I did not know you could write like that. My response, “DK I need to be paid” his eyes got big and he asked, “How much I owe you”, I said, “$5,000”, he walked away saying, “I got you baby.”
I am still waiting for my $5,000. DK never made a donation to my non-profit organization, Kids In Trouble, but he would come to DC and make donations to other non-profits.
I think he was waiting for me to kiss his ring and his jackass. Thanks to the late Connie Harper, he is still waiting. She forewarned me to never take any money from him unless I earned it–thank you Connie (RIP).
In 1972 in Cleveland, Ohio, he said similar words, “Harold Bell stick with me baby, we are going places.” Famous last words, I am overjoyed, I never played his ‘Game!’
During that courtship I was seen on national television with Geraldo Rivera, Jack Newfield (author of the Life and Crimes of Don King) and Boxing Historian Bert Sugar. It was three against one, I am on the show defending Don stealing from his fighters. I cannot get over, I was defending his criminal acts.
King would later promote boxing cards in DC and there would be no fighters on the cards from the DMV. I had a problem with that. It was not just Jones being passed over it was the talented Mark “Too Sharp” Johnson among others.
I also went to bat for Adrian Davis. He went from fighter to trainer/manager of local fighters. He came to me to ask if I would speak to Don about money owed to him ($10,000) from a recent Don King Promotion.
I had breakfast with Don after one of his promotions in Landover, Maryland. We met at the Hilton in downtown DC, and after breakfast we went to his room for a sit-down interview. It was after that interview I asked him about the $10,000 Adrian claimed he owe him.
He laughed it off saying, “Harold baby you know I pay-off my debts. These guys come to me during these promotions asking for advances on their salaries. I give them the money, they don’t see me writing anything down, forgetting I was a number backer. I remember everything. Adrian, got it all wrong.”
I met with Adrian later and gave him the bad news. He stop speaking to me for years. Lesson learned, I stayed away from King’s money transactions-exception, my own.
Discobobelating Jones didn’t speak to me for well over a decade, after he made a mistake thinking I had bad-mouthed him in a story written in a community newspaper.
In April of 2024 my wife and I were shopping in a Giant Grocery store in Suitland and we bumped into Jones. We were standing in line together. He paid for the two or three items we had purchased.
On the way out of the store, I mentioned I had seen his son a couple of times in Bowie (we had bonded), but it was a long time no-hear from him. It was then, he dropped a bomb on me. He claimed I had written a negative story on him in a community newspaper 14 years ago. I was stunned.
I said, “Jones you know that ain’t my style. If I had anything to say about you, I would say it to your face first, and then write about it.” He insisted and claimed, “I still have the newspaper.” I bet him a hundred-dollars to one-dollar he was wrong. Two-weeks later we meet back at the Giant and sit-down at a table.
He slides a white evelope across the table to me. I open it and there is a one-hundred-dollar bill.
Fourteen years of player-hating that could have been squashed with a telephone call or “HB can I speak to you for a moment?” This kind of player-hating and back-stabbing, goes on and on in our community.
Unlike others in the media, I was a risk-taker. I led and not followed as a radio sports talk show host, and as a youth advocate. I discovered early, you don’t changes things “Sitting On the Fence” waiting for King, Trump or Larry Hogan to reach out and save you-it ain’t happening.
Voting in November for Angela Alsobrooks and Kamala Harris is not an option! Angela will do the Right Thing-thanks to her “KITCHEN CABINET!” https://studio.youtube.com/video/Fkafk63frbg/edit?o=U
ESPN “The World Wide Leader in Sports” copied my format until the ESPN President of programming emailed the memo heard around the sports media WORLD.
THE ISIDE SPORTS FORMAT FORBIDDEN-COPIED BUT NEVER DUPLICATED.
Jones like many of those seeking my advice, I never mislead them on how dificult it is to progress in the sports media and entertainment fields with a black face. Cheerleader, was the only other alternative!
Trump claims immigrants are taking black jobs, I don’t see any immigrants managing Major League Baseball teams, coaching in the NBA, NFL or NHL and ownership is out of the question.
For example, black ownership in the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL is far few, in-between and non-existent in pro sports. Jackie Robinson gone too soon. I often wonder, are the sacrifices he made listening to the N word, black cats released on the field of play all for nothing?
The annual charade on his birthday of all major leaugue players, black and white wearing his number 42. When in reality, in 2024 Black Americans playing Major League Baseball is below 6%. On several teams (32) there are no Black Americans. The immigrants are not our problem. Wake-up everybody!
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