BoxRec

I am trying to get some information about my uncle Georgie who passed away in 1999. I have always been intrigued about his past as a boxer, and would be truly elated if any one out there could help me. The only picture I can remember seeing as a teenager, was the photograph in a newspaper in regard to the Georgie Small, Laverne Roach fight.

Your Uncle was a good fighter , his record is in the archives here at boxrec. Im not sure how to post the direct connection, but go to the main page and type in his name, and you will find info on him .

Thank you for the info. I sure wish I could find some pictures of him, but I fear that is a lost cause. Every little thing I find out is a help.

..your uncle george was a good fighter but suffered a sad fate. he never got over killing laverne roach in their fight....out side the ring the two were freindly. it bothered him so much he actually had a kind of emotional breakdown....severe depression. he was terribly distressed when ray robinson pulled out of a fight against him.....(paraphrasing, going by memory)..."robinson pulled out of a fight against me... he said publicly he wasn't going to fight a guy who killed his opponent in the ring. that made all the newspapers."

in a way it speaks well of your uncle's decency as a person....to be so affected by something that really wasn't his intention or fault....roach ahd taken a bad beating in an earlier fight when he was over matched against marcel cerdan. most fighters who kill a man in the ring are bady affected but manage to continue. georgie small just could not shake it off.

A heart felt thank you for your wonderful reply. I had heard many times when I was a teenager, that he was a great boxer and really had a good shot at going far. The fight between he and Roach was a tragedy that changed his life for ever.

Franny

Tiger Smalls even had impersonators. For years, we had a character at the Fifth Street Gym who tried to pass himself off as Tiger Smalls but was really Jerry "Tiger" Heimowitz, a former prelim fighter with a long prison record. He dissapeared from the gym when four guys of large proportions came to the gym, slammed him against some lockers and carried him off....

I am a former Brownsvilleite and have a glossy photo of Georgie Small I can mail you a copy if you give me your mailing address.

Oh my God—are you serious? How do I e-mail you? I was born in Brownsville also. Do you know Amboy and Pitkin? Sorry, just get carried away

Replying to your request for Georgie Small photo, you can e mail me at [email protected]

I do remember your uncle. He was a friend of my parents. His wife was Rita and he had 3 sons. Steven, Michael and Tommy. Steven has since died I heard. I remember Georgie teaching me how to box in my house back in 1966. I was only 9 years old then. I also remember the time his son steven was showing me old news clips of the death of Laverne Roach. Georgie came home and found us looking at the clippings and he beat steven senseless. I ran out of the apartment on Clarskson avenue scared to death. He wasa wonderful guy but he had a hard time after the roach fight. I will always rememebr him and I used him as inspration on a character in a novel I wrote called The Lions Den about a fighter who killed his friend in the ring.

Scott 718-531-1268 if ever you wish to talk

There is a picture of Georgie Small in fighting pose in the Sept. 1946 issue of RING mag.

There is a great feature story "THE BITTER END OF A BROWNSVILLE BANGER" by Jimmy Breslin in the 1963 edition of Boxing Yearbook, pages 38, 39,73, 74, 75. Covers the years after the Roach fight, still living in Brownsville and still dealing with the tragedy and the effects on him and his family. 3 pictures including one with his young son.

I was so happy to get info on my uncle. I always heard the sad story…unfortunately I don't remember much about him because I was so young. People whom I've spoken with always say he was a GREAT GUY…what a tragic story…

I did get a magazine article sent to me by the magazine who had published story. Very sad to read…

franny2001 wrote:I was so happy to get info on my uncle. I always heard the sad story…unfortunately I don't remember much about him because I was so young. People whom I've spoken with always say he was a GREAT GUY…what a tragic story…

I did get a magazine article sent to me by the magazine who had published story. Very sad to read…

Franny, I came from the same neighborhood as your uncle Georgie small. I remember seeing Georgie Small BEFORE he became a fighter, and his nickname was "Dead End", and he was a protégé of a strong man called "The Mighty Atom", who was barely 5ft and used to bend horseshoes as a circus act...I saw georgie fight a few times and I saw the ill fated Laverne Roach fight as a Marine and in the pro ranks.In 1948 I believe LaVerne Roach was badly ko'd by Marcel Cerdan before Roach fought
your uncle...Incidentally I am a friend of a cousin of your uncle, whose name is Don Lichstein .Does that name ring a bell.?