Sammy Maltempo
Name: Sammy Maltempo
Alias: The Blond Bomber
Birth Name: Samuel S. Maltempo
Hometown: Manchester, Connecticut, USA
Birthplace: Willimantic, Connecticut, USA
Died: 2003-03-06 (Age:84)
Pro Boxer: Record
Amateur Boxer: Record
Journal Inquirer
March 10, 2003
MANCHESTER - Samuel S. Maltempo, 84, a championship boxer and a town police officer for more than 25 years, was remembered today for his dedication to the Police Department and to boxing.
Maltempo died Thursday at Manchester Memorial Hospital after a brief illness.
He joined the Police Department in 1948 and retired in September 1973, but not before making life better for fellow officers in the founding of the police union in 1968 under his leadership, officers said. Maltempo, the first police union president, got the work week reduced from 48 to 40 hours with no loss of pay, improved pensions, and won officers the right to retire before 65.
"We got a lot of benefits we never had before because of him," retired Sgt. Walter Ferguson said today. "He was a great person and a good officer. He was well-liked by everybody."
In an interview with the Journal Inquirer in 1996 upon the Police Department's 100th anniversary, Maltempo reminisced about what police work was like in the late 1940s and '50s.
At that time, Maltempo said, officers learned a great deal while on the job. Maltempo took about 30 hours of classes from officers at a nearby police department. There was no police academy.
"When I went on the force in 1948, you weren't even given a physical," he said in the interview. "How did they choose a policeman? At that time Chief Schendel told me this: He was looking for good, common horse sense."
Police Chief Herman Schendel and his successor, Chief James Reardon, got more than that in Maltempo.
Capt. Samuel Kotsch, who worked with Maltempo from 1969 until Maltempo's retirement, today described him as "a great guy and a good police officer."
"He was always looking for progress between the Police Department and the union," Kotsch said. "He was always looking to the future for police officers. He was not an adversarial president, but a union president who was always looking out for the benefit of the members."
Maltempo also was all about boxing. He loved the sport and was known in his younger days as the "Blonde Bomber," winning 79 fights. He was a Golden Gloves state middleweight champion in 1936 and won a Golden Gloves title as a light-heavyweight in 1937. He later served as a boxing judge and referee, earning plaudits for his work.
As a pro, Maltempo compiled a 25-7-2 record. He once scored a second-round knockout of Eldridge Eatman. Even the late Rocky Marciano, who retired as a undefeated heavyweight champion, needed three rounds to knock out Eatman, Maltempo told the JI in a 1998 interview.
Billy Kearns, a local resident and former boxer, once said of Maltempo, "Sam became the light heavyweight champ of New England because he was a good fighter. He was a hard guy to fight. When he became a referee, he was good at that. He had good moves and knew how to get out of the way. I also thought he was a very fair judge. He didn't play any favorites. He made his decisions based on what he saw, no question about it."
Maltempo also took a special interest in the Police Activities League's boxing program, and often came to watch the practices and talk to the youths involved, Paul Cichon, PAL's boxing coach, said today. He would tell them that boxing is great, but they also needed something to fall back on, Cichon said.
"He was a great guy. � And he cared about the kids," Cichon said. "Every time I saw him, whether we were grocery shopping or out and around town, he would always ask how the kids were doing and he would always follow up and stop down and talk to them."
And Maltempo also talked to Cichon about coaching, imparting some advice that Cichon continues to use with his young boxers.
"He told me, 'It's easy to train when you want to train. But the best time to train is when you don't feel like training,'" Cichon said.
The PAL boxers will honor Maltempo on Friday at the 9th annual PAL Ring of Champions Tournament at the Colony in Vernon.
Cichon said that during the show there will be a "10 count" for Maltempo, where the lights will dim, audience members will be asked to bow their heads, and a bell will ring 10 times in Maltempo's memory.
�Journal Inquirer 2003