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By Kevin “The Voice” Kincade

While everyone was paying attention to Leon Spinks and his meteoric rise to the World Heavyweight Championship and fall from grace, another 1976 Olympian was slipping into the rankings, under the radar, meticulously climbing the ladder to contendership. Forgotten by most, “Big” John Tate from Marion, Arkansas, the heavyweight representative on the ’76 Olympic Team, came home from Montreal with a Bronze after losing to legendary Cuban Heavyweight, Teofilo Stevenson. While winning any medal is an accomplishment in and of itself, in 1976 his Bronze fell shy of notoriety amidst all the clamor over the five Gold medallions the U.S. Olympic Boxing Team brought home that year; but he was closing in on making his mark in the pro ranks.

“Big” John Tate was just that: “Big”. At 6’ 4” tall and tipping the scales in the neighborhood of 230 Lbs., he was one of the first of the new class of heavyweights. George Foreman, it has been argued, was the first truly big man with outstanding athletic ability to win the World Heavyweight Championship. “Big”John was bigger. Though he did not possess Foreman’s mighty wallop, he was far more mobile and faster handed than Foreman ever dreamt of being.