A Look Back at the 1980 Summer Olympic Games Part V

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

In the Fall of 2021, Afghanistan loomed large. Whether you agree or not with the war waged there by the USA and its coalition forces over a period of twenty years, there is little doubt that for one country Afghanistan has cast a significant shadow over the history of the world. What is little realized is that it has done so for a lot longer than the last 20 years, during which the coalition forces kept the Taliban at bay. The country has its own troubled history, which goes a lot deeper than this century or even the previous one. Here though it is Afghanistan’s, although oblique, relevance to sport, which serves as a background to the greatest tragedy to have ever affected a US amateur boxing team; it is one which should never be forgotten. Over the last few sessions, I have been trying to take you back to 1980.

By doing so I hope to explain how an appalling plane crash in Poland gave the US their greatest sporting tragedy; How it fitted within a worldwide context of the time; And how the US President of the time by leading a boycott of the Olympic Games of that self-same year, denied many athletes, some of whom were lost on that plane, of an opportunity to win an ultimate prize – an Olympic Gold Medal. It is also an opportunity to reflect on the promise lost in that crash, of the legacies left behind by the people who lost their lives and of the politics that saw Afghanistan dominate world politics, long before it hid the Taliban. Finally, it’s all about who missed the fateful flight and what happened after the accident.

And now we go backstage, to the tea, without whom much of boxing history would remain inwritten, though their names never manage to be up in lights…

“It’s just so hard to believe. We were very close. Sarge was one of the kindest, fairest men I’ve ever known. He was just beginning to be recognized nationally and internationally for his coaching ability and for his personal qualities. Sarge was the guy who pulled our Olympic team together for Montreal. He meant as much to every boxer outside the ring. And now this . . .” Sugar Ray Leonard.

THE SUPPORT TEAM WHO ALSO PERISHED…

It was not just the fighters whose time was to be spent in a ring in 1980, who lost their lives. Eight people, vital to the trip, integral to their success and a vital part of any successful sporting team also perished. Team manager Joseph F. Bland would have been a proud man to have led the ancillary characters who supported the trip, but it was not to be. The support staff included referee and judge, Col. Bernard Callahan. It is a peculiarity of the sport that in the amateur ranks you would bring along someone to judge the competition but is a feature, nonetheless. He was not alone as referee/judge.

John Radison was also part of the party. Former Golden Gloves and AAAU champion Radison was both a promoter and an official within the amateur game. He had also made his debut as a professional referee though it was sometime distant and clearly his heart was in the amateur code as he only refereed in professional fights in 1968 and 1969, on just three occasions. Whilst this far from made him unique in terms of his desire for the purity of the unpaid ranks, it made his loss even more heartfelt. He was brought home to be laid to rest at the Mount Hope Cemetery in Missouri.

The team physician, Dr. Ray Wesson also perished. The son of a preacher he was brought home to rest to Jackson Mississippi. Also hailing from Mississippi, though from Ocean Springs was the team assistant, Delores Wesson. Less is known of the background, or at least publicly shared of the interpreter, Steve Smigiel but his loss shall be just as keenly felt by those related to him.

Within any boxing team, in the background, unseen by most and often under-appreciated, there are often big characters. For this team the head coach, and his assistant came with the type of pedigree that would give any team the legitimacy to call itself contenders. Returning to lead the amateur national squad, after a hugely successful Montreal Olympics in 1976, was the head coach, Thomas “Sarge” Johnson.

In the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Canada, he had overseen one of the most successful US boxing teams for years; they returned with six medals, five of them gold. In the team were both the Spinks brothers and a certain Mr. Sugar Ray Leonard. In that North American Olympics, the US team had been running close enough to the Communist states which shared the other six gold medals. The US team returned as heroes. Sometime afterwards in his autobiography, Sugar Ray Leonard was to expose, without naming names, less than savory accusations of abuse in the 1976 camp.
Unsubstantiated rumors aside, Johnson led a successful team and there was little to doubt that he would do so again. At the time of the crash, however, Leonard was to comment, “It’s just so hard to believe. We were very close. Sarge was one of the kindest, fairest men I’ve ever known. He was just beginning to be recognized nationally and internationally for his coaching ability and for his personal qualities. Sarge was the guy who pulled our Olympic team together for Montreal. He meant as much to every boxer outside the ring. And now this . . .”

Johnson was a retired Army Master Sergeant – hence the nickname – and he was given credit for the development of the lateral movement strategy employed by the successful 1976 US Olympic boxing team. His contribution was therefore legendary. In his honor, the Thomas Sarge Johnson scholarship was founded for the US Boxing Foundation. Aimed at college students it is a highly significant national award with 11 scholarships on offer from $2,000 to $3,000. Given his commitment to grassroots boxing, it represents a very fitting legacy.

His assistant, Junior Robles certainly had the pedigree to back his boss up. Born a few months shy of the beginning of the Second World War in 1939, Robles hailed from San Diego. Whilst he had boxed professionally, a 10-year sporadic career spanning 10 fights – 9 of them wins – he made his mark as a trainer through working at the Chula Vista Southwestern Community College in California, teaching boxing and physical education. As a founder of the Community Youth Athletic Association in National City, California, he made his mark too, showing he had an aptitude not just for instruction but for the administration that kept things going smoothly. Over his time as a trainer in the amateur code he coached several top-ten amateur boxers. Combined with sterling service for his country while coaching the All-Navy and All-Marines boxing teams, Robles was a true servant of the sport. At the time he lost his life he was 41 years old. National City marked his passing in 2008, by naming a street in his honor – Junior Robles Road. It joins the street named in honor of Byron Lindsey, in the same city, who was one of Robles’ boxers who also died in the crash.

Together their names are linked to an annual event – the Junior Robles and Byron Lindsay Boxing Show.

When researching this story, I was intrigued by the 2018 report of one of the fights from that competition. According to the online report it was “non-stop action”. Never more so in bout 6, where we had “two bangers” fighting it out – Jose Ocha and Angel Madrid. The winner “landing more of the cleaner shots to the head, moves another step closer to his goal of becoming the undisputed champion” was young Ocha.

The two boxers were 10 years old!

This is clearly an event worthy of the legacy it celebrates! There was no feeling for me of irony when I saw these two young boxers and their fresh, young faces whilst I thought of the loss of life of those who were but a few years older. I thought of the ones who may have felt like they were adults, competent and indestructible as we all did when we were teenagers, young adults and beyond our adolescent years, ready for our next stage, our next step and our next challenge. That they lost their lives is a tragedy, that youth gets a chance to shine in memory, yet another fitting tribute.

Forty years after the accident, the erection of a statue in their honor reminded us all, of that sacrifice. It depicts a knocked-out boxer atop a trigonal prism plinth which is poignant and beautiful. It sits in the grounds of the Warsaw Sport Club, Skra Warszawa and is identical to the one at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

The connection is a permanent reminder of the tragedy which spans the Atlantic, generations, countries and continents.

Of course, the American boxing team, boxers and support staff, were not the only people who lost their lives that day and in a nearby cemetery to the statue are the graves of the crew who were onboard. One of streets near the site of the crash bears the name of the captain, Pawel Lipowczan.

In total 77 people lost their lives, 22 of them were the aforementioned US boxing team.

It was felt throughout the United States. Any horror where there are innocent victims are likely to cause angst and worry, and not only for the families and the people left behind. When sport is involved, given the feeling and emotions that are allied to it, that can feel doubled down. At the unveiling of that memorial in Warsaw, there were boxers from the current, US squad as well as representatives of the Polish Boxing Association, whose President Jacek Wasilewski reflected on that day in his speech. He was part of the delegation due to meet the American athletes in 1980. He spoke warmly as he commented, “It was a nice, sunny day. We were all waiting for the American team. Then came the moment when we learned the tragic news. Our matches with the American boxers had become an international tradition, and we were in grief. Fate may have defeated them, but we shall never forget them. As in the past, the boxers of Poland and the U.S. will be united in sportsmanlike friendship.”

His reflections were echoed by the USA Boxing Executive Director, Mike McAtee, at the memorial unveiling who was quoted as saying, “I remember coming home from my boxing gym on March 14, 1980, and hearing the news of the plane crash on the evening news. As an aspiring Olympic-style boxer I was shocked and felt a sense of loss like every American boxer, coach and official. Today we are reminded that life is precious, and every day is a blessing. On behalf of USA Boxing’s Board of Directors, 48,000 boxers, coaches and officials and the national office staff we remember the 1980 USA Boxing Team Members and Staff. Please keep them, their families and the worldwide Olympic-style boxing family in your thoughts and prayers.”

Also at the memorial, USA Boxing Head Coach Billy Walsh reflected on the fateful day too. “I remember it well, as I was a 16-year-old dreaming of the Olympics. It was massive news in Europe, a big tragedy with some of the world’s best boxers and staff wiped out. We lost a generation of great fighters, and most importantly loved ones.”

The memorial in Warsaw was made by American sculptor, A. Thomas Schomberg, and commissioned by an American securities dealer and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas F. Kane of Summit, New Jersey. It was, however, funded through private fundraising, and designed to be one of three memorials. There is also one at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, and a third is to be placed in New York. It is hard not to ignore standing at nine-foot tall and in metal. It is titled ″Down But Not Out, Lost But Not Forgotten,″ and shows a fallen boxer struggling to get up off the canvas. The names of the 22 Americans killed are inscribed on the base.

AND FINALLY, FOR THE LAST TIME…

The people on the plane were clear to remember, but who did not travel, continued to fight for the team and managed to avoid one of the worst tragedies – who was it that should have been on the plane but were not there – for whatever reason. And what happened thereafter?