Rusty Rubin – A Tribute To A Brother In Boxing

By Dave Wilcox

When yours truly started covering Boxing in 2003, I quickly discovered the Boxing family of reporters and photographers were some of the nicest people on this fine earth. No “Boxing guy” shined brighter than Rusty Rubin. Rusty spent over four decades covering the sport he loved. He wrote three books about the sport and was the famed and award winning Publisher and Managing Editor of the Nevada based “Ring Sports Magazine”. Ring sports Magazine was one of the last paper publications for Boxing and ran from 1989-2006.

Once the paper ended its run, Rusty transformed Ring Sports into the new age of Boxing on the internet with his Ringsports.com. In his final years, Rusty retired from running the website, sold the rights and Ring Sports quickly went off into the sunset not to be heard from again. His legacy with Ring Sports would go on.

I first crossed paths with Rusty in July of 2005. At the time, I was a staff writer at Boxingscene.com and Rusty’s famed column, “In Rusty’s Corner” was being published on the site as well. I would always read Rusty’s writing and noticed at the end of each column, Rusty always mentioned his “Glove2Glove” group. Glove2 Glove is a non-profit and non-soliciting group of Boxing people whose sole purpose was to reach out to the Boxing community to seek prayers for fighters and all Boxing people in general that were going through tough times. As I understood it at the time, if you needed prayers, you reach out to Rubin and he got it done.

In July of 2005, my older brother Dennis was diagnosed with a form of Leukemia and my family was in panic mode. I remembered the guy named Rusty who sent prayers for Boxing people in need, so I sent him an email about Dennis and the friendship between Rusty and I began.

You would have thought Dennis was his brother, he immediately sent the prayer request, put a picture of Dennis in Ring Sports Magazine and our friendship grew quickly.

Since that meeting in 2005, rarely a week went by that Rusty didn’t send an email asking how Dennis and the rest of my family was doing. He soon was a follower of my kids sporting events as well. He became a Troy Warrior football fan for my oldest boy, Brandon and an El Dorado Hawk softball and Football fan for my daughter, Stephanie and youngest boy, Richard. My wife Deborah is Italian and full of something and vinegar, so soon Rusty took quite the liking to her as well and Deb became a part of our email chain.

Rusty always spoke so highly of his wife Lois and his “hounds” as he called them. He loved Lois and he loved his dogs.

That was Rusty, he loved everybody and everybody loved him. He was truly a selfless man whose only concern was to help others. I learned so much from him in the short time I knew him. His compassion was addicting and he was not afraid to spread his passion around.

My family is involved in the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and when Rusty got wind of that he decided that would be his charity of choice during his final years. He donated 100% of the proceeds from the sale of his three books to the foundation and urged others to do the same.

Rusty was about 90% done with another book he was slowly working through his illness. It is called “Miracles” and focuses on wonderful stories of compassion, faith and the good in people. It was his hope to finish the book and again donate 100% of profits to the Susan B. Komen Foundation.

I was fortunate enough to share countless emails, numerous phone calls and only a few face to face meetings with Rusty, but the bond I felt with him was as if we were lifelong friends.

In the last few years of his time, Rusty asked if I would be interested in taking ownership of his boxing memorabilia. Of course I was honored and accepted. He said that “he wanted his stuff to go to someone who would appreciate it”.

Next thing I knew, the mailman is delivering box after box full of pictures, magazines, autographs and anything else Rusty had that was Boxing related. This trend continued for a few years until Rusty’s time on earth was done. The Wilcox garage is stacked to the roof with boxes, some of which I haven’t gotten all the way through. There are awards proudly displayed on my man-cave wall that Rusty received from The World Boxing Hall of Fame and other organizations.

This brief story I tell about my journey with Rusty Rubin is not an uncommon one. There are so many people in the Boxing fraternity that would tell a similar story of their own relationship with Rusty. He was everyone’s best friend and everyone’s champion.

I will miss my weekly emails with Rusty, I will miss knowing I could lean on him when I was down and I will miss his ability to make every situation seem positive.

Most of all, I will miss my friend.

On Tuesday evening on November 11th, 2014, Rusty Rubin passed away peacefully in Reno, Nevada after a long battle with illness. His wife Lois and family were with him through the final stages of his journey. Rusty was 72 years old.

Rest in Peace, my friend. You will be missed by many and forgotten by none.

I will close with how Rusty finished each of his columns, “Keep punching”

Notes:

-If you would like to join Rusty’s “Glove2Glove” prayer group, drop me a line at utbdave@earthlink.net. As stated previously, this group is non-profit and we never solicit anything from you. Rusty asked my wife Deborah and I if we would continue his group after he was gone. We promised we would and we will.

-My brother Dennis is doing fine and cancer free almost ten years later.