{"id":54724,"date":"2015-08-04T10:38:17","date_gmt":"2015-08-04T15:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=54724"},"modified":"2022-02-06T11:11:16","modified_gmt":"2022-02-06T17:11:16","slug":"thinkin-big-the-story-of-james-quick-tillis-rsr-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=54724","title":{"rendered":"Thinkin Big: The Story of James \u201cQuick\u201d Tillis \u2013 RSR Book Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TB<\/a>By Chris \u201cMan of Few Words\u201d Benedict<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the story of my life, people helpin me, me helpin them.\u201d The man who still calls himself \u201cThe Fightin Cowboy\u201d poignantly summarizes his personal philosophy this way in his memoir Thinkin Big. He adds for emphasis, \u201cThat\u2019s the way it oughta be.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a sport where savagery is celebrated and empathy seen as a mortal weakness, James Tillis stands out as one of boxing\u2019s curious anomalies. The renowned sports writer Jimmy Cannon once belittled Floyd Patterson with the caustic remark that \u201ccompassion is a defect in a fighter\u201d. Had he lived long enough to cover the career of \u201cThe Fighting Cowboy\u201d, it is likely that Cannon would have thought along the same lines of Tillis, who himself admits that he could never get angry enough at an opponent to want to hurt him. James it seems had a heart as big as each fist, damn near the size of a canned ham. Still does.<\/p>\n

In its original incarnation, the book was composed on now-yellowed scraps of paper in a Tulsa jail where Tillis made productive use of a 30-day sentence for failure to pay child support. He is the first to admit that women were the one vice that weakened the resolve of a man who abstained from drink, drugs, and tobacco. The rough manuscript was eventually turned over to co-writer J. Engleman Price who, a few factual inaccuracies and a bit of a disjointed narrative aside, did a credible job of shaping it into Thinkin Big-The Story of James Quick Tillis, The Fightin Cowboy.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a cowboy has always been my first love, with boxing comin a close second,\u201d writes Tillis, longing for simpler times as though he had been born into the wrong era. \u201cQuick\u201d credits his lifelong infatuation with cowboy culture to his part-Choctaw Indian great-grandfather the Tillis kids called Uncle Pete, a \u201chand\u201d who would break wild horses and brand cattle. Little James would snuggle into Uncle Pete\u2019s lap and listen, silently spellbound, to stories like the one where Frank and Jesse James hid out in his camp one night while on the run from a posse following a bank heist.<\/p>\n

As for Tillis\u2019 athletic prowess, that was passed down to him from Uncle Pete\u2019s son, James\u2019 grandfather Theodore Roosevelt Hawkins (or Jack), a 300-pound marvel of masculinity who would harvest cotton six days a week, attend services on the Sabbath, then head down to the field to play ten innings of baseball, not content with nine evidently. Offered a contract with the barnstorming Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League in the 1930s, Jack turned it down to stay near his family. Driven by an unruly libido, Grandpa Jack is said to have gotten a little too cozy with the livestock when no willing woman was to be found. A similar and (it should be made clear) untrue rumor concerning \u201cQuick\u201d circulated around his class and led to his first fight, a schoolyard rumble that landed him a 10-day suspension.<\/p>\n

A multi-sport star who excelled at basketball and track and lettered in football as a sophomore tight end for McLain High School at 173 pounds, James thrived athletically despite enduring a steady and financially obligatory diet of Spam and government cheese. His father, who had dragged a young James to juke joints and gambling shacks in a misguided attempt to make a man out of his five year-old son, later \u201cdropped us like a bad habit\u201d, leaving an ill-equipped \u201cQuick\u201d to prematurely assume the role as the male head of the Tillis house-with Mama to keep him in check, of course. The Tillis patriarch would continue to make his presence known in a variety of unsavory ways, however, such as the time he stumbled drunkenly onto the field during one of James\u2019 junior high football games playing for the Carver Cats and pissed on the 50 yard line.<\/p>\n

It would ultimately be boxing that would allow \u201cQuick\u201d to channel his adolescent frustration and natural aggression in a positive direction. Watching Cassius Clay, \u201ca heavyweight dancin on air\u201d, take on Sonny Liston, looking \u201clike he owned the world\u201d, on the little black and white TV set situated on the family\u2019s linoleum floor on February 25, 1964 changed it all for James who was convinced that he heard the word of God coming through Clay\u2019s brash post-fight declarations of greatness, boasts that got the seven year-old Tillis thinkin big for the first time in his life.<\/p>\n

Coached by Ed Duncan, who Tillis calls \u201cthe father I never had\u201d, he fought in a smoker at the Armory Gym in Henryetta, OK at 16, taking out Leon Bruner with a blindingly fast ambidextrous attack that earned him the nickname \u201cQuick\u201d from his cousin and teammate Keith. A victory in the 1975 Regional Golden Gloves earned James his first trip away from home to the Nationals in Knoxville, TN where he got to rub shoulders with the likes of Michael and Leon Spinks, Thomas Hearns, Greg Page, and John Tate. The following year brought another win at the Regional Gloves, but a first round loss to Page at the Nationals in Miami\u2019s Orange Bowl.<\/p>\n

Being transplanted to Chicago for the germination of his professional career would prove a rude awakening for Tillis, as he not only had his duffel bag snatched from his feet where he set it down to snap a picture of the Sears Tower upon his arrival, but stayed in an apartment with \u201cwalls made out of paper and glued together with roach shit\u201d, sleeping in the same bed that the previous occupant had died in. He would earn all of $100 for his pro debut, a first round knockout of Ron Stephany.<\/p>\n

\u201cQuick\u201d recalls the majority of his early followers being \u201cdrunks, pimps, and whores\u201d and supplementing his meager prizefighting income as a runner on the floor of the Mercantile Exchange where he was brought up from the pits to meet Jim Kaulentis, a \u201crisk taker\u201d who would roll the dice on the advancement of Tillis\u2019 career along with four other investors. Things began to take off from there. James trained with Spider Webb and Archie Moore, Jimmy Ellis and Luis Rodriguez, and reeled off 20 consecutive victories, 16 of them knockouts.<\/p>\n

Reportedly turning down a $1 million step aside offer from Dennis Rappaport that would have allowed his fighter Gerry Cooney to face Mike \u201cHercules\u201d Weaver for the WBA heavyweight title, James claimed the opportunity for himself. Sitting ringside, Larry Holmes would tell HBO broadcaster Larry Merchant that after he knocked out Renaldo Snipes and Cooney, he wanted the winner of this fight. In a titanic struggle of what he referred to as King vs. Godzilla proportions, James would remember little else beyond sucking air and tiring in the later rounds, prompting Angelo Dundee to slap him across the face after the eleventh, the same way Gil Clancy had done to awaken Emile Griffith from a sleepwalking stupor in the first Benny Paret fight, and scream \u201cYou don\u2019t want to win? You want to be a fuckin bum your whole life?!\u201d Dundee\u2019s tough love would go for naught and James would \u201cend up with $60,000 and a broken heart\u201d. Weaver paid a conciliatory post-fight visit to Tillis\u2019 dressing room, touching off a brotherhood that endures to this day.<\/p>\n

Tillis would add his voice to the testimonials proclaiming Earnie Shavers as the hardest puncher in the 1970s\/80s heavyweight division. \u201cQuick\u201d would survive not only an after the bell left\/right sucker-punch at the end of the second round of their 1982 bout, but a knock down in the ninth which had Tillis hearing a cacophony \u201clike a bagpiper who fell over dead with no one to stop the last note\u201d and suffering a hallucination wherein he saw \u201clittle blue rats scamper out to smoke cigarettes and eat Spam sandwiches\u201d. Tillis eerily popped up like a horror movie monster the half-naked co-eds thought for sure was dead, and recovered sufficiently to earn the unanimous decision, but later received a lecture from Bill Cosby about his performance thrown into for good measure.<\/p>\n

He would fall victim of an 8th round TKO to his amateur adversary Greg Page (who then held the USBA heavyweight title) at the Houston Astrodome as the co-main event to Larry Holmes\u2019 defense against Randall \u201cTex\u201d Cobb, a lopsided annihilation which would cause Howard Cosell to end the broadcast abruptly, dismissing out of hand the notion of conducting post-fight interviews. \u201cNot for this\u201d, he concluded in disgust. Afterwards, he would refer to the travesty as an \u201cadvertisement for the abolition of this quote-sport-unquote\u201d. He would make good on his vow to never sit behind the broadcast table for a fight again, a decision for which a self-congratulatory \u201cTex\u201d Cobb would acerbically take credit as a \u201cgift to the sport of boxing\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hollywood provided a high profile diversion, as Tillis played Oprah Winfrey\u2019s lover Buster Broadnax in Steven Spielberg\u2019s 1985 film The Color Purple, telling Danny Glover as she is escorted to the juke joint\u2019s dance floor by another man, \u201cFirst time I ever been knocked down without throwin a punch.\u201d James would get up from a very real fourth round flash knockdown to drop a narrow points loss to 19-0 knockout artist Mike Tyson. \u201cQuick\u201d was the first fighter to take boxing\u2019s angry young man the full distance and many argue ( James among them) that \u201cIron Mike\u201d benefitted from a hometown decision in Glens Falls, NY. Tillis\u2019 improved endurance was due to a recent diagnosis of food allergies and vitamin deficiencies resulting from his preference for soda pop, dairy, and complex carbohydrates, adjustments to which corrected a slow pulse, weak adrenaline, and prostate irritation.<\/p>\n

James Tillis also served as then-cruiserweight champion Evander Holyfield\u2019s introduction to the heavyweight division in 1988, forced to retire in his corner after absorbing a hellacious bombardment in the 5th round. This bout was marred by the intervention of the always excitable Lou Duva and Tillis\u2019 manager Beau Williford (whose name is changed in Quick\u2019s book to Willy B in a not-so-subtle effort to protect the not-so-innocent) when Evander and James both continued swinging away following the end of the second round. Duva held Tillis\u2019 arms behind his back and Holyfield, had he struck \u201cQuick\u201d in this compromising position, would certainly have been disqualified by referee Richard Steele.<\/p>\n

But, James \u201cQuick\u201d Tillis is far more than a Where Are They Now? curiosity, an answer to a trivia question, or a page ripped from the Who\u2019s Who Book of 1980s Heavyweight Contenders.
\nDo yourself a huge favor and pick up a copy of his autobiography and see for yourself. Trust me, I haven\u2019t even scratched the surface here. While it might seem trite or hackneyed to assert that a memoir is written in a conversational style, while reading Thinkin Big you truly do feel, given James Tillis\u2019 endearingly oddball vernacular, as though you are sitting around a campfire beneath a canopy of constellations, the logs crackling and coyotes howling from a nearby mountaintop, listening to \u201cQuick\u201d spin some yarns about his good old days-and the new ones too-as \u201cThe Fighting Cowboy\u201d while roasting marshmallows and brewing a fresh pot of cowboy coffee.<\/p>\n

And that, my friend, makes for one of those nights that you just don\u2019t want to end.<\/p>\n

You can purchase a personally autographed copy of \u201cThinkin Big\u201d \u2013 The Story of James \u201cQuick\u201d Tillis by clicking HERE.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Chris \u201cMan of Few Words\u201d Benedict \u201cThat\u2019s the story of my life, people helpin me, me helpin them.\u201d The man who still calls himself \u201cThe Fightin Cowboy\u201d poignantly summarizes his personal philosophy this way in his memoir Thinkin Big. He adds for emphasis, \u201cThat\u2019s the way it oughta be.\u201d In a sport where savagery […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[13494],"class_list":["post-54724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-thinkin-big-the-story-of-james-quick-tillis-rsr-book-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54724"}],"version-history":[{"count":-4,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54724\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}