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Boxing writer Bert Sugar dies

New York - Bert Sugar, one of the best-known boxing writers in the world, has died at the age of 74.

Sugar, also a sports historian of note, was known for his trademark fedora and ever-present cigar. He died of cardiac arrest in Mount Kisco, New York, on Sunday.

Jennifer Frawley, Sugar's daughter, said his wife, Suzanne, was by his side when he died at Northern Westchester Hospital. Sugar also had been battling lung cancer.

"Just his intelligence and his wit and his sense of humour," Frawley said when asked what she would remember about her father. "He was always worried about people. He was always helping people."

Sugar was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2005. According to the hall's website, Sugar wrote more than 80 books, including The 100 Greatest Boxers Of All Time.

He also appeared in a handful of films, including The Great White Hype, starring Samuel Jackson.

"Around ringside, it's not going to be the same with Bert not there," said Jack Hirsch, the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Sugar was born in Washington, DC, in 1937. He graduated from Maryland and went to law school at Michigan. He passed the bar in his hometown and worked in advertising in New York City before he got into writing in the 1970s.

"Bert was obviously a showman in the way he did things outwardly; very flamboyant. But in quiet moments I found him to be an extremely modest individual," Hirsch said.

Frawley said arrangements for a memorial service were still pending and anyone wishing to honour Sugar should make a donation to the boxing hall.

"He was really a brilliant man," she said.

 
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