Monson: Utah was lucky to have Gene Fullmer as a native son

Forty thousand people lined the streets from Salt Lake City to West Jordan on a frigid January day in 1957 when Gene Fullmer returned home from New York City after beating middleweight world champion Sugar Ray Robinson in a convincing 15-round decision.

Only old-timers remember that now, but it was yesterday's equivalent of the Jazz winning an NBA title or Utah and/or BYU winning a national football championship. It was big. A lot of fight experts considered Robinson the best boxer, pound for pound, in the history of the sport. And the great one had been taken down by a lesser-known fighter, a guy from Utah whose personal character and grace were as comely as his ring style was not.

Gene Fullmer died at the age of 83 on Monday night. And 40,000, plus two million more Utahns, old and young, should line the streets again to honor his life and his memory. He was as gentlemanly a man as I've ever interviewed, a man who had far more to brag about than most and … let's just say those pompous punches were never thrown. Utah was his home and stayed his home from his early days as a farm boy turned apprentice boxer straight through his world champion fights in faraway places.

The day I visited Fullmer a decade or so ago at his unpretentious rambler-style home — think grandpa and grandma's house — on 10 acres in West Jordan, paid for by the prize money he won over a 12-year pro career, there were only scattered hints of his past glory.

From a closet, he hauled out the title belt he won over Robinson at the old Madison Square Garden. There was a copper-coated glove he wore that night, the first of four fights against Sugar Ray, with Fullmer winning two, drawing one and losing one. On a basement wall were drawings of opponents he faced in championship bouts — Carmen Basilio, Spider Webb, Joey Giardello, Benny Paret, Florentino Fernandez and Dick Tiger. There were photos of him standing with famous champions from Joe Louis to Oscar De La Hoya.

Fully aware that most people these days had no clue who many of those fighters were, Fullmer said with a chuckle: "The only people who talk to me anymore are old people."

Classic Fullmer. No ego, no bluster, no arrogance. He said his mother, Mary, taught him to be courteous and respectful and grateful, all things he clung to throughout his life. Mary named Gene after fighter Gene Tunney, "because she thought he was handsome," Fullmer said. "Too bad I didn't turn out so handsome."

Having grown up in rural West Jordan, Mary's son got set on his path into the fight game at age 12, when trainer Marv Jenson installed an outdoor boxing ring on his nearby property. Of Fullmer, Jenson said: "From an early age, it was easy to tell that Gene had one goal, he had one thought in his mind. He wanted to be champion of the world. Every minute, he thought about that and he worked hard for it. Anyone could have managed him to be a champion."

He won Golden Gloves tournaments when he was 16, later becoming that organization's regional president, working with young athletes attempting to learn the sweet science. He graduated from Jordan High School in 1949, worked as a welder at Kennecott and as a laborer at a sugar factory. He was drafted into the Army in 1951, where he captained an Army boxing team before repairing tanks on the front line in the Korean War.

When he returned, he went throttle up on his Hall of Fame career, winning his first 29 fights and compiling an overall record of 55-6-3. Through the highs of winning titles and lows of getting knocked out, into his years of retirement in West Jordan, where Fullmer stayed because, he said, "I like it here," he remained the same.

Simple and profound. A tough brawler in the ring, a kind, modest man out of it.

"I knew I wasn't the best fighter in the world," he said. "But I knew I did some good things in boxing. And I knew there was always somebody out there somewhere who could beat me. I knew what I could do. And I knew that sometimes I lucked out."

Utah lucked out to have Fullmer as a native son.

Rest in peace, Gene. Rest in peace.

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" with Spence Checketts weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone. Twitter: @GordonMonson.