Bob Goodman
| Robert Goodman | |
|---|---|
| Born |
June 8, 1939 New York, NY |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Boxing promoter, Publicist, Matchmaker |
Robert "Bob" Goodman (born June 8, 1939) is an American boxing matchmaker, publicist and promoter. He is a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame. since 2009, the Florida Boxing Hall of Fame.(2009) and the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame, since 1990 and recipient of the prestigious Boxing Writers Association of America’s James J. Walker Memorial Award for Long and Meritorious Service to Boxing in 1980. He is the son of Murray Goodman,also in the International Boxing Hall of Fame, New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame and Walker Award recipient. Bob Goodman also served as Vice President and Matchmaker for Madison Square Garden from 1985 to 1994. They are the only father-son to have received all of those honors.
He also spent twenty-five years with Don King Productions serving in many capacities – Vice President, Boxing Operations, Matchmaker, and Director of Public Relations.
Goodman was also the President of his own company, Garden State Boxing, where they promoted many world champions.
Goodman was born and raised in the Bronx, New York. He was always told that he was conceived at Grossinger’s a famed Catskill Mountain resort that was the training home of many great champions, including Barney Ross, Rocky Marciano, Ken Norton, Roberto Duran, and Larry Holmes. However it was in another Catskill resort – The Evans, where he got hooked on boxing for good, when he stayed with France’s Marcel Cerdan in 1948. “It was amazing,” said Goodman. “We didn’t even speak the same language, but he spoke with his eyes and gestures. I used to get up to run with him. It was there and then that I became a “boxing junkie”.
When Bob was a young teen, the family moved to New Jersey where he competed in soccer and track and field in school. He took many sports related jobs during the summers, including Madison Square Garden and the National Sports Council. He also worked on the S. Rae Hickok “Professional Athlete of the Year” Award, created by his father in 1949, which remained one of the most prized awards until 1975.
Goodman attended the University of Miami in Florida for two years before enlisting in the United States Coast Guard. Goodman was the Officer in Charge of Coast Guard Recruiting for the State of Connecticut upon the end of his enlistment
After leaving the Coast Guard in 1962, Goodman took a public relations job with the New York Titans of the old American Football League. Upon the sale of the Titans to become the Jets, Goodman and his father created the “sports division” of a Madison
...
Wikipedia