Dear Members
The next meeting is Wednesday September 13, 2006 at 700pm at Franks Sunny Italy, 2491 Delaware Ave. (Corner of Tacoma) Buffalo NY. The telephone no. is (716)876-5449.
Members present at Julys meeting
Jack Green Joe Cardina Tom Stenhouse Bo Bilicki Dick Topinko
Jerry Collins Charlie Ferraro Mark Irwin Jim Brown Stan Fitzgerald
Danny DiLiberto
Members present at Augusts meeting
Bo Bilicki John Christiano John Rovnak Jerry Collins Bob Caico
Jack Green Lee Batchelor Stan Fitzgerald Dick Topinko
Friday night August 11 2006 Ring 44 annual Hall of Fame Dinner once again was the outstanding boxing event of the year for Western NY. Even though it represents local boxing, people came from all over the country to be with us that night. Because of the loyalty and camaraderie of the organization you have again succeeded in making it the smashing success that we desire it to be. It is worth noting that we served well over two hundred and fifty people and Dick Topinkos family and friends amounted to approximately one hundred of those in attendance. The cities and the states around the country that were represented that night by people who came for our function are too many to mention. To each and every one of you, who participated in any way, thank you.
I thought John Tedesco was too fragile in his recovery to attend the function. Not only did he and his family attend but he followed through with his annual preparation and donation of the floral arrangements and Boutonnires. John Christiano and Kevin Gore were quite a great and pleasant sight. Jerry Collins Surgery was successful. The core of officers and staff that take full responsibility for the success of this event through their hard work once again did an awesome job.
Ring 44 is achieving our goal of renewing the standards and respectability of our sport to the general public as well as providing the central focal point for boxing history and information. South District Council Member Michael P. Kearns and his staff wanted to hold a Jimmy Slattery Day, Celebration and Proclamation, in Buffalo in honor of Jimmys recent induction into the International Hall of Fame. I am proud to say that we as an organization were very instrumental in the success of this event. They as well as the general boxing public were greatly impressed with the information and photo collection that we provided them as well as Bo Bilicki using his talent to create some of his visual art work. We must commend these people for recognizing just how important Jimmy Slatterys memory is to his neighborhood (The event was held in the first ward) as well as to the image of the city of Buffalo New York. I personally was much moved but not surprised by the strong showing of the boxing public at this event and I was most proud of the attendance of our membership. We were well represented.
Dont forget for the ultimate in upcoming events catch Sports and Leisure or go to Fightnews.com on your computer. Bob Caico does an excellent job on keeping us well informed on the boxing community. Also check out The September issue of Pool and Billiard magazine. Their top story is an article by Bob Caico on Danny DiLibertos induction into our Hall of Fame or check out this website for the story http://www.poolandbilliard.com/danny.cfm. Another source of information is www.babyjoemesi.com. Upon entering there you will find that Joe has a four round bout scheduled against Jason Weiss on September 15th 2006 at the Little River Casino in Manistee Mi. Joes opponent is (3-1). Once Joe performs well on this card, he will move up to 8 rds.against his next opponent. Also appearing on the same card is one of Joes sparring partners, Francisco Alvarez. He is a cruiserweight with a record of 2-0 (2KOs)
Les Ralston is back in action and recently won a bout in North Carolina. Needless to say we wish all of these guys the best.
The local amateur scene is getting busy. We have excellent amateur boxers in western NY and many of them are going to be seen in the upcoming shows. I also look forward to seeing you at these affairs and enjoy catching up with those of you whom I miss at other functions. I am enclosing a flyer on Diaab Entertainments upcoming show. This is the official name of the structure headed by Don Patterson. We are all super excited about this one being a major breakthrough in hosting shows in the city. The event is scheduled for McKinley High School 1500 Elmwood Ave. Buffalo NY. This is a great opportunity. You can log on to www.diaab.com for more info. The alliance of the Buffalo Board of Education and local Amateur Boxing has unlimited positive possibilities. We can encourage this excellent decision by our educators in many ways. This will be on our agenda at the meeting and for further discussions and actions. I also have the privilege of being the ringside announcer for this event. Some of the guys say that they are going to keep me at it until I get it right.
Terry Williams is sponsoring a show at the Flair Center at 307 Leroy Ave Buffalo on Saturday October 14th 2006. Doors open at 1230pm show starts at 200pm. He plans on boxers from Cleveland, Rochester, Salamanca, Niagara Falls and other local areas. Tickets are $10.00, in advance, and $15.00at the door. For more information on this show call me at (716) 856-9365. I am also looking forward to ring announcing for this show. These guys work very hard and it is great to be a part of the atmosphere.
Lets continue to pray for our sick and continue to stand proud of what we represent. Ring 44 consists of an amazing group of men. Keep Punchin See you soon
Sincerely yours
Jack Green
President