Off the Ropes: The Ron Lyle Story
or
The Fight of His Life: The Ron Lyle Story
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Ron Lyle is greatly admired in the worlds of professional and ameteur boxing, and I found endorsements relatively easy to come by, including:
• former Jr. Welterweight Champion and Hall of Fame boxer Aaron Pryor in email to author January 2007
• former Light Heavyweight Champion of the World Eddie Mustafa Muhammad in telephone interview with author December 2006
• International Boxing Hall of Fame referee Richard Steele, in interview with author November 2005
• former welterweight contender Harold Weston in email message to author December 2006
• Heavyweight contender Earnie Shavers in telephone interview with author April 2006
• Middleweight boxer Willie Fields in interview with author November 2005
• Super-Middleweight boxer Farid Shahide in interview with author November 2005
• Heavyweight contender Joe Bugner in interview on “Eastside Boxing” February 2004
• PBS Newscaster Peter Boyles in 2000 television interview
• Philadelphia broadcaster Roland Riso on his website, 2004
• Former Heavyweight Champion of the World George Foreman in a post-fight interview after “…the greatest slugfest in history.”
The Preface and Acknowledgement pages should provide you with a good introduction to the book.
Preface
Like most people who lived in the Denver area during the 1970's, I thought I knew all about Ron Lyle. A heavyweight contender who had spent years in prison for second degree murder before beginning his boxing career, and a humanitarian who devoted countless hours to Denver youth, Lyle became a local folk hero during his professional career. Long before I started writing in earnest, I thought his life story would make an interesting biography.I viewed boxing as a brutal sport. My interest was captured by Ron Lyle's leadership in a group called Partners, devoted to matching adult volunteers with kids who had been in trouble. I was one of those volunteers.
Fast forward 30 years. I have written three novels, co-written another and am searching for a new book idea when my husband suggests I contact "... that boxer you talked about." A Google search, a letter, a return phone call and a trip to Denver set irrevocable events in motion - the extraordinary life of Ron Lyle clamored to be told.
After chronicling the life of a heavyweight, viewing hundreds of taped bouts, and reading such books as On Boxing by Joyce Carol Oates, The Sweet Science by A.J. Liebling, The Fight by Norman Mailer, Facing Ali by Stephen Brunt and Beyond Glory: Joe Louis and Max Schmeling and a World on the Brink by David Margolick, and I have come to believe that boxing is the most honorable of sports.
Acknowledgements
Off the Ropes would have never been written without enthusiastic assistance from a myriad of Ron's family, friends and fans, including:Bill Lyle, Sharon Dempsey, Kenneth Lyle, Donna Harris, Phillip Lyle, Marilyn Carr, and Karen Lyle, who told wonderful family stories and provided invaluable insights into their brother Ronny;
Friends Russ Perron, Bob Cox, Willy Field, Donny Nelson, Mary and John Kresnick, Walter Gerash, Mary Bransfield, Frank Barrron, Richard Steele, Farid Shahide, Jimmy Farrel, David Kilgour, Abby Espinoza, Gary Snyder, and Earnie Shavers, who remembered details of key events that tied the Ron Lyle story together from the Curtis Park Projects in the early days all the way around to Curtis Park today;
Marjorie Reinhardt, who supplied records from the 1978 murder trail;
Barney O'Grady, who collected and presented to Ron five thick scrapbooks of news articles, a resource which saved me hundreds of research hours;
David Bergin who helped me obtain historic photos through his website Pugilistica.com, and
A parade of Denver sportswriters, especially Terry Anderson of the Denver Post, who preserved much of Ron's history.
My work was made so much easier by Judy Eastman, who carefully edited the first draft and Mathew Levine, who participated in all Denver and Las Vegas interviews.
Finally, I am especially indebted to Dennis Nelson, who not only lent me rare fight tapes and photographs, but also offered memories covering almost four decades;
Jill Sellers, who shared her heart; and
Ron Lyle, who told me the truth.
| Candace's Home | Awards and Background |
| To Be Released | In Search of a Publishing Home |
| Emergence | The biography of a heavyweight boxer,
Off the Ropes: The Ron Lyle Story (working title) or The Fight of His Life: The Ron Lyle Story |
| Published Novels | An Award-Winning Poetry Chapbook |
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The Trap A Mingled Yarn A Thousand Strands | Poems to My Mother |
| In the Works | An Award-Winning Essay |
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Portals | The Love That Sees Me Through |
| Letters to the Editor | |
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Letters-to-the-editor |