PARK PROVIDED PATHWAY FOR POPULAR PRIZEFIGHTER

Originally published in issue 33 of St. Vartan Park Conservancy newsletter, April 10, 2023

When he retired as a boxer 68 years ago this month, welterweight Billy Graham had remarkably made it through his 126 professional fights without once being knocked down. But the prizefighter, now in the International Boxing Hall of Fame, was revered as much for his ethics as for his impressive results in the ring.

Many years of that path to respectability cut through St. Vartan Park (then known as St. Gabriel's Park) and the streets that surround it. 

Graham grew up across the street from the west side of the park. On that stretch, Second Avenue between East 35th and East 36th Streets, Graham's father William operated a candy store. When Prohibition was lifted, William moved the business up the block to Second Avenue and 36th Street and turned it into a bar.

Billy was 10 at the time. He attended St. Gabriel's, a Catholic school and church, located across the street from the north side of the park where the Queens-Midtown Tunnel entrance is now located.

The park — then contiguous, before the Tunnel Approach Street was built through it — was Billy's perpetual playground, where he played on his way from St. Gabriel's to home. His athletic skills blossomed thanks to the open space.

When Billy and his brother Robbie were young, William bought them boxing gloves so they could square off in the park as well as a back room of the family business.

Physical setbacks didn't stop Billy. The goal of many young athletes in the 1920s was to fight as an amateur in the annual Golden Gloves boxing tournament. Billy was denied for four consecutive years from competing in the event because Golden Glove doctors detected that Billy had a heart murmur. 

In 1953, Billy wrote, "My father got the ribbing of his life at his bar. My friends would say to him, 'What did you do, pay those doctors so your chicken-hearted son won't have to fight?'"

Billy found more refined space to train with a punching bag and ersatz ring, at the Catholic Boys' Club on 37th Street between First and Second Avenue. He fought for the club in amateur bouts.

The youngster landed his first paid job as a stock boy at Lord & Taylor department store on Fifth Avenue. He squeezed in some amateur boxing matches. During that time, a boxing manager named Jack Reilly saw potential in Billy, and showed up at the Graham bar to learn more. Reilly was impressed with the family's work ethic and agreed to represent the aspiring boxer.

Billy passed his physical to fight professionally. For his first pro fight in April 1941, Billy purchased $160 of tickets with his own money so that friends in the St. Gabriel's neighborhood could watch the fight in person on the Upper West Side. Billy won, and remained undefeated through his next 48 fights over a more than four-year span.

After he served on anti-submarine patrol for the Coast Guard during World War II, Billy returned to boxing and won 17 more fights.

But it was a loss that would define the boxer, and earn him the enduring nickname The Uncrowned Welterweight Champion.

Boxing was hit hard by underground payoffs in the 1950s; many fighters and judges took or gave money to pre-determine match outcomes. In August 1951, at Madison Square Garden, Graham had outperformed Kid Gavilan for the world welterweight championship. But the judges crowned Gavilan. 

Graham, Reilly and others on Graham's team had refused to bow to underworld figures who had demanded a share of Billy's contract. Years later, in a deathbed confession, one of the fight's judges confirmed the he was among those who was paid to give the fight to Gavilan. 

Calling Billy "one of the nicest guys in boxing," Associated Press would later report of the Galivan fight, "Ten of the 13 boxing writers at ringside had Billy ahead. The fans booed for more than 10 minutes as Graham leaned over the ropes and wept. 'You're the 'champ' to me, Billy,' his wife Lorraine told him afterward. He's still the champ to his friends." 

Lorraine grew up alongside Second Avenue across the street from what's now St. Vartan Park. Lorraine and Billy shared blessed memories of the neighborhood until Billy died in January 1992 and Lorraine ten years ago this month. Recalled Billy about first noticing Lorraine in 1948, "Her dad, Emil Hansen, a steamfitter, used to come into my father's place. One day, I said to him, 'That pretty girl, she's your daughter, how's about introducing me?' He said, 'Come on up to the house.'"

When they met, Billy asked out Lorraine for that night, but Lorraine declined. "I've made plans to go to the hockey game in the Garden tonight," she explained. They were married at the St. Patrick's Cathedral rectory the same year.

Author W.C. Heinz, who would base the lead character in his classic 1958 novel The Professional on Billy, once wrote about the boxer being welcomed across the street from the park after Billy won a fight at the Garden in 1952.

Reported Heinz, "There was a big mob and some of them had overflowed to the street. He was standing there on the sidewalk. They were shaking his hand and clapping him on the back when Lorraine came out. He threw his arms around her and kissed her and together they walked into the crowded, smoky bar. When he came in, they let out a cheer." 

Billy's brother Robbie told Heinz at the gathering, "These are his fans. These are the guys who bought tickets to the four-rounders and the six-rounders and the eight rounds... and they've been with him ever since. These are the most important guys in the world."