By John Grindrod
Guest Columnist
The obituary in the local paper 25 years ago was as succinct as you’ll likely see when it comes to the final prose penned about people’s lives. It read, “Gary A. Akers, 88, died at 10:25 p.m., June 24. 1998, at St. Rita’s Medical Center. There will be no service or visitation. Memorial contributions can be made to First Round Boxing, 1737 Rice Ave., Lima, Oh. 45805. Arrangements are by Wayne Street Chapel of Chiles and Sons-Laman Funeral Homes.”
However, there was so very much more that could have been said about Gary Akers than what was included in those 49 words and number sets, especially by those young pugilists he trained as far back as the 1950s. According to the website BoxRec, Akers had just two professional fights in 1936, when he was knocked out in his debut by Harry Keller in Dayton and then bounced back nine months later to knock out Tommy Thomas at Memorial Hall. He passed his great love of the sport and the knowledge he’d gained of its various offensive and defensive components on to others.
Men like Louie Kane and Gary Akers and others trained fighters like Dick Geib, Donnie Hullinger and Rufus Brassell in locations such as the old South Main Street Fire Station, Bradfield Center, the old Salvation Army on Eighth Street and also in a back room inside the VFW and in a third-floor room above AMVETS. Later, Akers trained a new crop of young boxers, one of whom was Aaron McLaurine, in gyms like Spyders and First Round Boxing.
McLaurine’s boxing career spanned 20 years in the amateur and professional ranks, which included a fight against Roger Mayweather in Las Vegas for the IBO Welterweight Championship. Despite losing on a TKO, Aaron considers this fight for a championship his career highlight. Long since retired, McLaurine and his wife Veronica have for years run a program called Soldiers of Honor out of his own gym, located at 117 South Union Street.
I recently spent two hours on a Saturday morning at McLaurine’s gym, New Look Fitness, talking with Aaron about his program that uses boxing as a means to teach life lessons to Lima’s youth, especially at-risk kids. The 1990 Lima Senior graduate does as much counseling as he does demonstrating for his kids how to slip a jab or follow a right uppercut with a left hook.
A tour of the building showed me three floors. The first floor includes a boxing ring, boxing equipment, including safety headgear, and various punching bags; the second, a reception area, where much of the counseling takes place; and a third floor, now used mostly for storage but one the McLaurines hope, when funds become available, to remodel as a place for ministry. And, as Aaron walked and talked, I noticed the name of Gary Akers coming up time and again.
“Gary and I weren’t from the same part of town, we came from different backgrounds and, obviously, we were different races, but none of that mattered. Gary really became like a second father to me. I’d had a strong role model in my own father growing up, so I guess you might say I felt twice blessed when I began working with Gary.”
Aaron told me that Akers often used well-known idioms to covey his messages while teaching him the intricacies of the fight game. When he sensed Aaron’s impatience and frustrations, Akers would remind him of that famous behemoth of a city in ancient Italy, one that surely wasn’t built in a single day. And, when Akers saw that his young boxer was, perhaps, relying too much on one strategic move in the ring, he would remind him of the imprudence of placing all those eggs into a single basket.
Recalled McLaurine, “Gary, despite the 60-plus year difference in our ages, just understood me. As I went through different phases of my life, he guided me and helped me so very much. There were things I didn’t understand about myself, but he was able to fill in the missing pieces. Even though he never really talked to me about church and God, truth be told, he was a Godsend for me.”
McLaurine continued, saying about Akers, “It was my mom that gave me such a strong sense of spirituality, but what I heard preached on Sundays, in a way, I thought Gary represented. I guess you might say that Gary recognized and honored the person I surely wasn’t then but had the potential to be.”
Following Akers’ death, a despondent McLaurine found himself at a crossroads, but it was then while in prayer that he said he had the vision to start his program, and so much of what Akers instilled in him now is passed on to those that he mentors.
And, as long as Aaron and Veronica McLaurine provide a safe place and a nurturing environment for Lima’s youth, the spirit of Gary Akers will live on.
John Grindrod is a regular columnist for The Lima News, a freelance writer and editor and the author of two books. Reach him at [email protected].
