ABOVE: Pierce Brosnan as trainer Brendan Ingle with World champion boxer Naseem Hamed
My childhood memory of St. Thomas Boxing Club brings back recollections of growing up in Sheffield, Yorkshire in England, which was not easy if you came from humble surroundings. My father, a bus mechanic for the city, died when I was eight years old, leaving my mother to raise five boys, me being the youngest. I received little help from my older siblings. My brothers were too busy working and looking for ways to leave home and in two cases, leave the country. The only possible way to meet boys or girls your own age outside of my surroundings, was at school or at a youth center. I decided that joining a karate school was the best option – and I got to learn how to defend myself, critical if you came from my neighborhood.
I was sixteen years of age when I joined a Shotokan Karate school run by instructor Roy Stanhope, but it was a long bus ride and a twenty minute walk three times a week to get to the dojo. Worse than that, I had to pay monthly fees which I did by working part time jobs. By the time I reached green belt, the commute from across the city, was beginning to be an obstacle, especially as my art college was in another direction.
St. Thomas Boxing Club
This changed when I met one of the black belt students called Barry Nash. He told me he was going to teach a free karate class once or twice a week at a youth center called St. Thomas. My immediate response was “where is it?” and he replied, “Wincobank. Do you know where that is”? “Wincobank! I live near there!” I replied. Sensei Nash patted me on my shoulder and said, “sorry to hear that.”
So twice a week I would take the fifteen minute walk to St. Thomas Boxing club (aka Sheffield School of Boxing) that occupied an old church on Newman Road in Wincobank, Sheffield. Coincidentally, my first karate dojo with Stanhope sensei was in a church vestry. Our small group of six karate students and the sensei trained in the back of the gym in the late afternoon, before some of the more serious boxers would arrive. This was the early seventies and martial arts was gaining some respect, so I guess that’s why the boxing community and the boxing trainer, Brendan Ingle left us alone. I remember little of Brendan Ingle in those days and in a million years would never guess what was about to happen.
Rags to Riches
This is the theme of living in humble surroundings like the North of England – it produces great moments in history like The Beatles. In sport it produced one of the World’s best boxers Naseem Hamed – known as Prince Naz. This story of rags-to-riches, of overcoming racism and Islamophobia, the dynamics of mentorship, and the pressures of fame culminated in a great story that was worth telling – and worth Hollywood to come calling!
When I was going to St. Thomas, I was not particularly interested in boxing. Karate was already popular with top Japanese sensei enjoying recognition and accolade teaching in England, something they did not receive in Japan. However, in the nine months I went to St. Thomas, I did notice a change. Brendan Ingle was being talked about in major boxing circles and the local newspaper, Sheffield Star carried a story on the gym. All this popularity was the downfall of our little group practicing karate and we had to give up our space at the back of the gym. A few years later the hype over this humble boxing gym became true when an Ingle trained boxer from St. Thomas became the new star of English boxing – Herol “Bomber” Graham. But this was nothing compared to what was about to happen when a local muslim immigrant boy walked in the gym.
The Giant
The new movie “Giant” is based on the relationship between boxer Naseem Hamed and his trainer Brendan Ingle. It stars Amir El-Masry as Hamed and Pierce Brosnan as Ingle. The film highlights the deep, sometimes strained, father-son-like relationship between Hamed and his trainer, Ingle, and the unique, flamboyant style that made Hamed a legend. Watching the move after completion, Prince Naseem said “although the film was ‘difficult to watch’, how can I not back it? It just put a smile on my face. It didn’t go full out to how I would have wanted because there was none of my input, but thank God, it’s nice when they do a movie you about you though, innit?”.
I have not seen the movie yet, and I am looking forward to seeing how Hollywood portrays not only my home town, but the very neighborhood I gew up in. I am sure with Pierce Brosnan as Ingle, they will get some accuracy because, like Ingle, Brosnan is an Irish immigrant, from humble beginnings.
Leaving Home
I left Sheffield when I was in my thirties and moved to New York, just before Prince Naseem Hamed won his first World boxing title. I did go back home every six months (to comply with my U.S. visa) and hear the news about St. Thomas and Brendan Ingle’s rise as a trainer of four World champions. Our talk in the local pub was often on local boy Prince Naseem… “Does ‘Naz’ really enter the ring by doing a somersault over the ropes!”
While most of my childhood was arduous, requiring a lot of hard work to change my circumstances, I did meet success by the time I was twenty four, living in a ‘posh’ neighborhood and working for myself as an architect. Once in a while I would go across town to my old neighborhood and include a visit St. Thomas. These visits reminded me of the unselfish people like boxing trainer Ingle who gave their time to run boys club’s, and the sensei and black belts at my karate dojo. Brendan Ingle’s famous quote, written on a poster hanging in St. Thomas, “If you don’t get an education someone will always control your life” was perhaps the one that changed my life the most.
