Kronk Boxing Club history

A chronology of the triumph and tragedy of Kronk fighters and promoters.

1981 poster featuring DuJuan Johnson, later murdered over a $200 debt, and Rick Jester, who now is a master plumber in Detroit.

1963

Detroit’s Emanuel Steward wins National Golden Gloves bantamweight championship.

1970
Steward trains his kid brother James at Kronk Recreation Center. James wins Detroit Golden Gloves title. Kronk team is born.

1974
Bernard Mays and Dwaine Bonds win national AAU titles.

1977
Thomas Hearns wins national Golden Gloves.

1980
Hilmer Kenty becomes lightweight champion of the world — Kronk’s first pro titlist — defeating Ernesto Espana in the new Joe Louis Arena.

1980
Thomas Hearns wins his first world title, knocking out Jose Cuevas in the second round at Cobo Arena for the World Boxing Association welterweight championship.

1982
Hearns wins World Boxing Congress junior middleweight title from Wilfred Benitez.

1983
William “Caveman” Lee, who had fought Marvin Hagler for the middleweight championship only a year earlier, losing by a knockout in 67 seconds, robs a bank in Detroit, goes to prison for three years.

1983
Leslie “Lemonade” Gardner, 26, in mistaken belief he is being tailed by police, swallows drugs he had in his car, overdoses, crashes and dies.

1986
Rickey Womack, Kronk’s first “bad seed,” begins 15 years in prison for armed robbery and assault.

1987
Hearns wins WBC light-heavyweight title in victory over Dennis Andries.

1987
Hearns defeats Juan Roldan for WBC middleweight crown.

1988
Hearns wins World Boxing Organization super middleweight title from James Kinchen.

1991
Hearns defeats Virgil Hill for WBA light-heavyweight crown.

1994
Bernard “Superbad” Mays dies at age 33.

1996
Emanuel Steward is inducted into Boxing Hall of Fame.

1999
Steward-trained Lennox Lewis defeats Evander Holyfield — who also formerly trained at Kronk — for undisputed heavyweight championship of world.

1999
Hearns wins his last world title, defeats Nate Miller for International Boxing Organization cruiserweight belt.

June 2000
Duane Thomas, 39, former super-welterweight champion and a Kronk original, is murdered on the sidewalk outside an east-side party store, shot in the base of the skull, the chest, forearm, hip, thigh and flank by a 9mm gun. Police describe it as a drug dispute; an autopsy finds drugs in Thomas’ system.

Aug. 1, 2000
Former Olympic champion Steve McCrory, 36, dies of a lingering illness his family declines to discuss. He left Kronk after a 12-2-1 start to his pro career, and was managed by Johnny Ace, murdered in 1988 in a drug-related shooting.

Feb. 6, 2001
Formal opening of Kronk Gym branch in London, where Steward pledged to produce Olympic champions for Britain.

SOURCE: Detroit News research