Bert Sugar Dead at the Age of 74
Bert Sugar, famed boxing and sportswriter, died on Sunday after a heart attack after battling with lung cancer at the age of 74.
He was surrounded by his daughter Jennifer Frawley and wife Suzanne when he passed away at the Northern Westchester Hospital, according to the Detroit Free Press.
When asked what people will most remember about her father, Frawley answered: "Just his intelligence and his wit and his sense of humor. He was always worried about people. He was always helping people."
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Known for always wearing a fedora and having a cigar, Sugar had been considered the face of boxing for the last four decades.
Sugar was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2005. During a writing career that started in the 1970s, Sugar wrote more than 80 books, including "The 100 Greatest Boxers Of All Time," according to the Boxing Hall of Fame's website.
Sugar also had roles in a few movies such as "The Great White Hype" starring Woody Harrelson and Samuel Jackson.
Sugar broke into the boxing scene as a journalist when he bought Boxing Illustrated in 1969. He went on to be the editor of the magazine until 1973. After that, he was the editor for another boxing magazine, The Ring, from 1979 until 1983.
Sugar was born in Washington, D.C., in 1937. He graduated from the University of Maryland and went to law school in Michigan. He would pass the bar but would never practice law. He started his career in advertising in New York City before he started covering boxing in the 1970s.
"Around ringside, it's not going to be the same with Bert not there," said Jack Hirsch, the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.
He continued: "Bert was obviously a showman in the way he did things outwardly, very flamboyant, but in quiet moments I found him to be an extremely modest individual."
