12 North Shore Towers Courier n April 2016 Dennis Rappaport inducted into New York State Boxing Hall of Fame H H H H H H H H H H H H RING MASTER On Sunday, April 3, 2016, the new class of Honorees will be inducted into the New York State Boxing Hall of Fame (NYSBHOF). Among those to be recognized is Dennis Rappaport, boxing manager and promoter and North Shore Towers resident since its opening more than 40 years ago. Joining Rappaport will be such luminaries of the “Sweet Science” as 4-time, 3-division world champion, Hector “Macho” Camacho (79-6-3, 45 KOs); 1952 world middleweight champion, Rocky Graziano (67-10- 6, 52 KOs) and legendary television sports commentator, Howard Cosell. “I was shocked,” Rappaport said of his reaction when he got the news. “I devoted a good part of my life to boxing. It was a labor of love. Still, to get a little recognition from one’s peers is always satisfying.” Rappaport entered boxing in 1976 as co-manager, with Mike Jones, of Gerry Cooney, Howard Davis Jr. and Ronnie Harris. Dubbed as the “Gold Dust Twins,” because everything they touched seemed to turn to gold, Rappaport and Jones were equally as known as the “Wacko Twins,” for the outrageous stunts the pair pulled to garner publicity for their clients. Later, Rappaport managed five World Heavyweight Champions, including George Foreman, Tim Witherspoon and Oleg Maskaev, and promoted Roberto Duran, Billy Costello and fellow Honoree Hector “Macho” Camacho, who is being recognized posthumously. Born in Brooklyn, where his family lived until moving to Merrick, Long Island when he was 16, Rappaport’s bout with boxing started at a young age. “I remember watching Jake LaMotta on the television with my dad,” he said. “I was captivated.” No surprise, the future Hall of Famer took up the sport himself as a teen, dreaming one day of either being a champion or a U.S. Senator. Not merely a fan of boxing, Rappaport was something of a phenom, a street-wise whiz of the sport, so much so, that when he was just 12 years-old, he attracted the attention of the producers of the hit game show, “The $64,000 Question”, who considered the youth as a contestant before ultimately going with an attractive female psychologist with a meticulous knowledge of the Sweet Science. “They had a choice between this snot-nosed kid from Brooklyn or this good-looking woman,” Rappaport explained. “I guess they felt the woman would be more of a ratings draw. I thought, ‘There goes my shot.’” The rejection did nothing to stall Rappaport’s ambition. A year later, after observing a friend making money selling cookies, he decided he wanted in on the action. Unfortunately, his buddy would not reveal his supplier, so Rappaport followed the kid to his source one day. Soon, the entrepreneurial Rappaport had 20 children selling cookies for him. He soon became know as “Dennis the Cookie Man,” purchasing bags of cookies wholesale for one dollar and selling them for two. Other lucrative enterprises followed, including a short stint as a traveling Karate Photos courtesy of Dennis Rappaport
NST042016
To see the actual publication please follow the link above