Canada Free Press (CFP) Sports Editor Edward Zawadzki is brushing the lint off his tuxedo and spit shining his shoes. The Fight against Drugs Campaign is organizing a special George Chuvalo tribute.
Chuvalo is the Canadian boxing legend, who was never knocked off his feet in the boxing ring by even Muhammad ali, or ever knocked off his feet in a personal life stalked by tragedy.
Chuvalo and Zawadzki have been decades long buddies. In fact, in the days of CFP predecessor Our Toronto, Zawadzki replaced Chuvalo, who was then grieving the death of his wife, Lynn as sports chief.
In our 15 years in the publishing business, there is no doubt that of all the characters who came our way, Chuvalo and Zawadzki crown the lot.
The two always look out for each other and have done so for a long time. In latest chapters, Chuvalo made tough-guy Eddie a marshmallow daddy. That's what he is to the tail-wagging Izzy, one of the pups along with Chuvalo's Wilbur, who came from the same litter.
Chuvalo shared Our Toronto sports pages with hockey greats Don Cherry and Eddie Shack. a great mimic who can do any accent, Chuvalo had an impressive vocabulary that kept sending his editors to the dictionary. a veritable bon vivant, Chuvalo moved in a world of Damon Runyon-like characters, not the least of whom was his one-time chauffeur Marvin Elkins.
Marvin, whose signature appetite brought him out to all our office parties, was dubbed "Starvin' Marvin'.
Chuvalo, who lost three sons to drugs, picked himself from devastating grief and went on to spend much of his time talking to young students all over North america about the perils of drug use.
Very few teenagers walk away from Chuvalo presentations with a casual attitude to drugs.
The tragedies that marked George Chuvalo's personal life would break a lesser man. His youngest son, Jesse was only 20 when he died of a drug overdose in 1984.
Unbeknownst to his family, it was the excruciating never-ending pain from a kneecap torn off in a motorcycle accident that saw Jesse turn to addictive heroin.
Two of Chuvalo's other sons fell victim to the same drug.
Georgie Lee was found dead in 1993 with a needle in his arm, just 11 days after being released from prison, his death coming only days before his 31st birthday. Son Steven also died of a heroine overdose, four days after his release from prison. Both sons had been in jail for 10 and seven years respectively for robbing drugstores of prescription painkillers.
Four days after Georgie Lee was found dead, Chuvalo's wife, Lynn, overcome with grief, took her own life by overdosing on pills Georgie Lee and Steven had previously stolen.
Lynn's funeral was the saddest one I ever attended. Cauliflower eared boxers in ill-fitting suits, turned and wept quietly among the banked flowers after paying their last respects at the coffin.
Even at his most grief-stricken, Chuvalo always had a kind word for others. My favourite memory of him was the day, I was saying goodbye to him on the sidewalk in front of my office. It was during the Christmas rush and only weeks after Lynn's death. Some youngsters in a car who had spotted Chuvalo came running up, one of them asking him to autograph a sports book he had just bought for his father. "Sure kid, what's your name", the boxer asked the young man. With the youngster's name, the boxing legend personalized the autograph by telling the father in his note, that had a wonderful kid.
Brokenhearted over his wife's death, Chuvalo turned down several book offers and could no longer do his Our Toronto columns. But he suggested Eddie Zawadzki as his replacement, a favour for which we are still grateful.
Since 1996, Chuvalo has given more than 1,000 presentations to more than 100,000 teenagers and hopes to do 150 more this year and the same in 2007.
Chuvalo's Fight against Drugs Campaign will be honoured at the Canadian Tribute to George Chuvalo fundraising dinner on May 9. More information is available by calling Karen Miller at 416-224-9991, or email kim.inc.@rogers.com.
Meanwhile, Zawadzki has been dogsitting Chuvalo's prize pooch, Wilbur, "Izzy's brother" to Eddie.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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