Columnist Dean Juipe: Pallbearers line up for last rites at Golden Gloves gym

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2003 | 9:42 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

The phone rang incessantly for the two hours I was there and for the rest of the day as well, said the man who had to answer it.

It wasn't chaotic or frantic at the Golden Gloves gym Monday, but it was peculiar. The building -- scheduled to close for good today -- had become a meeting point for those still trying to save it, even if their last stand bore a closer resemblance to a wake.

"I've got people calling from all over the world and they're all asking the same thing: 'Why are you closing?' " said gym operator Joe George, a full-time volunteer who has no financial stake in the facility. "I've had to tell them I don't really know."

Among the callers was Mike Tyson, who donated weights and a heavy bag to the gym a few years ago and who trains there on those rare occasions when he's preparing for a fight. He offered money, if that would help, and a lawyer who called later on Tyson's behalf committed to covering the gym's expenses indefinitely if that would keep the doors open.

But George could tell Tyson and his attorney no more than he did the rest of us: That this was a turf battle of sorts that seems to have little to do with money. It has to do with personalities and conflicts of interest and men behaving as boys.

And one of the key figures, Golden Gloves franchise holder David Moody, gives every appearance of willingly conceding defeat. He and the amateur fighters who utilize the gym are not being evicted per se, but he's leaving as if he has seen the handwriting on the wall.

Also on the wall: Do Not Occupy placards tacked to the doors of an inside meeting room at Golden Gloves that is used by its landlord, the Fraternal Order of Police. Those notices will be joined today by one of even greater stature when a city building inspector is scheduled to stop by and post a sign on the front door, advising that the building is unsafe and, indirectly at least, placing it under condemnation.

Moody, I have reasoned after studying this for a couple of weeks and being part of an off-the-record meeting with the FOP members who have spearheaded the close-the-gym process, is willing to let the gym be closed for at least a couple of reasons. One, he can get out from under any financial ties to the facility, and, two, he can retain his Golden Gloves franchise and have its fighters train at Barry's Boxing, as some are already doing.

Moody was on the phone with George a couple of times during the day, getting updates and likely defending himself. Outwardly, he acts as if he'd like to save the gym but his lack of action as it pertains to taking up offers from the mayor's office -- and now from Tyson -- to mediate the dispute speaks volumes.

I'm not too sympathetic toward him.

Nor was I overly impressed by the FOP members who won't quite say so but who have their own agenda. They don't care for Moody (although Moody, curiously, is also the FOP president) and they'd like to convert the Golden Gloves into a Police Athletic League gym.

These men want Moody out of the building (and as FOP president, but that's another matter) while, I speculate, bringing in their own crew to run it under the PAL banner.

How they'll fight through the Do Not Occupy and condemnation orders is also another matter, yet one that can probably be hurdled. The fire inspector who posted the notice that is already up did so because homeless people who sometimes seek shelter on the building's roof have caused it to all but collapse in places. And the building inspector who is due today will cite faulty wiring and mold as the reason for his actions.

Can the building be fixed up and saved? Obviously, yes.

But unless something changes here in a hurry, it won't be done under Moody's watch and it doesn't appear as if it will be done at all.

The FOP insurgents have already blocked a proposed new gym and meeting center, one that would cost some $700,000 and be built on the same Gragson Street site, even though philanthropist Jim Rogers said he would pay the entire cost. They want Moody out of there so bad, the FOP reps turned down a beautiful new building that wasn't going to cost them a dime.

There's a bitterness between the parties that is almost difficult to fathom.

"This is childish, it really is," said George. "I feel I'm fighting a fire that's already out of control. Plus, it's not really my fire to fight."

George and a few colleagues, including Doc Broadus and Jacob Duran, met with the FOP rebels and Rogers again over the weekend, seeking a compromise or cure. But none was forthcoming, in large part because Moody was neither at the meeting nor apparently willing to do anything but head to Barry's with his fighters.

"No one really seems to be telling the truth on either side of the fence," George surmised.

What Moody should have done is resigned as either FOP president or Golden Gloves franchise holder, thereby eliminating that obvious conflict of interest. The FOP members who oppose him on this issue are doing so, in part, because of suspicions about Moody and the fact that he hasn't opened the gym's books.

But he can go to Barry's and stay in the background and retain both of his presidencies, at least until an already delayed FOP election is held, and that apparently is what he intends to do.

Of course the FOP guys haven't handled this too well either and they come across as something of bullies. There is word of a private lawsuit being filed against Moody and, I can tell you from having heard their position on the matter, they don't seem to be in the mood for much in the way of compromise no matter what they may say publicly.

I asked them, "Why do anything?

"Why not live, harmoniously or otherwise, for the remaining 17 years of the lease?

"Why take this p.r. beating?"

They say it's a matter of principle and that the original lease agreement makes no mention of supporting a Golden Gloves gym on the site.

But there's a photo at the gym that was taken in 1974 when the city agreed to give the land to the FOP and that photo includes a sign in front of the shovel-toting dignitaries and smiling pols. "The Future Home of the Fraternal Order of Police building and the Golden Gloves Gym" reads the sign, its message and intent very clear.

This is a place where police and kids alike were supposed to mix, mingle, learn and grow. And they did for more than 25 years, as the gym -- under its late supervisors, Hal and Faye Miller -- held its own in an increasingly crime-filled area.

But today, through no fault of the kids, that era of sharing comes to an end.

I'll say the same thing here as I said to those FOP reps after hearing their spiel the day they came to the Sun offices to state their biased case. Unable to take it anymore, I stood, excused myself and headed for the door with one last opinion I couldn't help but express: "You men should be ashamed of yourselves."

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