Longtime LV fight timekeeper Bisek dies at 72

Friday, Feb. 18, 2005 | 9:29 a.m.

The only thing Al Bisek enjoyed more than serving as a timekeeper for major Las Vegas fights was showing his grandchildren how, for a quarter of a century, he had performed that job.

Using an old bell that was built into a beat-up brown wooden box, believed to be from the old Silver Slipper fight arena where Bisek got his start, Bisek set out to teach a new generation the finer points of being a timekeeper.

He would strike the antique gong that resounded with a crisp and lingering chime, then show the kids how to slap the mat in unison with a referee's count for a knockdown. And, of course, he showed them how to keep a keen eye on the clock, making sure that each round lasted no longer than three minutes.

Bisek, who also was a casino manager and host and the owner of a Las Vegas used car lot, died Sunday. He was 72.

Services were Wednesday for the Las Vegas resident of 42 years.

"Al was an exemplary licensee who never missed an assignment," said Marc Ratner, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, the agency that regulates boxing. "He worked the bouts of all of the great fighters of the last 25 years including Oscar De La Hoya and Mike Tyson."

Jane Broadfoot, who has served as a boxing timekeeper since 1976, called Bisek "a real team player," who was unselfish and willing to "share the load" of assignments with several other timekeepers.

Bisek began working for the Athletic Commission in 1980, doing small weekly and monthly fights at venues from the old Hacienda on the south end of the Strip to the Silver Nugget in North Las Vegas, where amateur bouts were held.

By the late 1980s he had worked his way up to the main events of major pay-per-view television cards, including Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Marvin Hagler (April 7, 1987) and Leonard vs. Donnie Lalonde (Nov. 7, 1988).

Other big fights that Bisek worked as timekeeper included former world heavyweight champion George Foreman vs. Axel Schulz (April 22, 1995); Tyson vs. Frank Bruno (March 16, 1996); De La Hoya vs. Felix Trinidad (Sept. 18, 1999); and Evander Holyfield vs. James Toney (Oct. 4, 2003).

Born Aug. 30, 1932, in Milwaukee, he was the oldest of two children of Albert Robert Bisek, a body shop operator, and Elizabeth "Betty" Simo Bisek, a Las Vegas resident who survives her son.

Bisek graduated from Washington High School, where he was a standout left-handed first baseman who caught the eye of the New York Giants, who offered him a AA contract in 1950.

Instead, Bisek enlisted in the Air Force during the Korean War. But he was sent to Europe where he played for the Air Force baseball squad, his family said.

After leaving the service, Bisek earned a business degree from the University of Wisconsin. He moved to Las Vegas in 1963, where his first job in gaming was as a craps dealer and shill at the Las Vegas Club downtown.

He also served as casino manager at the Aladdin and was casino manager and a casino host at the old Maxim hotel. For the last eight years Bisek was a casino host at the Boardwalk on the Strip.

In the 1990s, he opened Al Bisek's Liberty Motors used car lot on East Charleston Boulevard and worked there while taking a hiatus from the gaming business.

In addition to his mother, Bisek is survived by his wife, Evelyn Bisek; two sons, John Bisek and Dan Bisek; a daughter, Babette Laman; a brother, Bob Bisek; and six grandchildren.

Palm Mortuary, 1600 S. Jones Blvd., handled the arrangements. The family said contributions can be made to Nathan Adelson Hospice.