Hall of Fame trainer and former boxing broadcaster Gil Clancy passed away early Thursday in Lynbrook, New York. He was 88 years old.
Clancy was most famous for his longtime association with former welterweight and middleweight champion Emile Griffith, himself a Hall of Famer, but also had a hand in the careers of Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Ken Buchanan and George Cooney, and in the 1990s came out of retirement to work with Oscar de la Hoya as an assistant trainer. His first notable trainee was Ralph "Tiger" Jones, who defeated the likes of a late-period Sugar Ray Robinson, Joey Giardello and Kid Gavilan. But it was with Griffith he achieved his greatest success, and the two are forever linked as fighter and trainer.
As a broadcaster, Clancy won the Sam Taub Award in 1983, for excellence in boxing broadcast journalism. During that part of his career in boxing, he worked for CBS, HBO and the MSG Network, and perhaps most famously called the legendary "No Mas" fight between Roberto Duran and Sugar Ray Leonard.
Born on May 30, 1922 in the Rockaway Beach section of Queens, N.Y., Clancy boxed both in college and in the Army. He was one of the most well-respected corner men of his or any time, and is a significant loss to the boxing community to say the very least. Bad Left Hook extends our sympathies and best wishes to the family and friends of Mr. Clancy.