Sugar Ray Robinson: King of Harlem

Detroit is a wonderful sports town. It finished second in the running for the 1968 summer Olympics, and high in the ‘64 bidding. Fans of the Lions, Tigers, Pistons, and most important- the beloved Red Wings, are noted for their zeal and fealty. Motown was generous enough to give the world two great prizefighters, Joe Louis and Sugar Ray Robinson (as well as some guys named Hearns and Kenty that weren’t half-bad). At age 11, Robinson moved to Harlem, where championship status made him a king of sorts. Architecturally, much of that Harlem is visible to today’s tourists. A new book, Wil Haygood’s “Sweet Thunder”, chronicles the salad days when Sugar Ray’s bar was a Manhattan landmark:

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