’68 Olympian Al Robinson and Ringside Report Takes Its Unique Look at a Legend…
By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart
Let’s be honest, you don’t have to go far to find tragedy in boxing.
However, the story of Al Robinson 11-1, 6 KOs. silver medalist in the 1968 Olympics at Mexico City at featherweight is a story that takes that idea of tragedy and moves it, not just in today’s weeks, months, but also years as his end of life came after three years in a coma.
Robinson was a boxer from Oakland, California, a featherweight silver medalist, and in the final, however, he ended up losing in a highly disputed bout to Antonio Roldan of Mexico. Suddenly, whilst dominating the fight, the referee gave Robinson a warning and then a second violation. And then what happened was something that for many years, including for his granddaughter, was a subject of great dispute.
The story of how he got to the final started with the round of 32 when the referee stopped his context against Britain’s John Cheshire. In the round of 16, he won by knockout against Teo Guinness Pellegrino. In the quarterfinals, then Egypt’s Abdel Hadi Calaf Alaa was beaten by decision 5-0. Bulgaria’s Ivan Mihailov was a slightly more difficult prospect in the semifinals, though he managed to triumph by decision 4-2.
And so, to the final, Antonio Roldan was the fighter across the ring, a homegrown talent who was likely to stop him getting the gold medal. Nobody could spot, just exactly what it was that made the referee give Robinson a warning. It has been lost in the mists of time. But minutes later, with a second violation for an alleged headbutt that opened up a bloody gash in Roldan’s head, it resulted in Robinson’s automatic disqualification. And so having gone to the games and boxed very well over four very tough fights, including winning two by either knockout or the referee, having to step in, on this occasion, the referee stepping in was to stop Robinson from achieving his ultimate gold goal.
Despite the ending, Robinson, a navy man at the time of the Olympics was teammate to a stellar cast of American boxers, including one George Foreman.
And that, according to a press interview in 2023, may well be the subject of a movie. The report of the movie from a KLTV report that was authored by Michael Coleman, who interviewed the granddaughter of Al Robinson, Kimberly Goodloe Robinson.
At the time, Kimberly was looking for anything that people had to add to what she had accrued herself to piece together her grandfather’s career. George Foreman, in 2015, had managed to make contact with Kimberly and, in an email said, that he had been a teammate of her “fast-moving and hard-punching father. Pound for pound, the best boxer on the 1968 Olympic team and number one in the world at the time. He would have been a no-miss for world champ.”
Such a legacy from a man who ended his life in the way that he did was testimony indeed to the prowess that he had within the square circle.
Kimberly was also able to explain what happened in the fight at the Olympics and the final and what happened thereafter. Apparently, the coach of the American team immediately filed an appeal. There was an overruling of the Russian referee’s decision, which meant that Al was awarded the silver medal.
The problem was he didn’t get it then and there.
He could have left Mexico with absolutely nothing and an automatic disqualification, which would have meant that that was exactly what he deserved. However, because the disqualification was overruled, he was going to get a medal. But he didn’t attend a medal ceremony as was his right. What he got was it mailed out in the post to him.
And then in 1969, on the 9th of June at the Coliseum Arena in his hometown of Oakland, Al Robinson turned professional. Facing Eddie Bullock, he managed to win by knockout in the very first round. You would think that that would be the portent of great things to come. And given that over the next six fights, he went on unbeaten until he faced, in Tijuana, Firmino Soto thing looked pretty decent. But against Soto he lost by knockout on the third round of a ten scheduled round fight on the 17th of March 1970.
As a pro, Robinson never actually fought for any honors, and his final fight was only seven months after his first loss.
On the 20th of October, back home in Oakland in 1970, he faced Felipe Torres and won on points over 10 rounds. Whilst Robinson may well not have been known as widely as his teammates in the 1968 American Olympic team, his death was something that caught the attention. It was on the 30th of April 1971 that he lapsed into that coma after complaining that he was feeling unwell at the New Oakland Boxing Club after having conducted a workout. He never came out of that coma and on the 24th of January 1974 slipped away.
One of the more interesting anecdotes from the time that he was alive and active going between amateur and professional boxing was in that interview with Kimberly Goodloe Robinson, his granddaughter. Robinson died when her father, his son, was only three years old, so it’s a remarkable piece of putting together a lot of piecemeal evidence in order to create some form of legacy for her grandfather.
Kimberly was able to tell us that , after the 68 Olympics, someone in the Nixon White House apparently heard about the Olympic moments and Al Robinson received and accepted an invitation to the inauguration of Richard Nixon.
But I’m going to leave you with the last words from this short piece from 2023 where Kimberly, the granddaughter, was asked how meaningful all of this was and she responded that she felt proud.
In fact, what she said was, oh, very proud. I come from greatness.
And nobody can disagree.
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