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By: Rich Bergeron

Friends, family, and fans of the late, great Allie Colombo packed the house at Joe Angelo’s Cafe Saturday night to pay tribute to the trainer of World Heavyweight Champion Rocky Marciano and several other outstanding boxers. A longer, more formal piece will be coming soon, but for now please enjoy the following links and background information on this truly great man and his exciting and interesting life.

PHOTO GALLERY OF SATURDAY NIGHT’S EVENT:

SLIDESHOW COURTESY OF TODD PETTI

NEWS REPORT ON THE EVENT:

Brockton pays tribute to Allie Colombo, Marciano’s friend and trainer

AWESOME VIDEO SLIDESHOW OF ALLIE’S LIFE AND TIMES:

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THIS GREAT TRIBUTE FILM (Click on Regular Download, wait 30 seconds, type in security code, and wait for file to transfer)

Short Bio of Allie Colombo:

PLEASE PRINT AND FILL OUT THE FORM LINKED BELOW IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ATTEND THE FEBRUARY 20, 2010 TRIBUTE TO ALLIE COLOMBO, TRAINER TO ROCKY MARCIANO.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW AND PRINT THE INVITE FORM

These photos are from the Rocky Marciano Tournament last year and from the Thanksgiving, 2010 football game in Brockton where the Rocky Marciano Foundation had a booth set up near the scoreboard.

During similar hearings in 1961, the boxer Rocky Marciano told legislators that “it seems absolutely essential that a federal czar be named to head the professional sport of boxing.”

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by: Rich Bergeron

Allie Colombo is the man who officially introduced Rocky Marciano to his professional promoter and trained him throughout the undefeated champ’s career. Yet, Colombo’s legacy does not end there. In addition to guiding Rocky, he molded Pro Boxers Mike Pusateri, Ronnie DeCost, and Pat Stapleton, among many other great prospects and contenders. Colombo also developed into quite a family man after Rocky’s retirement.

His daughter Cindy recently recalled how Allie would take his daughters to “church” every Sunday and never actually go to the service. Instead he would drive Cindy and Jean around to the houses of their aunts and uncles and have one meal after another before coming home for one more meal their mother had prepared. Allie’s Wife Lilly didn’t know her daughters skipped all those church sessions until decades after Allie’s untimely death.

Allie always seemed to get the last laugh in life, and even in death his sense of humor shines through. For instance, Allie’s wife and daughter swear Allie was not fond of swimming and would have no part of going in the water. “He wouldn’t even put his toe in the water,” Lilly reported in a recent interview. In that context, his yearbook photo saying he “also swims” seems like another setup for a joke Allie’s telling more than 41 years after he passed away.

Allie was a nearly lifelong close friend to Rocky Marciano and also a gracious host to another Rocky Trainer, Charlie Goldman, who camped out at the Colombo house back in Rocky’s hey day and cooked up a storm in their kitchen.

Mike Pusateri recalled recently how proud Allie was to tell stories of working with Rocky and their youth together. “He was extremely sincere and honest,” said Pusateri about Colombo.

Marciano himself gave Colombo a world of credit for his championship career when reached for comment following Allie’s accidental death in January of 1969. “It was Allie’s contention that I could make it very big in the professional ranks, so we talked it over and together decided to give it a try,” Rocky recalled. It was Allie who drafted the letter to Al Weil that led to Rocky’s invitation to New York to meet the promoter. Allie secured that first meeting with Weil that began Rocky’s path to the championship of the world. The two boys who were close neighbors from youth formed a tight bond that lasted through adulthood. All the while, Allie provided the comic relief. When Marciano was down in training camp, Colombo would do his best Al Weil impersonation. After Allie’s death, Rocky told the Brockton Enterprise:

“Allie was a real buddy. He kept my interest in boxing alive through all the difficult moments. Prize Fighting is a very serious business, but Allie was very witty and when we got too serious he’d use his sense of humor to relax the atmosphere.”

Charlie Petti’s biography of Marciano best describes the best move these two close friends ever made:

“With the thought of going from job to job, a very insecure future, these two young men from Ward 2 reached a decision. A decision that would affect the boxing record books. For within five and a half years, Rocco Marchegiano would become Rocky Marciano, the Heavyweight Champion of the World.”

Allie’s legacy lives on in the memories he left behind and the people who still look back fondly on his funny antics and his serious impact on so many boxers. February 20th is set to be a night long overdue in Brockton where Allie Colombo will once again be the life of the party. Stay tuned for more updates, and a full and formal biography of Allie will be printed for the ceremony.

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