George Foreman: The Ultimate Comeback King!
Many thought him crazy when George Foreman hung up his gloves at the height of his boxing career, a view that was reinforced when he stepped back into the ring ten years later! But incredibly the born again boxer went on to do the double...
Born in 1949 in Marshall, Texas, one of seven children, George Foreman had a problematic childhood defined by instability, violence and poverty. Although he was raised by JD Foreman, whom his mother had married when George was a small child, his biological father was Leroy Moorehead. After dropping out of school in the 10th grade (age 15-16), George followed a not unusual route for a teenager of his background, abusing alcohol and engaging in violent crime on the streets of Houston’s Fifth Ward.
However, things started to turn round for him when, in 1965, he left Houston for the Job Corps in California. This was a programme developed to help disadvantaged youth by teaching them vocational job skills. As part of Job Corps, Foreman trained to become a carpenter and bricklayer. However, significantly, it was here that George met Doc Broaddus, a Job Corps counsellor and a boxing coach, who encouraged Foreman to channel his anger through boxing.
After moving to Pleasanton, California, with the help of a supervisor, he began to train in a trade but his heart was in sports. Football was also a passion, but he gave that up for boxing.
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