This puzzle is designed to teach you about:
The Original Kronk Gym
1921-2006: Famous for Boxing
Please BE AWARE OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS at all times.
The FINAL for this puzzle is NOT on or inside the
Kronk Recreation Center Building.
Do NOT enter the building as it is NOT SAFE.
Enjoy the Hunt and be aware of your surroundings as always!
Kronk Gym was a boxing gym located in Detroit and led by the famous trainer Emanuel Steward.
The gym was run out of the basement of the oldest recreation center of the City of Detroit.
It opened shortly after World War I (1921) and closed in 2006.
It has been said by many in the boxing community that Kronk is THE boxing gym in the world of Boxing. For many years, headed by Emanuel Steward, Kronk has grown into an international powerhouse. The Kronk name, while unfamiliar to many Detroiters, is a name that carries a lot of weight in the Boxing World. Curiously though, Kronk is not the name of a boxer – but of a venue, with its roots and original home in the City of Detroit at one of the city's Recreation Centers.
Entrance to the Kronk Rec Center
Built in 1921 on McGraw street in west Detroit, the Kronk Community Building is a recreation center named for former Detroit City Councilman John Kronk who served Detroit from approximately 1919 through 1940.
The center rose to prominence in the early 1970's after a young boxer named Emanuel Steward took on a part-time job as the head coach of the boxing program, leading it to a Detroit Golden Gloves championship title that year.
The gym was run out of the basement of the recreation center, and prior to its closing in 2006, was the oldest recreation center of the City of Detroit.
Emanuel Steward (1944-2012)
Steward had lived in West Virginia before moving to Detroit's East Side at age 11 and had boxed prior to moving, but in his early teenage years he'd gotten into some trouble and was given a choice to either box at another of the Detroit Rec Centers or go to Detention. Steward chose boxing and a legend would emerge a few short years later. Emanuel Steward was the 1963 National Golden Gloves bantamweight champion as an amateur and rose to prominence at Kronk when the gym began to earn fame during the late 1970s, when boxers like Hilmer Kenty, Thomas "Hitman" Hearns and Mickey Goodwin trained there.
Emanuel Steward, right rear, poses with a bevy of young boxers
at the Kronk Gym in Detroit in this photograph from the early 1970s
In 1980, Kenty became Kronk's first world champion, and Hearns followed him as world champion months after. In 1983, Kronk fighter Milton McCrory won the WBC's world Welterweight title that had been vacated by Sugar Ray Leonard; Jimmy Paul beat Harry Arroyo for the International Boxing Federation's world Lightweight title in 1985. Duane Thomas, another Kronk fighter, beat John Mugabi for the WBC's world Jr. Middleweight title in 1986. McCrory's brother, Steve McCrory, was also a world champion.
Prentiss Bryd was vice president of the gym during the 1980s. In the Lennox Lewis era, Richard Slone served as VP directly under Steward.
British middleweight boxer and England captain (1980–83) Errol Christie wore the coveted Kronk gold shorts in the eighties supporting Thomas Hearns on the bill in Las Vegas the night that Hearns soundly beat Roberto Durán on June 15, 1984.
Steward and Hearns, 1980's.
During the 1990s, Kronk opened a second gym in Tucson, AZ. A new host of fighters who would later become world champions arrived at Kronk, among them Gerald McClellan, and the gym began make a name for itself and also become a marketing icon for the sport of Boxing including selling merchandise through catalog sales.
Among the many world champions who have also trained at Kronk at least once during their careers are Wilfred Benítez (in the Tucson gym), Héctor Camacho, Julio César Chávez, Naseem Hamed, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis and Jermain Taylor.
In 1998 Kronk opened the Kronk Gym website to help promote and share information about about the gym and its fighters.
As part of the 1998 National Night Out, Kronk Gym put on a boxing exhibition.
It was said that Steward never planned to produce so many champions, but with his training ability, Kronk evolved into a symbol for Detroit's diverse, blue-collar community. Steward also served as a color commentator for HBO because of his knowledge and experience of the "square circle".
By the late 90's Kronk had stopped producing world champions. The City of Detroit, who owned and ran the rec center, was dealing with significant budget issues, forcing the gym to rely more and more on donations. A 2004 survey of rec centers by the city recreation department found that the Kronk building – by then the oldest center in the city – was in serious disrepair. Nine out of 29 recreation centers were slated to close in 2005, including Kronk.
Steward stepped in with an offer to buy the center rather than see it close, eventually reaching an agreement with the city to pay the operating costs out of his own pocket – estimated to be between $500,000 to $1 million dollars annually. The final death knell, however, came in September of 2006, when thieves broke in into the center over a weekend and stole much of the copper pipes and water supply to the center. With this setback, The boxers temporarily moved to a location in Dearborn to continue their training. On November 28, 2006, the Recreation Department would close the Kronk Recreation Center and also the original Kronk Gym due to the prohibitive cost of repairs to the plumbing and building infrastructure.
The Kronk Ring (Recent)
In the last few years, however, the abandoned Kronk Rec Center was part of a proposal and campaign to renovate the two-story building and facilities and possibly even revive the area surrounding it. Emmanuel Steward was spearheading the project, but unfortunately that project, as well as the future of the Kronk Gym itself is unknown since Steward's passing in October of 2012 from medical complications.
Entrance to the gym in the basement (recent)
Kronk will always be known for producing champions, no matter what happens from here. Most important though was what the gym meant to the thousands of neighborhood kids who passed through its doors during its 37 years in existence . For a teenager living in a rundown part of Detroit in the 70's and 80's, the discipline of boxing gave them an alternative to gang life – or worse.
The Kronk Gym will live on in the hearts and minds of people that called it home for their training and the love of the sport of Boxing, even if the facilities disappear and become nothing more than a footnote in the history of Metro Detroit Sports...and the world.
N 42° 20.ABC W 083° 07.DEF
- A : Duane Thomas won the WBC's world Jr. Middleweight title in 198_A_
- B : Emanuel Steward was the 196_B_ Golden Gloves bantamweight champ
- C : Thomas Hearns soundly beat Roberto Durán on June 15, 198_C_.
- D : John Kronk began is service to Detroit in 19_D_9
- E : In 19_E_8 Kronk opened the Gym website
- F : Kronk Rec Center was built 192_F_ on McGraw street
Please BE AWARE OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS at all times.
The FINAL for this puzzle is NOT on or inside the
Kronk Recreation Center Building.
Do NOT enter the building as it is NOT SAFE.
Enjoy the Hunt and be aware of your surroundings as always!