Joe W Byrd, the former coach of the US Olympic boxing team and the father of Chris Byrd, has died at the age of 89.
Byrd was the head coach of the 1992 Olympics team that succeeded at the Games in Barcelona, Spain. He was also an amateur and professional fighter and, before overseeing the national team at the Olympics, worked in Flint, Michigan with the Flint Police Athletic League.
The men’s team in 1992 included the future champions Oscar De La Hoya, Vernon Forrest, Raul Marquez, Montell Griffin and his son Chris.
“Joe Byrd was just an icon in Flint,” said the former WBC super-middleweight champion Anthony Dirrell, another of the decorated fighters Byrd trained. “The whole family was dedicated to the sport of boxing.
“He was a hell of a coach, a hell of a father and grandfather. If you had him, you definitely would have had one of the best. He worked with a lot of kids.”
Byrd reportedly stopped his first ever opponent in a Golden Gloves match in Flint in 1957. “People were coming up to me after, telling me how good I’d done and shaking my hand,” he once said. “I thought, ‘Oh God, it’s in my blood now’. Once boxing is in your blood, that’s it.”
During his 10-year professional career, which concluded when his record reached 31-17, Byrd won city championships as a light heavyweight and heavyweight, and a state title at heavyweight in 1962. His nickname “Toy Block” owed to his short, strong stature, and his aggression.
Byrd not only trained Chris, but all five of his sons – each, like his daughter Tracy, turned professional – and ran the Joe Byrd Boxing Academy.
His wife Rose Byrd died in June 2015, having previously trained him for fights when, in his youth, he couldn’t afford a professional trainer. The Joe & Rose Byrd After-School All-Star boxing programme opened four years later, when his son Patrick said: “You can ask any boxer that fought under him – they would tell me, ‘Your dad is a good man’. I just appreciate him.”
It was in 2001 when, discussing his profession and the Joe Byrd Boxing Academy, Joe Byrd told The Journal: “Everybody who comes through this door ain’t a boxer.
“That’s all right. I just want to make sure they go down the right road. The Lord is leaving me here to do this work with these kids. While they’re here, they’re mine.”