(Photo: One of DiSanto's previous gravestone projects, for former light heavyweight champion Matthew Saad Muhammad)
John DiSanto is continuing his quest of making sure Philadelphia’s finest fighters are remembered.
Historian DiSanto, who set up the PhillyBoxingHistory.com website more than 20 years ago, is now raising funds for a headstone for the unmarked grave of former welterweight contender Gil Turner.
Turner died 30 years ago, but DiSanto has been in touch with Turner’s son, Keith, and now the fundraising wheels are in motion.
They met yesterday at the cemetery where Turner is buried, and went through headstone options.
Turner was 56-19-2 (35 KOs) and stopped just four times in his stellar career. He had his first three fights in Philly before heading to New Orleans but many of his big nights were back in the City of Brotherly Love. In fact, he took on fellow Philly stars Joey Giardello and Garnet “Sugar” Hart in local rivalries.
Turner also twice beat Beau Jack, won and lost against Johnny Saxton, beat Joe Miceli, and Gene Fullmer, but lost their second and third fights on points, lastly by a split decision. Turner was an unsung hero.
DiSanto’s fundraisers have so far seen him complete gravestone projects for Matthew Saad Muhammad, Gypsy Joe Harris, Tyrone Everett, Eddie Cool, and “Sugar” Hart.
Turner had been on his list for some time.
“A while back, I made a list of some of the fighters who did not have headstones,” DiSanto told BoxingScene. “I started to look around and see where fighters were buried and if they had headstones. And he was one of the guys that I saw did not have a headstone.”
Several obstacles, including Covid, interrupted the process, but DiSanto hopes to have the headstone in place by the end of the year.
PhillyBoxingHistory is 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and there are more fighters on DiSanto’s lists of brave warriors he hopes to immortalise.
“There’s people like Joe Frazier and Matthew Saad Muhammad and these all-time greats and their legacy is set, no one’s forgetting them anytime soon,” said DiSanto. “But most of the fighters who never made it to the very top and time passes, they are forgotten. The first time I did a gravestone, it was for Tyrone Everett.
And that was something that I just sort of stumbled upon. I went out to the grave site, and I was in the library reading about his funeral. And I said, ‘Oh, let me go check it out.’
“And I went and I discovered he didn’t have a headstone. It was just grass. And it surprised me because he was super popular. For the time [in the seventies] he was doing okay, he was making money. And he was a hot star.
“But it did surprise me, he didn’t have a gravestone. I can’t say that it upset me, but I just saw it as an opportunity. And you know, how often can you do something positive for someone that you admire that’s long gone? I never met Tyrone Everett. I never saw him fight, like I was never ringside watching him.
“I saw him on local cable TV and I’ve seen films of him. So it gave me an opportunity to do something that I thought reminds people of him.
“And the truth is that part of me says, ‘Oh, my God, how could they not have a headstone?’ But I’ve talked to a lot of families and it’s expensive. And people die, they die suddenly, like in his [Everett’s] case, and there’s not always funds to do it. And they’re thinking, ‘Well, you know, we have this expense, and then we have all the others, I have kids and grandchildren, people living that have a more immediate need for the money.’ Because you meet these families and you see that they’re great people. It’s something that gives me an opportunity to step in and do something about it. People don’t have to have a tombstone. But it is a way of marking where they are.
“And it is something for future people interested in that person to find them and to know where they are. I think that’s a good thing.”
To donate to the Gil Turner headstone project, click on this link
