Nick Charles, Cory Charles and Evander Holyfield (Picture courtesy of the Charles household)
Nick Charles all the time appeared to have a strolling subtitle below him: “Is that this man too good to be true?” It stirs fun from Corridor of Fame broadcaster Steve Farhood, who labored with Charles for 11 years doing Showtime’s “ShoBox: The New Technology” sequence and dealing with Charles on CNN.
A couple of times a 12 months, Farhood’s outdated highschool buddies get collectively to play basketball on an area playground in Peter Cooper Village on the decrease east facet of Manhattan. One time, Charles occurred to be on the town and joined them. Through the course of the afternoon, Charles made eye contact with every considered one of Farhood’s buddies, asking inquisitive questions, making it some extent to point out a eager curiosity of their lives. Being skeptical New Yorkers, they approached their good friend Farhood afterward and collectively requested, “Is that this man legit?”
“I keep in mind telling them that’s how Nick is,” Farhood mentioned. “Nick’s philosophy in life was you solely needs to be judged by the way you deal with anyone who can do nothing for you. That was an awesome quote and Nick actually did that. He was nice with storage attendants, the doorman, he legitimately confirmed an curiosity in everybody. You give that type of love, it comes again. That was Nick. My largest remorse was that extra folks didn’t know Nick personally.”
On Sunday, the one-time taxi driver from Chicago can be posthumously inducted into the Worldwide Boxing Corridor of Fame with fighters Diego “Chico” Corrales, Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton, Michael “Double M” Moorer and Ivan “Iron Boy” Calderon. Within the girls’s fashionable class, Jane “The Fleetwood Murderer” Sofa and “La Guerrera” Ana Maria Torres can be inducted, together with coach Kenny Adams, supervisor Jackie Kallen and beloved publicist Fred Sternburg.
Nick Charles and Mike Tyson (Picture courtesy of the Charles household)
Within the non-participant class, Charles can be joined by journalist Wallace Matthews as a part of the 2024 class within the observer class, whereas Luis Angel Firpo will posthumously go in within the Previous Timer class and Theresa Kibby posthumously within the girls’s trailblazer class.
Charles, born Nick Nickeas, died on June 25, 2011, on the age of 64 after battling bladder most cancers. Instructed as soon as by a information director that his title was “too ethnic,” he modified his title to Charles. He was raised in a dirt-under-the-fingernails, blue collar atmosphere the place no job was too large or small. In some ways, Charles was a fighter himself. As a teen, he would brace himself towards the brazen Chicago chill and work in a single day jobs on produce docks. His nadir got here when he was instructed to shovel out piles of rat excrement. The occurring compelled him right into a cab to pay for Columbia School Chicago, the place he studied communications and journalism.
Regardless of the hardscrabble upbringing, the radiant magnificence about Charles was his authenticity.
“Nick was otherworldly in a way, a real man’s man, and Nick was not simply good-looking and charming, Nick was actual,” mentioned Cory Charles, Charles’ spouse who he met whereas he was at CNN. “We each got here from humble backgrounds, and each got here from fathers who had been World Conflict II veterans and each our fathers learn voraciously. Nick was extremely mental. He discovered these deep meanings in sports activities that I don’t see with plenty of broadcasters as we speak. Nick was consistently studying. Individuals could not know this about Nick, however he could have recognized extra about classical music than some folks within the Atlanta symphony.
“I’m shocked Nick by no means wrote a guide. He was an awesome author who wrote his personal materials, which isn’t performed fairly often as we speak.”
A real Renaissance man.
Charles constructed his profession figuring out of the boondocks of the Chicago space. He began out because the nightly sports activities host at WICS, in Springfield, Illinois, labored his method to WRC-TV, in Washington, D.C., as sports activities director, then to WJZ-TV in Baltimore, Maryland, and in 1980, made historical past as the primary sports activities anchor for CNN. That’s how America turned conversant in Charles. He and Fred Hickman created probably the greatest broadcasting groups within the historical past of community TV sports activities. His 17-year tenure as co-host of CNN’s “Sports activities Tonight” is a testomony to his work ethic and private sincerity.
With anybody who ever really knew Charles, hung out with him, they typically conclude their sentences with “… that was Nick.”
Nick Charles and Cory Charles’ wedding ceremony (Picture courtesy of the Charles household)
“Nick had so many unimaginable tales from being a taxi driver in Chicago, the place one time he noticed somebody die in his cab, and a girl give beginning in his cab,” Cory recalled. “There was this one story the place one lady took him for an hour-long drive, and he or she stiffed him, however she left a diamond ring on the seat. I went to plenty of fights with Nick. He had a really shut relationship with Mike Tyson and we went all over the place. I used to be truly buddies with Evander Holyfield earlier than I even met Nick.
“Nick simply had this ardour to see the world. We had been married for 13 years and it was biggest time of my life. We went to locations folks would by no means consider going as we speak. We went to Iran one time on a vacation. It was so Nick. It took us three makes an attempt and we beloved it. We went to Northern Pakistan. Nick was by no means actually a seashore particular person, however I made him snorkel all around the world. He went scuba diving as soon as and nearly died, as a result of he noticed the largest sea turtle he ever noticed and received so excited his masks flew off. Somebody had seize him and save him.”
Cory can be making Charles’ acceptance speech. She is aware of what this weekend can be like. Charles’ induction has been alongside time coming. She needs folks to recollect Charles as somebody whose favourite sport was boxing, and he really appreciated the lives fighters led. The final decade of his life was boxing.
DVDs would arrive within the mail so Charles may break down the fighters he can be broadcasting.
Steve Farhood & Nick Charles on ShoBox set (Picture courtesy of the Charles household)
“He lived for it, with a ardour greater than he had at CNN,” Cory mentioned. “When it got here to boxing, it was as essential to him as his household and different hobbies.”
Katie Charles, Nick’s daughter, was three-months outdated when Charles adopted her. She is 37 now and is in enterprise operations for Walmart.
“I used to be actually younger when my dad doing fights and in my early 20s when he handed,” Katie mentioned. “Corridor of Fame weekend can be an introduction for me to his boxing world and the connections that he had. It is going to be a ceaselessly memorial to the anchor that he was. My dad’s means to hook up with anybody and everyone seems to be an enduring reminiscence I’ll all the time have about my dad. My dad was everybody’s greatest good friend. He cared about everybody’s life story, the place they got here from, who they had been.
“He didn’t have simply nice hair (laughs). He related with folks. I interned at CNN shortly after he handed, and I keep in mind everybody my dad knew coming as much as me. One man got here up crying to me about how my dad was one of the vital real folks they ever met. Corridor of Fame weekend can be emotional. I take into consideration my dad day-after-day. Being there’ll deliver again plenty of reminiscences in my life.”
Nick Charles, Cory Charles and daughter Katie (Picture courtesy of the Charles household)
This weekend can be bittersweet. It is going to be a celebration of a person who favored to rejoice everybody else round him, and each be viscerally pulling that Charles is not going to be there to bask within the glow of a sport he so fervently treasured and the place he was admired.
“It’s powerful, I take into consideration Nick day-after-day,” Farhood mentioned. “When Nick was dying, he was in a position to discuss his scenario with none emotion. He defined how most cancers had attacked him after our final broadcast collectively. When he was speaking, it was very exhausting for me to not break down. It nonetheless after I take into consideration Nick. As respectable as Nick was, and ‘respectable’ is a time period you don’t use too typically in the case of TV folks, as a result of when the digicam is on, you put on make-up and you might be principally performing, Nick was as actual off the digicam as he was on it. I’ve been blessed with two very particular folks, Barry Tompkins and Nick Charles, who I broadcast with for greater than 10 years. They’re two very totally different folks, and two very totally different announcers. However each are Corridor of Famers now. Nick beloved plenty of issues in his life and boxing was considered one of them.”
Charles by no means appeared to have a nasty day in his life.
Cory was with Nick the day he died. He handed peacefully in his sleep throughout residence hospice care in a room adjoining to the place Cory was sleeping. He’s buried within the yard of their New Mexico residence.
“I have a look at his image each minute,” mentioned Cory, a visitor booker for information networks. “Individuals say time heals all issues, however whenever you hung out with somebody you actually love, they’re all the time with you. There’s a restaurant that I nonetheless go to that we used go collectively. His image is even in there (laughs). Nick won’t ever depart me.”
Joseph Santoliquito is a Corridor of Fame, award-winning sportswriter who has been working for Ring Journal/RingTV.com since October 1997 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Affiliation of America.
Comply with @JSantoliquito
