True as Boxing

[READER]( If you’re really lucky, every now and then you’ll meet someone while doing a story who changes your life with their great insights—even if you only talk to them a few times. So it was with me and a boxing coach named Tommy O’Shea, who I met [back in 1996](. Instantly, he was filling up my notebook with one great story after another. About how he and his family moved here from Ireland when he was 13. How he learned to box from Tony Zale. How he fought in the Golden Gloves tournament, where he met a young boxer named Cassius Clay—aka, Muhammad Ali. How he taught high school English in the Chicago Public Schools. It was like he talked in parables—every observation carried a lesson that could help you get through life. Like: “As a boxer, I was fast, I moved around. Sometimes it's more important to avoid getting hit than it is to hit—it's as true in life as it is in boxing." And: “Boxing's a discipline that enables you to control the animal within. A lot of guys come in with the big bar-brawling mentality, and I tell them to fight like a fox. If someone goes in with hatred and anger it tires them out. I tell them to act like the hungry cat going out for a meal: don't be angry, be shrewd and alert. I tell them you have to convert the animal within you.” And, my personal favorite: “There's a reason I call my club the Matadors. I believe that there's a bull and matador within us all, and if the matador governs the bull, we're in balance with life. If the bull takes over, we're out of whack.” Coach O’Shea recently died of COVID-19. I read his obituary in the Sun-Times ([another classic]( by the great Maureen O’Donnell). Reading about his life reminded me about how I used his line about the matadors when I was coaching grammar school sports. The kids would be like: “What are you talking about, coach? We’re not boxers, we’re playing basketball.” As I discovered, there’s only one Tommy O’Shea. Sincerely, [Evan Moore]( on his family’s land in Oklahoma [Me]( on what Mayor Lightfoot and Sam Skinner can do to help end inequity in Chicago [Mike Sula]( on great Thai food in Uptown [Salim Muwakkil]( on the Americans in Donald Trump’s statue garden [Evan Brandt]( on how a hedge fund is destroying journalism [Loreen Targos]( on local politics, police, and the EPA [This land is my land]( For generations, my family has owned a piece of untold Black history in Boley, Oklahoma. This year, I finally got to see it. By [Evan F. Moore]( [@evanFmoore]( [Living in exile]( After her husband was deported, Katrina Jabbi moved her family to Gambia to be with him. Then the pandemic happened. By [Clarissa Donnelly-DeRoven]( [@plz_CLARify]( [Issue of Jul 9-22, 2020 Vol. 49, No. 39]( [Download Issue (PDF)]( [DONATE]( [View this e-mail as a web page]( [@chicago_reader]( [/chicagoreader]( [@chicago_reader]( [Chicago Reader on LinkedIn]( [/chicagoreader]( [chicagoreader.com]( [Forward this e-mail to a friend](. Want to change how you receive these e-mails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](. Copyright © 2020 Chicago Reader, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Our mailing address is: Chicago Reader 2930 S. Michigan Ave., Ste 102Chicago, IL 60616-3228 [Add us to your address book](