A picture tells a thousand words
I have a painting of Rocky Marciano vs jersey Joe Walcott that was painted by Billy Murphy who was my dad’s cousin, strangely his dad was a good boxer who went by the name of Billy Farrell. The story goes that my dad was visiting them and commented on the painting as he liked these boxers so Billy gave it to him (1960’s), every time they met up Billy always asked for it back and my dad would not part with it. The painting now hangs at the bottom of my stairs next to a grandfather clock, two symbols of my life one about the past and the other guiding the future. I have seen the painting of those amazing fighters all of my life through each stage of my life and it will possibly remain somewhere in my family for many generations to come. When I was born, in the 70’s (1970’s not the 1870’s for the cheeky ones) as a toddler I would often ask who they were and I first learned their names from my dad who was a very good amateur boxer with a good record and even had the offer to turn pro but