Leonard Leaves Olympic Staff : He Lashes Out at Boxing Officials Who Claimed He Had Used His Job

Sugar Ray Leonard, stung by criticism that he had used his position as “special adviser to the U.S. Olympic boxing staff” to recruit amateur boxers for his professional boxing organization, abruptly resigned Friday.

And he didn’t go out quietly.

Leonard, in a news conference at Caesars Palace, was also angry with USA/Amateur Boxing Federation officials’ criticism of his “Sugar Ray Leonard Boxing Club” T-shirt stands at last week’s Olympic trials tournament at Concord, Calif.

Leonard rapped USA/ABF officials for not informing him exactly about what his role with the Olympic team would be, and he also criticized the selection of Tom Coulter as the team’s head coach.

Leonard’s resignation ended several months of dissension within USA/ABF ranks. He was appointed to his post by the organization’s president, Col. Don Hull, at the National Amateur Boxing Championships last April in Colorado Springs, Colo. Leonard, Hull explained at the time, would work with the Olympic team during its training period before the Games at Seoul, Korea, Sept. 17-Oct. 2.

The appointment was criticized by virtually every USA/ABF staff member.

But Friday, Leonard said one reason he was quitting was because no one would tell him what he was supposed to do.

“I (might as well) have been giving advice through soundproof walls,” he said. “No one was listening. I could never answer the question: ‘Ray, what will be your role with the Olympic team?’ because no one ever told me what my role would be.

“My expertise has not been used, and this (amateur boxing) is my first love.”

Leonard strongly denied that he had used the Olympic trials last week to recruit talent for his pro boxing stable.

“I told Col. Hull I never would do that, that I never had done that and that I would be willing to swear out an affidavit to that effect.”

Leonard said the “straw that broke the camel’s back” was the selection of Tom Coulter as the Olympic head coach, announced by Hull on Thursday. Leonard referred to charges that Coulter, during a U.S. boxing team’s tour of the Soviet Union, urinated in public.

Coulter has denied the charge.

“It’s an unfortunate scenario,” Leonard said.

“We have a coach who allegedly urinated in public, and now he’s the head coach. It’s an unfortunate situation. Logic tells me the candidates for head coach should be judged on performance, and the only coach that comes to my mind is Coach Hank Johnson.

“He has five boxers in the boxoffs and his guys are in better shape than any other group of boxers.”

Since his U.S. Army boxers dominated last week’s trials, Johnson, 40, had become a strong candidate, if not a logical choice, to coach the Olympic team, particularly after a USA/ABF committee denied a reinstatement appeal Thursday by Army Coach Ken Adams.

Adams had been given the Olympic team head coaching job last October but was suspended in May after an alleged assault on a federation staffer. On Thursday, in announcing the denial of Adams’ appeal, Hull also announced Coulter would be the head coach.

Of federation criticism of his T-shirt stands at the Olympic trials, Leonard said: “I’ve been accused of setting up T-shirt stands at Concord. That’s true, but that’s how I’m going to pay for my son’s college education.”

Just before abruptly walking out of the room, Leonard added: “I feel I have become a distraction here. I am here because I want to be. I am paying my own way.”

Hull, the 74-year-old federation president, then spoke, and criticized critics of Leonard’s appointment.

“We have lost a very important person in amateur boxing,” he said. “We are a service organization, a group of volunteers, and Ray Leonard was a volunteer. It’s completely unfair that people have carped at him from the very beginning (of his appointment).”

Hull then lashed out at former USA/ABF president (1976-80) Bob Surkein, who had sharply criticized Leonard’s appointment, calling Surkein and another former federation president, Loring Baker, “traitors.”

Surkein said Leonard had “never lifted a finger” to help the federation, and questioned why Hull would give him a high-profile position with the Olympic team.

Hull: “It’s with real sadness and regret that we accept his resignation. He’s a fine gentleman, with a lot of class.”