Fight Doctor Schwartz Was One of the Greats
Noted this week in Allan Malamud’s column the few lines on Dr. Bernhardt Schwartz’s passing. He deserves more than that.
I worked with the Olympic Auditorium as PR director for wrestling for 15 years. Schwartz was a local legend in the boxing-wrestling world. Although he had a gruff exterior, he was all heart. Boxers and wrestlers were treated by the good doctor whether they could pay or not. In his office at 5 a.m. every day with a desk full of patient files, he could find yours in seconds under the mounds of paperwork. If you couldn’t pay, he’d grin and say, “Next time bring me a few cigars.”
In his later years, his health deteriorated but he kept on in the local fight scene because he was dedicated and because he loved it.
JEFF WALTON
West Los Angeles
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