Quarry Provides Living Proof of Boxing’s Side Effects : Aftermath: Brother blames father for retired fighter’s deteriorated mental condition.

Once, Jerry Quarry was the bull from Bellflower, a young, bright, heavyweight contender who could string punches and sentences together.

These days, he can do neither. Quarry, 50, lives in a far-off world under round-the-clock care.

Quarry, who fought and lost to some of the best--Muhammad Ali, twice; Joe Frazier, Ken Norton--suffers from pugilistica dementia.

In the old days you would have called him punch drunk.

Quarry, who shares a San Jacinto townhouse with older brother Jimmy, recently underwent an MRI test.

“They told us they had never seen a brain deteriorated as Jerry’s,” Jimmy said. “He will get to the point where he might not even be able to recognize us.”

Jimmy speaks on behalf of Jerry these days, mostly because Jerry can’t.

Quarry has trouble signing his name and recently was provided a rubber stamp of his autograph to ease him through public appearances.

“We’ve lived in this house for four months, and he can’t find the bathroom or his bedroom,” Jimmy said of his brother. “He’s walked out and we’ve had to call the police to find him. He’ll leave at 5 o’clock in the morning, so he has to be watched 24 hours a day. If he gets milk out of the refrigerator, he can’t remember where it goes back. He’s not violent. He’s happy. He lives in a small world.”

Jimmy blames their father, Jack, for many of the problems that now plague Jerry and 44-year-old Mike, another fighting Quarry who took too many punches.

“My father has to take responsibility, but he won’t,” Jimmy said. “He has to take responsibility that it was him that put us in boxing, him that made us not be quitters and take more punishment than was necessary.”

Jimmy claims his dad once sent Jerry into the ring with a broken back.

Jack Quarry, who lives in Virginia, could not be reached for comment. A number provided by Jimmy for his father was non-working. Jack Quarry has previously denied the charges his son has leveled against him.

“My father denies that he got us into boxing,” Jimmy said. “He blames it on my mother. That’s a lie.”

Jimmy said his father harbored no malice, just a blinding drive to see his sons succeed.

Jack’s motto was, “There’s no quit in a Quarry.”

Jimmy, the oldest son, was initially targeted for ring stardom, but soon discovered he had no stomach for the fight game.

“Because I didn’t want to hit a kid back when he hit me, he made me wear a diaper and suck a bottle in front of my sisters,” Jimmy said. “Well, it had such an effect, it broke me.”

Jimmy quit when he was 20. After his last fight, at the Hacienda Hotel in Las Vegas, Jimmy said his father told him he was a disgrace to the Quarry name.

“Thank God I didn’t want to be a fighter, or the end results would have been the same as they are with my brothers,” Jimmy said.

Jimmy, a year older than Jerry, turned out to be the lucky Quarry. His mind still intact, he is a bank loan officer in Palm Springs. After Jimmy failed, Jack zeroed in on Jerry.

“He didn’t want to let Dad down,” Jimmy said. “And Dad came at us as a father, never a trainer, and you can’t mix the two in my opinion. My father was strict, but it was all he knew. He wasn’t doing it to be mean, he was living his dream of being a fighter through his boys.”

Jack did not work the corner for Jerry or Mike, once they had turned pro, but was a constant presence.

“My father was in the dressing room, influencing the trainers and everything around,” Jimmy said.

Earlier this year, Jimmy spoke with his father for the first time in 10 years. Jimmy said he confronted his dad and demanded that he take responsibility for what had become of Jerry.

“He denied everything,” Jimmy said. “I looked him right in the eye and said, ‘Well, you’re wrong and we don’t remember the way you’re telling it.’ . . . We were raised that a man was only as good as his word. So since his word is now no good in my eyes, I don’t have any respect for him.”