[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 11967]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


                       TRIBUTE TO FLOYD PATTERSON

  Mr. HINCHEY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to speak out of 
order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentleman from New 
York is recognized for 5 minutes.
  There was no objection.
  Mr. HINCHEY. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues here in the House to 
join me in celebrating the life of an outstanding American, an American 
who was a boxer and the heavyweight champion of the world. His name was 
Floyd Patterson. He died recently, on May 11 at the age of 71.
  He was a truly outstanding athlete and, I think even more 
importantly, an incredibly outstanding human being. All of us who had 
the opportunity to know him benefited from that knowledge and our 
association with him, and I am proud to be one of those people who knew 
him well.
  Floyd Patterson was born in a rural cabin in Waco, North Carolina, 
one of 11 children. When he was still young, his family moved to 
Brooklyn, New York. As a young child there, he struggled in a tough 
urban environment and as a youngster got into a certain amount of 
trouble.
  He was sent upstate to Wiltwyck School For Boys where, under the 
proper kind of supervision, he began to turn his life around. He did so 
in a very dramatic way. He became associated with a very important 
boxing trainer named Cus D'Amato, and at the age of 17 Floyd Patterson 
won a gold medal in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, boxing as middleweight.
  He was known as a ``gentleman boxer.'' He was known as a gentleman 
boxer because in the ring he knocked a number of people out and a lot 
of people down, but he always helped them to their feet.
  He had an amazing boxing career. In 1956 he became the youngest boxer 
to win a world heavyweight championship, and in 1960 he became the 
first boxer to ever regain the world heavyweight championship.
  After an outstanding career in the ring, where he set an 
extraordinary example for other athletes, he eventually retired to a 
17-acre farm that he purchased in New Paltz, New York. While in his 
retirement, he served as the chairman of the New York State Athletic 
Commission. He counseled troubled teens through the New York State 
Office of Children's Services. He welcomed dozens of young men into his 
home and he trained numerous boxers in the boxing ring that he built in 
the barn on his farm.
  He gave generously of himself to the young men he trained and to the 
communities of the Hudson River Valley in New York, including his 
generous support of the athletic facilities at New Paltz High School 
and the State University College of New York at New Paltz.
  Floyd Patterson was an extraordinary, one might say almost unique, 
individual. He came from a very difficult set of circumstances. As a 
very young child he grew up in a set of very dangerous circumstances, 
but he managed to move himself away from all of that and to realize the 
extraordinary physical potential that he possessed as a human being and 
became the kind of champion that I just described.
  He is an American worthy of honor and tribute and worthy of the 
recognition of this Congress. I hope that all of the Members of this 
Congress will join me in a resolution honoring him, his athletic 
career, and the contributions that he made to countless other 
individuals whom he helped succeed in realizing the potential of their 
lives.
  Floyd Patterson, an extraordinary boxer, an extraordinary American, 
an outstanding, extraordinary human being. I am proud to celebrate his 
life.

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