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Thursday, June 14, 2001

Correction/Clarification: (Published June 15, 2001) The ESPN Classic special about the 1941 Billy Conn-Joe Louis championship boxing match is scheduled to air at 9 p.m. Sunday, a day later than reported by Mr. Big Picture yesterday. The show also will air at 7 p.m. Monday, 9 p.m. July 29 and 7 p.m. July 30.

Sixty years ago this month, a Pittsburgh kid captured the boxing world's fancy. Billy Conn tried to go where no pugilist had ventured before, attempting to introduce heavyweight champion Joe Louis to the canvas via knockout. Conn got his kelly-green Irish up, and Louis put him down, and their New York night made ring history that provides compelling theater still.

"Sadly, Billy Conn is someone known more for giving Louis a run for his money and losing instead of being a great fighter in his own right," Daniel Bowen, the coordinating producer for ESPN Classic's "Game of the Week," said this week. At 9 p.m. Saturday, Bowen's cable channel focuses not on a game, but on a memorable match. It focuses not merely on Louis-Conn 1941, but on the inexorable link between two magnificent men and their flying fists.

"It's a wonderful tale," Bowen added. "It's so much more than '41. It's the expanse of their entire lives."

In a one-hour show celebrating the diamond anniversary Monday, ESPN Classic handles that expanse deftly. This special is a little slow at the start, then the black-and-white footage and the interviews get you in a clinch. This is typical of the cable monolith's style, chatting up an array of old-time writers and periphery people, then sewing their words into a seamless narrative. Many of the voices include such Pittsburghers as widow Mary Louise Conn, sons Timmy and Billy Jr., former Pittsburgh Press columnist Roy McHugh and, of course, Myron Cope.

A light heavyweight champion known as "The Pittsburgh Kid," Conn entered the Polo Grounds ring that night with a 32-pound weight disadvantage. Nonetheless, he was clubbing Louis, winning the fight even through the 10th, when Louis gentlemanly allowed Conn to regain his balance after a slip. Then, in the 13th, as Bowen said "this fight was done," the challenger attempted to become the first to knock out the seemingly invincible Louis.

Instead, Louis found an opening to deck Conn and win a lost fight. Boxing writer Bert Sugar recalls in the show how Conn told reporters afterward, "What's the sense of being Irish if you can't be stupid?"

Alas, Conn's hand was injured in a fight with his father-in-law. Then World War II intervened, postponing the much-awaited rematch five years -- by which time neither boxer was the same.

Beers on Bourque

Colorado's Stanley Cup triumph Saturday left one North Hills guy a little emotional.

Bob Beers, the Bruins' radio color commentator and a longtime NHL defenseman raised in West View, was watching Ray Bourque and the Avalanche play Game 7 on ABC -- the same as much of Boston. Bourque is so adored in the city he still calls home, Boston ranked second to Denver (37.6) and ahead of New York (8.1) with a 13.1 Saturday rating that peaked at a whopping 23.3 for the game's 11 p.m. ending.

"It was something," said Beers from his Boston home this week. "I wish he would have won it here. But that wasn't going to happen. Nobody that I can think of has been through what he's been through. Twenty-two years. I can only imagine what was going through his head."

Imagine this going down your street at 2 a.m. Sunday: Bourque honking his automobile horn, waking neighbors. They awoke to find the Stanley Cup waiting to greet them. The impromptu block party lasted until 4 a.m., with two of Bourque's children even inviting the New Jersey-bred neighbors with the Devils flag hanging in front of their house.

Yesterday, the Bourques brought the silver chalice to Boston for another celebration.

"He's such a good person, you can't help but feel excited and happy for him," said Beers, who played three seasons alongside Bourque.

No more Nik at night

Rob Nikoleski has informed his Fox Sports Net Pittsburgh bosses that he will leave his "Pittsburgh Sports Tonight" post by fall so he can start work in Boston, where his wife, Jodi Applegate, has been toiling since winter. Sorry to see him go. In less than a year, he became the best sports anchor in this market.

Chuck Finder can be reached at cfinder@post-gazette.com.