Bill O'Neill

I saw these two photos making their way around the internet. Both of them include my friend Bill O'Neill. I thought they were both interesting enough to merit a caption or an explanation of the photos. I emailed Bill and he was kind enough to provide a caption for both photos. Thank you Bill.

Randy:
Top photo was taken in Jake Shugrue's Gym, corner 78th & Hoover, approx. 1970.
Left to right, standing: Freed Heesy, Jake Shugrue, Irish Frankie Crawford, and Meself; seated, Freddie "Mexicali Rose" Marino. (Perhaps his name was spelled Merino. Great guy. The nickname was hung on him by Honolulu promoter Sam Ichinose--pronounced Itchy-Nose--during Freddie's fighting days.)

Bottom photo: Jose Sulaiman came to the World Boxing Hall of Fame banquet the year I was president of the organization (1984), to belatedly present WBC championship belts to Rodolfo Gonzalez and Mando Ramos. The belts had been won 10 years earlier, but got overlooked, and laid around in the WBC office in Mexico City for all that time. Sulaiman said he would bring them, providing we allowed him to make a "brief" speech. So he came--and BORED EVERYONE TO DEATH for almost 30 minutes, until I persuaded Jimmy Lennon Sr. to cut him off.