GERRY Storey has been conducting his boxing business far from Ireland, and far from the National Stadium, during recent weeks.
When we spoke on Thursday, he was just back from a holiday of sorts but one which also saw him lend a helping hand to son Sam at the annual boxing camp he runs in Murcia, down in Spain’s sunny south-east.
Before that, it was the Belarussian capital Minsk for a fortnight. Storey’s famous Holy Family club didn’t have anybody on the Irish team at the European Games this time around.
Instead he was there helping Michel Erpelding, a 24-year-old heavyweight from Luxembourg who reached out to Storey last year before relocating to Belfast to learn his trade.
“When Mich came in first, he was very novicey, very raw, but we’ve worked on him and he’s improved a lot,” says the veteran coach with pride, “he lost, but he did very well.”
Gerry Storey turned 83 back in February, yet still has the energy to criss-cross the globe in the name of the game he loves.
And even when is back on home soil, boxing dictates his entire week. He is involved with the Belfast Met boxing academy in the mornings, up at Holy Family in the afternoon, home for a bite to eat then back to the club for 6pm.
His Saturdays alternate between helping out with girls’ squad training in Banbridge or Lurgan, and the National Stadium keeping an eye on the next batch of talent ready to make their mark on the international stage.
“It keeps me going,” he says.
“I’m lucky enough that I’m still able to bounce about in the ring with the pads and do all the training.”
Storey first set foot in the stadium in 1949 - 10 years after it officially opened its doors, boxing there as a juvenile before an eye condition saw him switch from up-and-comer to coach.
He has been fortunate enough to witness the greats of several generations strut their stuff at the home of Irish boxing, and Storey thinks long and hard before excitedly pulling pearls from his memory bank.
“I used to be down watching the fights with my uncles and cousins… the American, big Ed Sanders, was Olympic champion when he fought our own John Lyttle at the stadium. John beat him, a big upset. That was a massive occasion, one of my favourite fights.
“Freddie Tiedt and Harry Perry, it was magic every time they boxed. That pairing would’ve packed the stadium out on its own.
“Another big upset was our own Neil Sinclair beating Neil Gough. Gerry Hamill, there’s another one when you think of some of the fights he had with Charlie Nash. Hugh Russell against Dave ‘Boy’ [McAuley] – those were great fights.
“I know I’m going to leave a lot out here, the names are just all coming to me here…”
Storey pauses for a second but before you have a chance to ask another question, he’s away again.
“Frampton against David Oliver Joyce,” he says.
“That was another outstanding one. David Oliver – a great wee fighter – he would’ve ducked down with the body shots, thrown four or five of them.
“But he had a habit of straightening up and dropping his hands, so we had drilled it into Carl ‘when he walks out, throw that left hook of yours high; throw it to space, he’s going to walk into it’.
“And that was the shot that dropped him. He threw it into space and there was David Oliver – bang! Walked right into it.”
Barry McGuigan, Paddy Barnes and Ryan Burnett are among the other stellar names to have been cornered by Storey at the stadium, as well as sons Gerry jr, Sam and Martin.
One of those protégés name-checked earlier, Hugh Russell, weighed only four stone when he won his first Irish title at 11, taking home the best boxer prize to boot – the youngest ever to pick up the Simon Donnelly perpetual trophy.
And he smiles as he recalls Storey having to take decisive action between rounds during some of those early fights.
“The stadium ring used to have a seat that swung in or out from the corner, so when you were sitting on it you had to have legs big enough to reach the ground to stop it – which I didn’t.
“So Gerry had to hold it in place with his knee to stop me going out under the rope.”
Like Storey, Russell is still a regular at the stadium, swinging a camera now instead of southpaw hooks. And every time he walks down the steps towards the changing rooms, memories come flooding back.
“I had good nights in the stadium, I won senior titles, numerous internationals, but one thing I’ll always remember is the layout… it was a hall built for boxing.
“The ring was like a football pitch with 14 inches of foam underneath your feet; it was like walking on the moon, it used to pull the legs out of you.
“And then when you were in those dressing rooms and you hear it announced - ‘Hugh Russell, Holy Family, Belfast’ - the hairs on the back of your neck would stand up.
“Even now when I photograph the seniors, those hairs still stand on end when I go down into the changing rooms, or walking up those steps.
“You can change arenas and buildings but you can’t change the feel of a place, and the stadium still has something really unique about it.”
As for his former mentor, the journey continues, over 70 years since Gerry Storey first made the pilgrimage to the place he calls “Ireland’s Madison Square Garden”.
And Russell doesn’t expect him to stop any time soon.
“The energy of the man is unbelievable.
“He seems to have forgotten what age he is, and the rest of us sort of see him as Peter Pan. It’s what makes his breathe.
“He’s the one you would turn to if you had a kid coming up… he’s like a fox. He doesn’t say a lot, he just watches and then he’ll have a whisper. He doesn’t get too animated but what he says, everybody takes on board.
“He still has a lot to offer, and I’m sure he’ll still be going down the road for a few years yet.”
