Customer Reviews

Being Sugar Ray: Sugar Ray Robinson, America's Greatest Boxer and First Celebrity Athlete

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"Sugar Ray Robinson was the consummate professional, entertainer, and businessperson. How do today's athletes measure up compared to Sugar Ray Robinson?" And unfortunately for the focus of the book, author Kenneth Shropshire spends too much valuable space in the 220 pages trying to find Robinson's trifecta in the athletes of today.

For nearly 190 of those pages Shropshire takes small snippets from Robinson's life and attempts to weave comparisons & contrasts through stars like Kobe Bryant, Tiger Woods, Terrell Owens, Ron Artest, Randy Moss, Roger Federer, Pat Tillman, Mike Tyson, Shaq, Michael Jordan, Paul Pierce and Allen Iverson. It is oftentimes a very frustrating read as Shropshire fails to tie these loose strands together in so few pages.

And, ultimately, Shropshire questions his approach in the closing paragraph: "There is no evidence that Sugar Ray consciously led the postsegregation celebrity athlete transition. Maybe athletes today are accomplishing something unconsciously. Time will tell."

The book starts out with so much promise - chronicling Robinson's final farewell to boxing in December 1965 - and his years as an amateur fighter, with special emphasis on how he "found" his ring name and nickname. But the spotlight doesn't again fully focus on Robinson until the closing chapters of the too-often tragic boxing story of a former great champion; major financial problems to go along with severe physical debilitation from taking too many hard blows in a career lasting far too long.

I would give Shropshire the benefit of the doubt of being overly-ambitious if only somewhere in the title describes how he theorizes the evolution of Walker Smith Jr. into Sugar Ray Robinson has impacted the new generation of celebrity athletes.

"Suger Ray lived the moment," concludes Shropshire. It is too bad that Sugar Ray's moment is muddled in this book.

If you want a detailed biography of Sugar Ray then this book is not it and to be fair does not pretend to be despite the title. Shropshire who has written a number of books and articles on business and sports and black sportsmen has taken the core theme that the man was in the 1950s (after an initial first career in the 1940s) able to reinvent himself and become the prototype for many of todays black sports stars in terms of handling how they become famous and wealthy.


The book takes a number of themes such as style; business dealings, competitor rivalries and followers/hangers on and covers each in a chapter built around events in Sugar Ray's life. These are expanded to include reactions under the scrutiny of the media; mega financial wealth from very poor beginnings and obtaining status and respect with both blacks and whites (or the ability by wrong moves to easily lose it!). However Shropshire does spend a lot of time in the telling making many references to later sportsmen and events from the 1970s to date. For an non-US reader with little knowledge of NFL, NBA I suspect many of the names and events will mean little, even if the key points of principle are understood.

An interesting read from that limited perspective but I suspect if like me you read as a boxing fan, you will find it a bit of a disappointment, despite the occasional detailed coverage of a key fight. One thing the book does show is the clear evidence that many of todays superstars have it easy compared with the number of matches and scores Robinson achieved across his long period of activity. Proof again that Sugar Ray was the true all time boxing great, whatever his personal flaws.

This is one of the worst biographies I have ever read. The author, instead of giving us new information on Sugar Ray, compares his life and deeds to that of many other athletes, in many different sports, in many different eras. There are many bio's of Robinson available, all of them much better than this one.

I purchased this book for a friend who is incarcerated in New Jersey.
However he has written to me about how much he enjoyed this book. He told me that he had no idea of the adversity that this man faced.
He was regarded as the greatest middleweight ever and the first African American celebrity Athlete.
As a child growing up I do remember hearing so much about this boxer and the story of how he got the name Sugar Ray. He was working out in the gym when a trainer watching him said the immortal words " Thats some sweet fighter up there - in fact he is as sweet as sugar. Hence the name Sugar Ray.

Being Sugar Ray...The First Celebrity Athlete, is a read that provides an examination of the life and times of Sugar Ray and a studied insight into the superstar athletes of today. Although Charles Barkley and others resist the title of role model, Sugar Ray Robinson created the mold.
Not in the sense of an athlete to be emulated by our youth, but in creating the vision for young athletes of what Celebrity entails and looks like and from whence it came. Shropshire deftly utilizes his years of experience in the sports world to bring us closer to understanding how and why today's athletes do what they do on and especially off the playing fields. More than understanding how to train to succeed in sports, the author seeks to shed some light upon the darkness of celebrity that many of today's star represent and continue to experience. It represents an intriguing guide to the inside of sports, athletes and their vulnerability to being in the spotlight that we cast upon them. A valuable addition to a sports fan library...especially for the young superstar in training!
Bro2much





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