What Cus D'amato Had To Say

D'Amato, holding court amidst a group of reporters and well-wishers after the fight, had the floor: "I don't know what I would have done without SPORTS ILLUSTRATED. You fellows have been square all along. You didn't always agree with me, but at least you came to see me to ask me my side of the story, and then you printed what you thought was right.

"You gave me a voice. I am eternally grateful. I'm not too clever with words, and when some newspapermen would talk with me, if they did talk with me at all, they wouldn't put down the essence, the essence, of what I was saying. You know what I mean. I don't care who knows it. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED is great. They are honest people."

"What," a newsman asked skeptically, "would happen if you said that in front of Jim Norris?"

D'Amato's voice rose almost to a shout. "I would say it in front of anybody!" he cried. "I don't care what they think, Jim Norris or anybody else. With me they have been great, and when I couldn't get my story across to the newspapermen, I could with SPORTS ILLUSTRATED. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED is a class outfit. They are class people."