European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 25, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Usa eur sports Jophe ring around the army boxing made a hit with or. Z. Editor s note tins is the last of Paul Zimmer Man s series i Laitine his army sports career in Gar Many. Timnit Rinan is the pro ool Ball expert or. Z at sports illustrated by Paul Zimmerman sports illustrated d boxed at Stanford fought in the nyc Golden gloves. The problem was gelling out of my Post in Lan Stuhl to do some training. Me. Hunter had assigned me to the motor Pool a Brilliant bit of irony because i knew zilch about any and All vehicles. Check that i knew one thing. When your car is really screwed up and you take it in you say better Check the  i never knew what the hell this meant. Points were something in a basketball game but someone once told me that 11 you say it end look smart they d figure you knew something so you would t get screwed Loo bad. So there i was in Tho motor Pool up on the Mountain in lands Uhl. Fighting one of the coldest Winters in the history of Germany. Ii was so cold that it you touched tile Memi on a vehicle without a Glova on you d leave a Iii to skin behind. First Day Tho sergeant tells me you be got six trucks to Greaza. Call me when you re  six trucks to grease hey wot Means ois so i went to sleep in the Cabot one of them. After an hour or so the Guy on my shift was banging on the window. Sergeant s  you finish a six Tho Sarge asks me. No i jus did  of hurry up and lemme know when you re  lord lord get me out of hero. Finally i got Down to Vogel Weh for boxing practice. There was one other heavyweight Tex Ramsey who d been my Back up tackle on the football team. Sgt. Minerva the boxing coach put me in with Hirst now it s a funny thing in sports. When a Guy plays behind you no matter what sport it is you automatically feel you be got a Hammer on him whether it s football boxing Ping Pong you name in. Tex knew in and i knew it arid he Pussy tooted around and i landed some jabs and Hooks and sgt Minerva figured that i might not be the greatest heavyweight in. The army but at least i was better than tax. Our Loisl set o bouts is next week against the 37th  he Caid. The weigh in s on saturday of you do Good in your bout i la see what i can do to get you out on  at the weigh in Tex and i checked out the opposing heavyweights carefully. A Little roly poly 190-Pounder wow rows sure beat the named Calvin Evans. The other ones one of the Nastiest looking human beings i d Ever seen. Ezak Ual Leroy Roker from Bullca n.y., 219 pounds with a chiselled body and Oriental looking features totally devoid of expression. There then arose a furious jockeying for position Between Tex and myself us Tex since i Haven t Dona any training i think i should pick who i la tight and 111 fight us Lessee now Evans that s  no you re 230 and i m �00, so you should fight the bigger  Tex. I Ain t fighting that Guy Weh i m not  and All the time we re pushing and elbowing each other like mad. Finally sol Minerva settled it Well do in by weigh you la fight the big Guy he said pointing Al me. I never hated anybody As much in my life As i did sgt. Minerva at that moment. Die Why Don t you die it s All Over. Goodbye try Sayonara. Let s get it Over with first night and i m sitting with our Waco Rhino learn a pleasant Bunch of Loose Happy Guys and i m feeling kind of silly myself kind of Giddy actually. Wonder what it s like to die in the ring the lighters.-. Had this tradition. They d sing each Guy into Iho a that & when in was his turn. The song was called Mambo Rhino and ii had a Nice swing to it. Say it was Starling Jenkins turn. We d sing Sterling s Gonna do the Mam Moi Sterling a Gonna do the Mam Bol Mambo Rhino Mambo Rhino Sterling s Gonna do the Mambo of i was having a swell time until it was my Lum. In the locker room was our Trainer. Waller Speight. Walter was a master sergeant and he d been a Reserve guard on the football team Hie was one of those strange people who seem to Drift through sports programs in the service indefinitely. He had no athletic knowledge or background. He just always seemed to be  was built funny Loo 5-11,250, with spindly legs and a Gigantic belly. His Way of playing on defense was to turn his Back at the snap of the Ball and sprint about 30 Yards downfield where he d station himself. Occasionally when someone would break a run Here would be Waller downfield and people would say Damn Speight really hustled to get Down there and he made the team that Way. Amazing. Now i was galling ready for my Date with death and Waller was rubbing vaseline into my hair. Why was he doing thai never found out except that i reasoned that if he was doing it he must be doing it for a reason so i let him. That s How nervous 1 was. The ref was Tex Guillory a sergeant from und Stuhl. He looked at me sadly As he brought us together to the instructions. During the intros they d prefaced Mina by saying Here s someone who needs no introduction to Waco sports  and i m thinking no no. Don t say that. Don t give this Guy any reason to be madder than he is. Now texts giving us our instructions and i m staring straight across at Ezek Al Rotor s Chest Only it s unlike any Chest i d Ever seen. Usually there s a break Down the Middle pectoral muscle on one Side another on the other bul this Guy had a solid Wall of muscle across with no break. What does this mean i m thinking. Terrific punching Power Freak stuff whal i never did work it out. Well Ezek Al Leroy Roker had 1z straight knockouts that year and i was the first. In the Usa eur finals a hit some Guy so hard he turned him completely upside Down and there was an award winning picture in Tom stars and stripes of this poor Guy with a caption Reading Bottoms up or something Clever like that. I tried to follow his career when i got out of the service. Surely he must have turned pro but i never Page t6 the stars and stripes sunday september 25,1988