Goodbye to the Detroit Rocky
Posted: March 12, 2009
By Kevin Walters

Pastor Jeff Anifer of Melvindale’s St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church told those assembled for the Monday morning service that if Heaven has a boxing gym that Mickey Goodwin was likely already helping train boxers.

Goodwin, 51, died of a stroke Tuesday at his home in Melvindale.

Goodwin devoted his life to the sport of boxing. He is seen here working with two of the amateurs that came and went over the years at his River Rouge gym. Photos: Sportssummary.com

Pictures displayed on four large easels were prominent during the 16 hours on Saturday and Sunday that family received visitors at the Voran Funeral Home in Allen Park. The pictures, as they always do in such circumstances, showed the former pro middleweight who became a beloved amateur trainer at all stages of his life.

The oldest of three sons born to Michael and Irene Goodwin, several photos showed the three boys as little more than toddlers lined up by age while others showed Goodwin with family or friends as he got older. Still more photos showed the twenty-something boxer in action in some of his forty-three pro fights. In others, famous personalities posed with him: Jayne Kennedy (beauty queen, actress and sportscaster), boxers Jake LaMotta (immortalized in the movie “Raging Bull”), Mike Tyson and Joe Frazier, well-known manager Jackie Kallen, basketball legend “Magic” Johnson and baseball star Sammy Sosa were just a few.

And in nearly every photo, “Sneaky Pea” was smiling. It seems that Mickey Goodwin smiled a lot. Whether reminiscing about his 40-2-1 pro career or telling this reporter about another one of his young amateurs that he saw promise in. Mickey smiled.

Preachers at both a Sunday service at the funeral home and in Monday’s memorial service at the church, where Goodwin served as an altar server in his youth, spoke correctly of Goodwin’s love of training others in the sport that brought him so much joy and recognition.

Goodwin’s gym, the River Rouge Boxing Club – which he opened in 2005 – served a mostly financially strapped clientele that saw boxers come and go. While some just quit, more moved to other gyms closer to home or were forced to stop training because of school and then work demands as they reached adulthood. Several of those past members returned to the area to pay their final respects. Eli and Eric Mackey, Eissac Llamas, Ryan Roberts, Matt Templeton and Greg Salinas were among them.

Two of the young boxers that were current members of Goodwin’s gym paid their respects to the trainer they loved with more than their appearance or their words. Andrechi Wasson and Cody Hopkins, both teenage amateurs, quietly placed mementos in their trainer's casket during Sunday’s visitation. Wasson left a gold medal on a red, white & blue neck strap that she won in her very first fight while Hopkins left a nine inch trophy that was from his first win.

(c) 2009, Sportssummary.com