By: Michael Woods
He was quick with a joke and to light his own smoke, an omnipresent stogie, was Bert Sugar. And he was the man to go to when you wanted some historical background on the sweet science, preferably delivered with a couple of wry cracks. Author-editor-historian Bert Sugar, for whom the word “raconteur” definitely applies, has died from cardiac arrest after a battle with lung cancer.

Sugar, age 75, was surrounded by family at Northern Westchester Medical Center. Our condolences go out to his wife, Suzanne, especially.

NYFightBlog is thankful to have chatted with Sugar, who entered the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2005, for a good 45 minutes back in the middle of December, when he told us he was fighting the good fight against cancer.

“I sort of fell apart,” the writer-editor-lawyer-adman-madman told me. “I had everything but terminal acne. You live like hell for all those years, it’s going to be hell at the end. It was the end of November. … My wife is going to correct me; she says it was October. The days start fading into one when you’re housebound. I’ve learned that getting older means you get aches in places you never knew you had. I had radiation, chemotherapy, chemo-sabe. The cancer is in remission. It’s over, I’ve won. I’m back, by unpopular demand. I’m coming along.”

Here is our story from mid-December.

Our thoughts are with his wife and children. Please use the section below to share your comments, condolences or favorite Bert Sugar stories. We look forward to reading them.