Boxers' Death

No chance to see the world

"We don't have much to offer our young boxers," said Bob Surkien, national boxing chairman of the U.S. Amateur Athletic Union. "No college scholarships, no fancy cars. What we can offer them is a chance to see the world." Surkien fought back tears as he spoke: he had just learned that 14 members of a U.S. amateur boxing team, flying from New York City to matches in Cracow and Katowice, had died in the crash of a Polish IL-62 jetliner near Warsaw's Okecie Airport. The disaster, which took the lives of all 77 passengers and ten crew members, was the worst air crash in Poland's history.

The dead boxers included some of America's finest nonprofessionals. Lemuel Steeples, 23, from St. Louis, was considered by many to be the leading amateur welterweight in the U.S. "We looked for him to win a gold medal at the Olympics," said Ed Silverglade, chairman of the A.A.U. international selection committee. Andre McCoy, 20, of New Bedford, Mass., was touted among the nation's top three light heavyweights. Also killed was the team's coach, Thomas ("Sarge") Johnson, 58, who trained the U.S. boxing squad that won five gold medals at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.

There have been other tragic air accidents involving American athletes. In 1961, 18 figure-skating stars, bound for the world championships in Prague, were killed in the crash of a Sabena jet near Brussels. In 1970, 30 members of the Wichita State University football team died when their chartered jet hit a mountainside in Colorado. Seven years later, 14 University of Evansville basketball players, returning home from a game in Nashville, died when their DC-3 crashed on takeoff.

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