Re Jerry Gladman

Martin Resnick, a RingSports.com writer, says the Toronto Sun's late, great Jerry Gladman should be considered a contender for the 2010 International Boxing Hall of Fame.

Resnick, a seasoned boxing writer, offers a few names for consideration and says this about Gladman, who died from ALS on June 21, 2004, after writing an award-winning series on living and dying with the disease:

"Would also put forward for induction Jerry Gladman, great boxing writer from Toronto, Canada. I feel Jerry was the foremost boxing authority in Canada. He wrote for the Toronto Telegram, Toronto Sun, worked as a young lad for the Toronto Star.

"He and I had long talks about boxing, he knew his stuff. Unfortunately Jerry was taken from us by Lou-Gehrig's Disease at an early age (61). Jerry was 10 years my junior. I miss him.

"He also would be a great addition to the Hall of Fame. I did some work for Jerry when he edited and owned Canadian Pro Am Boxing Magazine. He did most of the writing. I wrote some articles and Jerry published them."

Gladman would be thrilled to be mentioned in Resnick's list.

Around the Toronto Sun newsroom, Jerry talked boxing with the same authority as copy editor Ben Grant talked baseball and sports editor Scott Morrison talked hockey. Walking, talking sports encyclopedias.

As a family man, writer and boxing aficionado, Gladman was never more elated than when all three passions fused when he took one of his sons to an interview with Muhammad Ali. His son ran with Ali during training.

Gladman was a writer, not a fighter, but when he wrote about boxing his prose packed a lot of punch. He was a student of the game back to the 50s and Gillette's Friday Night Fights.

It is heartening to see boxing has not forgotten Jerry Gladman. His family, friends and Sun colleagues certainly haven't. The prolific writer and friend to all is missed.

If Gladman becomes an induction nominee, it would be in the Observers category, which is open to "print and media journalists, publishers, writers, historians, photographers and artists."

Previous Observers inductees include Damon Runyon, Bert Sugar and Budd Schulberg.

The International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, N.Y., says members of the Boxing Writers Association of America and an international panel of boxing historians cast votes.

Voters from Japan, England, Canada, Mexico, South Africa, Germany, Puerto Rico and the United States are among those who participate in the election process.