Dennis Swamy was the ‘King in the Ring’ and a commoner off the arena. Unfortunately, the trademark hat and the charming smile will not be there any more.
This former national boxing champion suffered a massive stroke at his residence on Tuesday and was declared dead after being rushed to a private hospital. A simpleton to the core, he was another shining symbol in the world of sports from Hyderabad who rarely got his due.
Sports Coaching Foundation general secretary K. Sai Baba, who has been conducting a boxing tournament in his name, was shocked to hear the news of his demise and reminds that next week, another edition of the championship was to begin.
In a way, destiny never really smiled on this boxer, rated by his contemporaries as a truly extraordinary, scientific boxer. But for the Arjuna Award in 1968, this eight-time national champion had little to cheer about on the financial front – surviving on a meagre ₹12,000 pension he was getting as retired SAAP boxing coach. Dennis Swamy always felt that he got the wrong end of the stick, especially for the Tokyo Olympics which he had said he missed because of ‘dirty politics’.
Sports lost an achiever from an era when sheer passion drove many athletes to transgress the barriers and scale stardom.
