Garcia's daughter receives PSC award

NEW JERSEY – Former world middleweight boxing champion Ceferino Garcia’s daughter Maureen was all choked up in receiving the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) glass trophy signifying the late fighter’s induction into the country’s first Sports Hall of Fame in her home at the Villages in Piazza Correale, Freehold, here Sunday afternoon.

Maureen, 69, submitted a birth certificate to the PSC confirming her parents to be the boxer and Lillian Florence Reveche-Cruz, an Irish-Filipina, to authenticate her claim as an heir. Aside from the trophy, she got a cash prize of $2,148 or the equivalent of P100,000 and the newly published PSC book entitled “Quest for Glory – A Journey Through Philippine Sports” with a personal dedication from chairman Harry Angping.

Maureen and her husband Tommy Hess, 71, live in a senior citizen community about 45 miles south of Newark Airport.

Last May, Maureen’s nephew Vincent Garcia contacted The Star by email after the PSC sought out descendants to accept the Sports Hall of Fame award.

Vincent, 44, is the son of Maureen’s brother Ceferino Jr. who passed away in 2007. He drove from his home in Long Island to witness the turnover of the trophy, cash prize and book to Maureen. Vincent brought the fighter’s championship belt that was produced by Crispulo Zamora with the inscriptions: “Ceferino Garcia – A token of esteem from Philippine sports fans for winning the world middleweight championship.” The belt was given when Garcia came to Manila to defend his title against Glen (The Nebraska Wildcat) Lee whom he knocked out in the 13th round before a wildly cheering crowd of 40,000 at the Rizal Football Stadium in 1939.

“It is with great honor and pride that I accept this award on my father’s behalf,” said Maureen. “This would have given him such joy to know that he was remembered for his accomplishments by the Filipino people and his sports peers.”

Maureen’s parents were divorced when she was six years old in 1947.

“I have fond memories of my father,” said Maureen. “I remember when I was five, I watched him spar in a gym and I cried. I couldn’t bear to see anyone hitting Daddy. He was never mean to us – my mom and my brother. My parents went through a stormy divorce but reports of him beating up my mom weren’t true. My father was just a ladies’ man. I couldn’t keep track of how many wives he had. When he died in 1981, he was with someone new, Rosita, a Filipina whom he had married just seven months before.”

It was either Garcia couldn’t stay away from women or the women couldn’t stay away from him.

“My dad was a celebrity, like a movie actor – everybody knew him,” said Maureen. “Even if my parents were divorced, my father would come to visit us in New York where my mom resettled us. I remember he bought my mom a ruby necklace which I inherited after my mom passed away in 1986, five years after my dad died.”

Maureen said her father was a disciplined man who had a passion for the sport that was his livelihood.

“Daddy told us that he got involved in boxing because his father used to get into trouble and he would help him out fighting in the streets,” said Maureen who has never visited the Philippines. “He developed the bolo punch because he used to use a machete in the sugar cane fields. He trained and hung out at the Main Street Gym in Los Angeles. And later when he moved to San Diego , he trained fighters with his good friend Archie Moore. He often spoke about his two fights against Henry Armstrong – their second fight was a draw but everyone thought he should’ve won the decision.”

Maureen and her husband flew to San Diego from New York when Garcia was on his deathbed at the Kaiser hospital in 1981. “He was on dialysis and complications set in,” she said. “When we got to San Diego , Daddy was gone. We missed him by about 30 minutes. His wife (Rosita) told me she deserved to get his insurance money. My brother and I didn’t question her. Daddy had another daughter Vicki from his second wife Mary. Rosita sold Daddy’s house in San Diego for $15,000 and I got a share of $5,000 but I ended up paying for his funeral and even fed and gave gas money to our friends who came for the burial.”

Garcia was buried in Los Angeles and the funeral rites were attended by hundreds, including Moore, Armstrong and Mushy Callahan. “We even had a police escort for the funeral car because there were so many people who turned out,” she recalled. “It was a nice tribute. Daddy was a good man. He never made enemies. He didn’t have much when he died. At the peak of his career, he owned three houses close to each other in Los Angeles. He used to complain that his manager George Parnassus short-changed him but he couldn’t do anything about it. I guess that’s boxing.”

Maureen said when she was a little girl, Garcia would take her to amusement parks.

“I was his girl,” she said. “Daddy was about 52 when his other daughter Vicki was born so he didn’t really have much time with her. Besides, Vicki’s mother Mary died at a young age 37.”