Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/116174
"Canastota Clouter" wore down opponents with his relentlessly aggressive style – always moving forward, always boring in, always on the attack. For five straight years, 1955-1959, a Basilio bout was selected by Ring magazine as its Fight of the Year, a record that still stands and includes two epic battles with Sugar Ray Robinson – savage contests that boxing historians rank among the greatest of all time. Basilio fought much of the second bout with his left eye hideously swollen after it collided DOUG PAINTER RECEIVES GRITS GRESHAM AWARD The Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA) and the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) have named Doug Painter as recipient of the 2013 Grits Gresham Shooting Sports Communicator Award. The award signifies his extraordinary achievements in communications and his longtime support of our hunting heritage and firearm freedoms. Painter recently joined Sporting Classics as an associate editor after an illustrious career with the NSSF that began in 1973. He served as executive director and president/CEO from 2002-2006, then as senior advisor and trade liaison until retiring in 2011. Tom Gresham, Grits' son, presented the award to Painter, calling him one of the finest outdoor writers of today. Gresham also cited Painter's leadership in the many programs he established to involve in the shooting sports. "As a writer and producer of many public service announcements, Doug showed America that shooters and hunters are responsible citizens," said Gresham. In 2006 Painter presented Grits Gresham with the NSSF Lifetime Achievement Award, which became the cornerstone for the development of the Grits Gresham Sports Communicator Award. "When the selection committee informed me that Doug was the 2013 honoree, I thought back to the presentation he made Grits in 2006," said Laurie Lee Dovey, POMA CEO. "The comments Doug made about Grits fit Doug to a tee." A lifelong outdoorsman, Painter has written on a broad range of topics, including conservation and the hunter's role in game management. with a Robinson uppercut, but no fighter, ever, was more willing to absorb terrible punishment in order to inflict it. As the legendary sportswriter W.C. Heinz said of Basilio, "He walked into the guns to bring his own into range, fearless and ferocious . . ." Basilio was a people's champion if there ever was one, and he never forgot his humble roots. I had the privilege of meeting him in 2002, and when I said, "It's a great honor, Mr. Basilio" he put up his hand as if to stop me and said, "My THE "CANASTOTA CLOUTER' Carmen Basilio, the great welterweight and middleweight champion of the 1950s who died last November at the age of 85, will be remembered as one of the toughest fighters who ever practiced the sweet science. The son of an onion farmer from upstate New York, the S P O R T I N G C 17 L A S S I C S