Retirement boxed up referee

Ring official makes comeback after a hiatus

GV/AN/VIEW--Hall of fame referee, Richard Steele, talks about future plans for his boxing club. Thursday, May 5,2005--View photo by shelly donahue GV/AN/VIEW--Hall of fame referee, Richard Steele, stands in his new boxing club. The retired referee has opened the club in Henderson. Thursday, May 5,2005--View photo by shelly donahue

Consider a lifetime in pictures. For World Boxing Hall of Fame boxing referee Richard Steele, that lifetime includes snapshots from three decades inside the ring with the best fighters in history.

Walking through his new gym, the Richard Steele Amateur Boxing Club, the referee points out iconic images -- Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, Roberto Duran, Marvin Hagler -- and explains the pictures mean so much because they capture some of the greatest moments in sports, and he is a part of each one.

Welcome to Steele's journey to becoming one of the finest and best-known referees in boxing history. It didn't begin the way one might expect.

Steele originally set out to play football, but after breaking a leg and an arm playing, he realized he was too small for the sport. He needed to compete against someone his own size. So after joining the U.S. Marine Corps in 1961 at 17 years old, Steele started boxing.

Though he was already considered a bit old to be starting -- most boxers start at the ages of 8 to 10 -- Steele believes his natural abilities, including strength and intelligence, allowed him to reach many of his goals in a short amount of time.

Two years after he started boxing, Steele came to Las Vegas for the first time to try out for the 1964 U.S. Olympic Boxing Team. Though he didn't make the team, he did have a successful career as an amateur, winning a western regional Golden Gloves tournament and becoming the All Marine Corps champion in 1963 and 1964. During that time, he counted world heavyweight champ Ken Norton among his teammates and had a record of 24-4.

In 1967 Steele turned professional and fought until 1972, when injuries forced him to retire. He was 16-4 with 12 knockouts.

After six years of boxing, Steele's career was far from over. It was about to go from good to great.

Shortly after competing in his last fight, he was asked to referee. It was the early 1970s, and Ronald Reagan, then governor of California, gave Steele his referee's license.

"I was blessed to never miss fighting .... I parlayed refereeing into a lifetime job, a profession, which was so wonderful because after I was injured, it kept me into the sport I loved so much," Steele said. "I never dreamed (refereeing) would be as big as it is. I never dreamed it would take me all over the world."

In 2000, Steele was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame. He holds the record for refereeing the most world title fights (167).

Steele started his career as a boxer around the same time that superstars Norton and Muhammad Ali began theirs. Though he didn't end up the champion he originally dreamed of, he did make it as an all-star referee before they ended their careers and got to spend time in the boxing ring with them.

"We were still together, me as a referee and them as world champions," he said.

Steele has met dozens of celebrities and made appearances in several films. In addition to the countless trophies and plaques in his home and his gym, Steele's memorabilia includes photos of himself with Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx, Muhammad and Laila Ali, Jack Nicholson, Will Smith, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and Nelson Mandela.

Originally from Los Angeles, Steele has been a Henderson resident for the past 12 years and has lived in the valley for 25 years. He began refereeing in the early 1970s, and by the early 1980s he was officiating some of the biggest matches in boxing.

"There was great action in the 1980s," he said. "You had these kids that were really hungry for stardom, and they had this charisma. Kids today, only once in a while come up with that charisma, like Oscar de la Hoya. In those days, kids had more of that. In the top 10, you might have had five superstars in the different weight divisions."

One of Steele's favorite photos is the one depicting him with Tyson. The picture was taken in 1988, when Tyson was named Fighter of the Year and Steele was named Referee of the Year.

Another shot shows Steele with Muhammad Ali at the April 1995 grand opening of Steele's original Nevada Partners Boxing Gym. Ali arrived at the gym at 10 a.m. the day of the opening. Shortly after his arrival, area radio stations started reporting that he was at the facility.

"Hundreds of people showed up to meet him," Steele said. "He can draw hundreds of people. I never knew anyone that could draw like that -- hundreds of them. And you know, not one woman or baby came out that day that he didn't hug or kiss. Not one man came whose hand he didn't shake. He was there all day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., until I put him in his car to go. That was a day I'll never forget."

Despite the celebrity encounters and world-class career, by early 2001 Steele had started to consider retirement, though he hadn't told anyone, including his wife, Gladys. But during the sixth round of the World Boxing Council Super Featherweight Championship fight between Floyd Mayweather and Diego Corrales at the MGM Grand Garden, it occurred to him that it was time to announce his retirement.

"Mayweather was just putting on an exhibition. He was doing everything right," Steele said. "And it came to me -- what a great fight to go out on. Everything was perfect as far as referee's duties. There was nothing controversial for the referee that night."

After the fight, Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Marc Ratner complimented Steele, telling him he had done another great job.

"I told him I was happy to hear it because it had been my last fight," Steele said. "Everyone said, 'What?' Everyone kept asking me 'Richard, what's wrong?' I hadn't even told my wife I was thinking about retiring, and people started calling her.

"When I got home, she asked me what was wrong and I said 'Nothing. Nothing is wrong. Everything is great, but this is it. It's been 30 years. It's the perfect time for me to retire,' I thought."

At the time, Steele thought he had finished his work as a referee and would able to move on to something else without regrets.

"One day you'll look at all your masterpieces and say it's over," he said. "For three years, I thought it was. I tried to get and capture that excitement in other things. Tried all different things, but there was never one day when I was satisfied with anything other than refereeing.

"I can honestly say, it was a mistake for me to take those three years off. I know that now."

Steele realized how much he wanted to return to refereeing while leading a seminar in Bangkok, Thailand 3 1/2 years later. During the five-day workshop, he spoke to 134 attendees about refereeing.

"I was in there for five days, going over things that helped me be a good referee, what you should do, what you shouldn't do, and I felt like I missed refereeing. On the third day I was walking around, refereeing, showing people what to do and how, and I said, 'Man, I really miss this.Why am I not doing this?' "

After returning to Nevada, Steele called Ratner and asked about returning.

"He said to me, 'This is the moment I've been waiting for a long time.' And that was great to hear. I knew I'd done the right thing," Steele said.

He now referees at least twice per month. Once again, staying in top shape at all times is extremely important.

Among the greatest fights he has refereed was the 1985 Hearns-Hagler bout, considered by many to be the greatest boxing match ever. After the first three minutes of the event, Steele was as tired as he had ever been in his life, he said.

"I thought, I cannot keep this pace -- something must happen," he said. "That was how much excitement and energy there was in that round. Then the next two were just as tough. That's why they're considered the best three rounds in boxing, ever.

"(Refereeing) is like nothing else -- it drains you faster than anything I have experienced. Physically and mentally, you have to be ready. Going into that ring, you can't have anything on your mind but officiating, or the next thing you know, something happened that you didn't see, you didn't stop, something you should have prevented ... Things happen so fast. It's 10 times as fast inside the ring as it is out here."

For all its violence, Steele said the sport of boxing can help anyone trying to do the right thing and lead a good life. The goal of the sport, he explained, is to win in that moment in that day, and to not hurt or harm the opponent permanently.

"When two people have this confrontation against each other, and no matter what happens, in the end they hug. Where else can you get that?" Steele said. "He's trying to knock your head off, you're trying to knock his off, then the final bell rings and you hug him, and you really mean it. You really care about him. You care about the welfare of the person.

"What I think about when I'm refereeing is protecting a young person's life and welfare. When I'm training them in here, I'm doing the same thing, and that's the comparison. I'm training them in how to protect themselves, and be the best."

One of the things he has enjoyed most about his career is the opportunity to help youth. Steele said he knows where many of the children in his program are coming from, and he wants to open their options.

"I came from the same place, surrounded by gangs, drugs, alcohol, having nothing, and I thank God I made the right choice," he said. "Now I tell youngsters ... it's up to you to make the right choice. Whatever you choose is what you'll have to live with."

Steele, who was ordained as a minister in 1984, said his faith has guided him to make the right choices throughout his life.

One day when he was 17, Steele was supposed to go somewhere with his friends. While they took one route, he decided on another. Along the way, he took the first steps toward his military career, while his friends found trouble and were arrested.

"(My friends) wanted to go a different way," he said. "I knew what was down that way. (It) wasn't good. So I went the other way and I passed a Marine Corps recruiting office, and I went in and I joined. I spent nearly six years in the Marine Corps, and I still beat them out of prison.

"There are choices, and I want to show youth that making choices at 14, 15, 16, 17 is very critical. Those choices could determine the rest of their life."

Looking back, Steele said the best aspect of his success has been the opportunity to travel the world with his wife and their four children, and allowing his children to see other ways of life.

At 62, Steele said he is content with his life, in love with his family, and enjoying the fruit of a lifetime of good choices.

"I wouldn't go back if I could. When it comes out right ... I wouldn't do it over," he said. "My life came out so right. When I started, I never could have dreamed my life could be so complete. When your mother and your family are proud of you -- you know it came out right."