The death of Marvelous Marvin Hagler hit many hard. Including me.
Growing up, he was my favorite fighter. I loved the fact he was raised in Massachusetts (Brockton) and fought in my hometown (Lowell) as an amateur.
Lowell actually played a huge role in his life. One night, after seeing Hagler fight at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium, Lowell Sun sportswriter Rick Harrison assigned the nickname Marvelous to the young fighter.
The nickname stuck. In 1982, miffed that announcers didn't introduce him by the nickname, he legally changed his name to Marvelous Marvin Hagler. All because of Harrison. Sports Illustrated, among other publications, credited Rick with assigning the nickname.
Rick retired from The Sun after more than 43 years as a sportswriter. He stills lives in Andover. I was The Sun's assistant sports editor for about 16 of the years Rick worked at The Sun. Rick didn't like to talk about giving Hagler his famous nickname. That wasn't his style. Humble would be a great way to describe Rick, who led The Sun's high school sports coverage for decades. We used to joke Rick was the only guy who could fill cyperspace due to the length of his high school writeups. He championed the careers of thousands upon thousands of high school athletes. But he's most famous for typing in one word - Marvelous - nearly 50 years ago.
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