Jimmy Glenn Is Not Forgotten

Not long ago, I received an email from a woman who told me she liked the story I wrote and posted to NYFIGHTS, which honored NYC fight fixture Jimmy Glenn.

Jill DeGroff is her name; she attached a colorful and evocative testament to her feelings, which you see below.

I’m not generally an “art guy,” but for real, her work impressed me.

So I asked Jill to share with NYF some thoughts on Jimmy Glenn, who died in May of 2020, from COVID. Jimmy would have turned 90 on August 18 of 2020.

“Jimmy’s Corner is one of the last great dive bars, a genuine relic from the 1970s, how Times Square used to be before they scrubbed the life out of it,” DeGroff said. “A few years ago, I read an article by Shane Mitchell in Serious Eats that described the bar and Jimmy Glenn so vividly, it made me want to visit again. I had been there once or twice in the seventies but wanted to see if it had changed. Luckily it was still the same and I was glad I went. I got to meet and draw some wonderful characters despite the fact it was three deep at the bar. 

Sadly, Jimmy Glenn passed away due to complications arising from Covid. Articles about him describe how while working to support his family, he made a niche for himself in the boxing world, beginning his training as an amateur boxer in 1949 and spending the next two years fighting in the Golden Gloves as a welterweight and middleweight. After 14 wins and 3 losses, with one of those losses coming at the hands of the legendary heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson, Jimmy decided it was time to move on. After that, he became a trainer, a manager, and the best cut man in the biz. He opened a gym in Times Square and became a friend and mentor to many young aspiring fighters. His iconic bar, Jimmy’s Corner, enabled him to keep the Times Square Gym going all these years. Here’s to Jimmy Glenn: a New York hero never to be forgotten.

And here is mini bio on Jill, in case you wanted know more about her before to check out more of her artistry: