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Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2008 > May > 22 > Entry
BLOG: Mike Tyson - Dayton (the “gynecology” days) to Cannes
I see where Northwestern University has revoked its offer of an honorary degree to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, saying it didn’t want the controversy engulfing him and presidential candidate Barack Obama to eclipse the school’s commencement activities.
I’m wondering if Central State University now wishes it had done the same before it gave Mike Tyson — then the heavyweight champ of the world and oft-professed “baddest man on the planet” — an honorary doctorate of human letters at the school 19 years ago.
I was there that day — in fact, I was about the only media member on hand — and had been standing in the wings of the stage with Tyson when he was called out to meet a packed house that included a lot of women students sitting right up front.
It wasn’t long before he looked out at the fawning crowd and with a big grin, offered up his infamous line that went something like this:
“I wasn’t sure what kind of doctor I was, but looking at all the lovely sisters here, I think I’ll be a doctor of gynecology.”
The crack brought hoots of delight from a lot of students, but elicited disgust from some faculty members, a few who walked out.
There was a lot more that went on during that trip to the Miami Valley, including some wild escapades at the Crown Plaza Hotel — then Stouffers — in downtown Dayton the night before. I was there then as well.
I’m curious if any of this is touched on in the new documentary film that just debuted with much fanfare at the Cannes Film Festival last weekend.
The former champ received a prolonged ovation at the screening of “Tyson,” the film directed by his pal James Toback, whose credits include “Fingers”.
Tyson — who always said he didn’t think he’d reach 40 because of his self-destructive lifestyle — is now a month shy of 42. He says he hasn’t touched drugs or alcohol in 15 months.
“I lived a wild and extreme life,” he told reporters in Cannes. “I used drugs. I had altercations with dangerous people. I slept with guys’ wives that wanted to kill me. … I didn’t know how to be any other way. I felt like one of those barbarian kings just coming to conquer the Roman Empire. I was crazy.”
That he definitely was when he visited Dayton in 1989. I’ve interviewed and written stories on Tyson for almost 25 years — covered a lot of his fights, seen plenty of his wildness, had plenty of times when I enjoyed him, too — but his trip to Dayton stands out.
The night before his Central State honor, he and promoter Don King had most of one whole floor of the hotel sealed off for them. A local guy involved in the fight scene here brought over a few girls so Tyson would have someone to “party with.”
I remember sitting in the hotel lobby with the last girl who was going to join him and I felt sorry for her. She was wearing what looked to be a bridesmaid dress. She didn’t have a clue what she was getting into, and the the next day a limo driver whispered to me she had been treated rough.
At Central State, they held a press conference that included Tyson, King, then CSU president Arthur Thomas and Jack Kemp, the Secretary of HUD. The theme was how Tyson and King were going to set up a program to address hunger in the nation — that never happened, they never followed through — but as Kemp was sitting there making a serious pitch, Tyson sat next to him, suggestively rolling his tongue around his lips and mouthing the words to a nearby girl: “I love you.”
As his limo was leaving CSU for the Dayton airport, it stopped at the edge of campus, right next to a woman student. The window rolled down, there was a brief conversation and she got in the vehicle with her school books in tow. Instantly, the car was roaring back down Route 42 toward Xenia.
I wonder if she would have something to add to that documentary?
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Comments
By Darren Jahmani
July 16, 2008 4:02 PM | Link to this
Ali was there too. I was a student at the time and a member of the choir. All 3 of them came into our class room prior to our performance at the ceremony. Sad day for CSU, but this is why none of his exploits surprised me…gynecology? I remember it like it was yesterday.By Mark Fisher
May 23, 2008 12:38 PM | Link to this
Arch, I’m sure glad you said you were ABOUT the only media on hand at the CSU event, because I was there with you and remember it as if it were yesterday. And it was just as you described it. The reaction of faculty and other adults to the “gynecology” line differed mightily from the reaction of students. And I witnessed some of the after-ceremony hubbub as Tyson was preparing to depart, when several young women — some of whom were NOT Central State studens, I’d wager — were vying for Mike’s attention. What an experience — for all involved.