The question has often been asked: How did famous boxing trainer Angelo Dundee get his surname?
And does he have a connection with the city of Dundee?
My former colleague James Masson, 40 years a journalist with The Evening Telegraph until his retiral two years ago, has the answers.
And the fact is that Angelo, who famously coached Muhammad Ali and 15 other world champions, does have a big connection to the city of Dundee.
Dundee connections
James takes up the story.
He said: “Several years ago I was covering a boxing night at the Palace of Arts, Bellahouston, in Glasgow where the top of the bill contest was Sugar Ray Minus of The Bahamas defending his Commonwealth bantamweight title against Glasgow’s Ronnie Carroll.
“The promoter was Tommy Gilmour who I have known for many years. After one of the rounds had been completed, Tommy leaned over to me and asked if I recognised the rather elderly gentleman in Minus’ corner.
“I said I didn’t and Tommy then told me it was Chris Dundee, an older brother of Angelo, and the other part of the great training duo who coached Muhammad Ali and the other 15 world champs they had in their care.
“Tommy arranged for me to meet Chris after the bout, which Minus won, and I seized my chance to ask if he and Angelo were, indeed, connected to Dundee.”
In his broad Miami accent Chris answered: “Yes sir we are connected with your city of Dundee.
“When Angelo and I were growing up we were forbidden to box by our father.
“Our parents were Italian immigrants and were very strict with the family so the only way we could box was to change our surname.
“So we chose Dundee, ditching our real surname of Mirena.”
Life and times
Angelo was born in 1921 in south Philadelphia before moving to Miami.
So why did he choose Dundee?
Chris answered: “Well our favourite boxer at the time was the then-world featherweight champion Johnny Dundee. However, Dundee wasn’t his real surname. He was given it by his manager, Scotty Monteith, who came from -yes you’ve guessed it – Dundee.”
Monteith emigrated as a youth to New York from Dundee.
He was a professional boxer, but, after one fight, realised he could make more money outside the ropes than climbing through them.
Always on the lookout for young talent, Monteith would visit the New York slums that jammed in the non-stop flow of immigrants to America.
In Hell’s Kitchen he saw this young Italian lad in a street fight who had all the natural talents of a boxer including balance, coordination, quick feet and fast hands.
Monteith met the lad’s parents and told them their son had every talent required to become a professional fighter.
And, under Monteith’s training, he would earn money and get out of the slums, but there was one thing that definitely had to change.
All the great fighters at that time were Irish, and the punters who paid money to watch the fights were Scots and Irish.
The name Giuseppe Curreri on a fight card wouldn’t bring in the dollars.
They needed a name change, so Giuseppe became Johnny, and the surname would be Monteith’s family ancestral home which was Dundee.
Johnny Dundee became a world champion and fought 334 times.
Brothers Sam and Vince Lazzaro became world welterweight and middleweight champions under their adopted names of Sam and Vince Dundee.
Then, of course, thanks to Monteith’s ancestral home, the boxing world witnessed the greatest cornerman of all time, the legendary Angelo Dundee.
Taking the bus to Monifieth
James picks up the story again.
He said: “I then asked Chris if he and Angelo had ever been to Dundee.”
Chris replied: “I have not been to Dundee but Angelo has.
“We were preparing Muhammad Ali for a defence of his world heavyweight crown in London where Muhammad’s opponent was the British heavyweight Brian London.
“Training was going so well that we decided to give Muhammad a day off. Angelo realised that we could leave London that night and get a train which would get us into Dundee around 7am the next morning.
“We could spend a day in Dundee and get a train back to London the next night. I wanted a rest so decided to stay in our London hotel. However, Angelo hopped on a train and up to Dundee he went.
“When he returned he told me he had a nice walk between the Tay railway and road bridges. He then spotted a bus saying it was going to Monifieth so, thinking there may be a connection between Monifieth and Scotty Monteith he got on board.
“On getting to Monifieth he found no connection with Scotty so got back on a bus bound for Dundee.
“He had a walk around the city and ate in some nice eating places. When he got back to London I asked him what he thought of Dundee. Angelo replied: ‘Nice town, nice town’.
So now we know the connection between Angelo Dundee and Dundee is a real one.
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