Thirty-seven years ago when Larry Holmes began his boxing career, the seventh-grade dropout didn’t expect to become the longest-reigning heavyweight boxing champion and own a 69-6 career record.

The man who tallied 44 knockouts also has a street in his adopted hometown of Easton named after him and owns a building overlooking the confluence of the Lehigh and Delaware rivers.

Holmes, now 60, will be honored with a 9-foot bronze statue in the city’s Scott Park. A rendering of the sculpture was unveiled Monday. Holmes said he hopes it inspires kids who don’t expect to achieve great things.

“If that had happened when I was young and crazy, it probably would’ve went to my head,” Holmes said in a videotaped interview with Express-Times writer Michael LoRe. Watch it below.

Easton Mayor Sal Panto Jr., who grew up with Holmes in the former Delaware Terrace housing development on South Side, calls it a dream come true.

“It’s for every kid who grew up in the projects, for every kid who grew up underprivileged, for every kid who grew up with one parent and for every kid who had a goal,” Panto said.

The $250,000 cost for the statue will be privately raised by selling bricks etched with donors’ names that will line a walkway up to and surrounding the statue. They cost $125 each. Names also can be etched on a wall behind the statue or on its base for $2,500 or $3,500. For information or to donate, visit larryholmesstatue.com.

A rendering of the future Yogi Berra statue was unveiled earlier this afternoon in the window-lined atrium of the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center at Montclair State University. The ceremony featured Berra, sculptor Brian Hanlon, and museum director David Kaplan, along with supporters and the media.

“The values that Yogi Berra has always presented are the values that we at the Learning Center preach and promote,” said Kaplan, adding the statue will be a great new centerpiece and “an inspiration to many for years to come.”

Hanlon talked about Berra’s significance as New Jersey’s greatest sports hero and a role model for children of many generations.

Berra and Hanlon then revealed a poster of the statue in its future location outside the atrium.

Asked to describe his excitement about the statue, Berra smiled and said simply, “I just want to see it up.”

Posted by Anna Hess on May 24, 2010 2:00 PM

LITTLE FALLS, N.J. — Yogi Berra took a quick look at a picture of the statue that will be placed in front of his museum.

It showed a muscular Berra kneeling in the on-deck circle, gazing upward while holding two bats. The statue is the latest highlight for the colorful New York Yankees Hall of Famer, who won 10 World Series titles as a player and three MVP awards.

“It looks great,” the 85-year-old Berra said Monday after the picture of the statue was unveiled at the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center. “I didn’t know I looked that good.”

While many pictures were considered as the guide for the bronze statue, museum director Dave Kaplan said the rendition came from a 1950s Sports Illustrated photo.

Sculptor Brian Hanlon said the pose combines Berra’s talent on the field, his spiritual presence in the locker room and his impeccable behavior off the field.

“His neck and his hands are just ripped,” said Hanlon, who said it would take him 6-8 months to sculpt the statue in clay before it is sent to a foundry to be bronzed. The cost will be between $100,000-$125,000.

“He’s a baseball warrior,” Hanlon said. “I think as Michelangelo was great at doing this, creating energy and stillness, and would be my goal here, creating energy in this reflective piece.”

Berra admitted there are really only a couple of statues he likes. There is one of Mickey Mantle in Oklahoma and another of Stan Musial.

“I just hope this looks like them,” Berra quipped.

Carmen Berra, Yogi’s wife of 61 years, said that she visited the museum on a class trip about a week ago with her granddaughter, Alexandra. The 5-year-old wanted to know what the circle was outside the museum.

When told ‘that’s where they are putting Grandpa,’ the child reacted quickly.

“You mean we have to come here to see Grandpa,” Carmen Berra recalled Alexandra saying.

Yogi spent most of his time on Monday talking about his favorite topic — baseball.

“I liked to play,” Berra said. “I loved to play the game and I liked to watch the games, too. My wife gets mad at me sometimes because I am taking away her programs. I have to get her a new TV.”

Berra said he remains on very good terms with Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.

“He has done a heck of a job. It’s a beautiful stadium, everything.”

On his beloved Yankees, Berra said it was exciting watching this past weekend’s Subway Series with the Mets.

“We had chances,” Berra said, not hiding his allegiance. “We just didn’t hit at the right time. They scored all their runs yesterday with two outs and we had men on first and third with no outs and didn’t score. In the last inning, we got to within 6-4 and with a base hit you never know what could have happened.”

Berra said injuries have limited the Yankees in recent weeks.

“I think if we can just hang on till everyone gets back, we’ll be all right,” he said.

The former Mets manager also showed some love for the Flushing team, which won the series, 2-1.

“I still root for the Mets, but not when we play them,” Yogi said.

When asked about his former teammates, many of whom have died, Berra said that’s why he likes Old Timer’s Day.

“I like seeing the guys come back, but a lot of our guys are leaving, the ones that I played with, a lot have passed away,” Berra said. “It’s still good to see the guys and other teams, too. It’s great.”

While baseball has changed since he retired, Berra said the essence of the game is the same.

“It’s baseball,” said the beloved icon who coined the phrase ‘It ain’t over till it’s over.’

“You have to love to play it and I loved to play it,” he added. “Where else could you make that kind of money playing ball. I still love baseball. If I’m not out there, I could watch three or four games.”
Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press

Hometown Hero

by Staci Backauskas

Brian Hanlon shapes memories. A sculptor, his chief subject is giving form to the past and catching people’s proudest moments.

Highlights from Hanlon’s career include a sculpture honoring 100 years of volunteer firefighters, which stands in downtown Toms River, N.J., and a statue recently unveiled in Barnegat Light (pop. 764) celebrating New Jersey’s fishermen. Last summer, he dedicated a bronze statue of a teacher reading to four elementary school students that now stands outside The Village School in the town where he grew up, Holmdel, N.J. (pop. 15,781).

Hanlon’s current pride and joy, The Spirit of the Little League, was dedicated this past fall. Inspired by the World Championship won by Toms River in 1998, Hanlon helped create the committee that has overseen the statue’s development. “The neighboring communities of Brick and Lakewood have had incredible teams as well,” Hanlon points out.

Now 40 and a resident of the Pleasant Plains area (pop. 2,577) of Toms River, Hanlon has sculpted professionally for more than 20 years. With the support of his wife, Michele, he created Hanlon Studios in 1994. A father of four—Molly, Maggie, Luke, and Declan—he loves living and working in the small Ocean County town that was once dotted with poultry farms.

Tucked behind a quiet residential street, the studio where he works is one of four old chicken coops once part of a farm, now filled with plaster casts and rubber molds. “I think it’s cool,” Hanlon smiles. “George Segal, one of the most famous American sculptors, is my hero, and he worked out of a chicken coop in South Brunswick for 50 years.”

A shelf in back holds busts Hanlon has sculpted over the years. Sea Bright’s Mayor Charles Rooney rests next to Pro Football Hall of Famer Dwight Stephenson. In describing each work, Hanlon pauses at Count Basie.

“That was an incredible experience,” he smiles. “A board member from the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, N.J., asked me to sculpt a bust of the Count.” His blue eyes sparkle as he continues. “I think Count Basie is the greatest band leader in history, so I jumped at the chance. B.B. King and I unveiled it together at the theater in 1999.”

Hanlon is interrupted by Molly Feldmus, the German woman who owns the chicken coops; she’s stopped by to say good morning. “Molly’s a big part of why I chose to do the Holocaust Memorial for the B’nai Israel Congregation in Toms River,” Hanlon explains after she leaves. “A lot of German holocaust survivors settled in New Jersey after the war. It was important to me to remember them.”

For that matter, it was a memory that turned him to sculpture as a lifelong pursuit. At Monmouth University on a track scholarship, Hanlon majored in art education and planned on teaching. Then, as a sophomore, he sculpted a statue honoring a Holmdel High School javelin thrower whose life tragically had been cut short. When he unveiled it for the athlete’s parents, it changed his life. “It was something about the look on his mother’s face,” Hanlon says, “that told me I needed to be a sculptor because I could make a difference as an artist.”

His work continues to make a difference. Joe Cannova, a local businessman and the chairman of the Spirit of the Little League committee, is excited about what Hanlon’s current statue represents to Toms River. “It was amazing what these kids did,” Cannova says. “They were the very best. The whole town got drawn in, and it forged a positive bond in the community. People still talk about that game.” (Toms River defeated Kashima, Japan, 12-9). Hanlon’s bronze statue of a coach and his player commemorates that excitement—and honors all those who take part in Little League.

Much of Hanlon’s work is rooted in history. Included on his docket are sculptures of retired University of Virginia football coach George Welsh and religious figure Padre Pio. But he’s already thinking ahead.

“I really want to do a statue of Mickey Mantle,” he grins. “He was the greatest baseball player who ever lived.”

Staci Backauskas is a frequent contributor to American Profile.

first appeared: 1/20/2002

For more information on Brian Hanlon, please visit http://www.hanlonsculpture.com

By Erin Foley
Originally Posted: 9/28/06, The Daily Illini

Illinois Men’s Basketball Coach Bruce Weber, on behalf of alumnus Dee Brown, accepts the Bob Cousy Collegiate Point Guard of the Year Award from Basketball Hall of Fame sculptor Brian P. Hanlon Thursday morning at the Ubben Basketball Complex in Champaign. The award was given to Dee for his performance during the 2005 basketball season.

Although Dee Brown never won the coveted national championship trophy he spent four seasons trying for, “the one-man-fast break” and face of college basketball still received his fair share of recognition – and with good reason.

Brown, along with James Augustine, won a record 114 games while at Illinois, and returned the school to one of the elite basketball programs with its trip to the Final Four in 2005.

That’s why Hall of Famer Bob Cousy thought Brown to be the right choice for the Cousy Award, given to the nation’s best point guard. Brown was presented with the trophy on April 3 in Indianapolis before the NCAA Championship game.

On Thursday, Brian Hanlon, a sculptor for the Basketball Hall of Fame and artist for the Cousy Award, presented head coach Bruce Weber with a replica of the trophy at the Ubben Basketball Facility. The award, which is in its fourth year, honors Cousy, who played point guard for the 1947 Holy Cross NCAA Championship team, was a Boston Celtic great and was named one of the top 50 players in NBA history.

“The award has Bob’s name on it because Bob is concerned and very adamant about creating an award pointing to the point guard and pointing to the fundamentals of basketball: passing, dribbling, shooting; and that the individual is an individual with great character and is a leader on the court,” Hanlon said.

Weber said Cousy is a player who blended the lines between old-school basketball and new-school basketball because of his behind-the-back passes and between-the-leg dribbles, but also because of his sound fundamentals of “playing the point guard position like I believe it should be played.”

Previous recipients of the Cousy Award include former St. Joseph’s star and Orlando Magic guard Jameer Nelson, and also Raymond Felton, who played at the University of North Carolina and is now with the Charlotte Bobcats. Felton was the Co-MVP of the 2005 NCAA Championship game and was selected fifth in that year’s NBA draft.

“We feel it’s been extremely successful so far; we’re in our fourth year and we hope this will be the Heisman trophy of basketball, which would be a tremendous honor for the Hall and Cousy,” Hanlon said.

The replica of the Cousy Award will be kept in the trophy cases at Ubben, and Brown was presented with a replica cast in aluminum, which he keeps at his mother’s home in Chicago.

In August, the Hall of Fame unveiled a new display case for the trophy Brown received last April. Brown and Cousy were both on hand for the presentation.

Brown is Illinois’ only basketball national award winner in the modern era. Weber, who has jokingly said to head athletic director Ron Guenther that more trophy cases might need to be built, said he hopes Illinois sees more Cousy Award winners in the future.

“I don’t know how many times we’re going to have the opportunity to have a Cousy Award winner,” Weber said. “But since we have Dee, I thought it would be great to have them see something that we should cherish and promote for many years to come.”

For more information on the statues created by Brian Hanlon, please visit http://www.hanlonsculpture.com