Nat’l Sports Commission unveils portrait of former boxing icon Cliff Anderson

Oct 26, 2015 Sports

It might not be a majestic piece of architecture but the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH), Homestretch Avenue, Georgetown, was renamed in honour of a great Guyanese icon whose contributions in the fistic sport of boxing still remains unmatched. As a matter of fact, that edifice, once just known as the National Sports Hall, was christened with its present tab in 1987 while Mr. Anderson was still alive and able to appreciate its significance.

Director of Sports, Christopher Jones and Clive Atwell unveil Cliff’s portrait.

Cliff, as he was fondly called by even the smallest child, has since died but the CASH remains as homage to the man that has contributed to sports, but more particularly boxing. But even amidst the fact that the CASH was of immense significance, Cliff’s portrait was glaringly missing from its wall.
Last Thursday evening, the day when Cliff would have celebrated his 94th birth anniversary, this anomaly was corrected when Director of Sports, Christopher Jones, visited the Homestretch Avenue based building and unveiled a huge plaque of the late Guyanese hero. The plaque, a life sized figure of the late boxer sitting with a walking stick, which he was forced to use during the latter years, and wearing a pair of darkened spectacles, is mounted on the southern wall just by the main entrance for all to see. The dark shades was also a regular part of his garb since he had gone blind years before he died.
Mr. Jones said that the gesture was a part of the developmental strategy of the National Sports Commission to recognize local sports persons. He said that the gesture marked the beginning f many others and officials of the NSC are contemplating a similar gesture for Guyana’s first female world (boxing) champion, Gwendolyn ‘Stealth Bomber’ O’Neil. He promised that this would be realized soon.
Meanwhile, world rated fighter, Clive Atwell, accompanied Mr. Jones to the function and hailed the project as heartening. “It gives me hope that I am not aimlessly performing service to my country but that one day I can receive similar commendation,” exhorted Atwell as he helped to unveil the portrait.
Cliff rose to fame way back in the late sixties when he opposed British fighter, Al ‘The Algate Tiger’ Phillips in his own backyard and pummeled him into submission yet failed to gain the judges’ nod. Nevertheless, he returned to Guyana to a hero’s welcome and was dubbed the uncrowned champion. Cliff retired from the sport in 1954 and returned back home from the United Kingdom in 1974 where he started a boxing programme under the now defunct, National Sport s Development Council (NSDC), visiting several city schools and tutoring students in the finer arts of the sport. He eventually commissioned the Cliff Anderson Boxing Gym, first at the North Ruimveldt Multilateral School before moving over to the East Ruimveldt Secondary. The gym eventually found a permanent home at the very building now christened in his honour. Cliff has produced, tutored or played important roles in the lives of a plethora of local boxers some of whom went on to national and international acclaim.
Some of the boxers that came out of Cliff’s stable include Earl Green, Anthony Andrew, Ceon Bristol, Michael Benjamin, Wayne Briggs and a host of others too numerous to mention. Cliff’s efforts at nation building through sports were recognized and rewarded when he had the Medal of Service bestowed upon him during the 1987 Investiture Ceremony. (Michael Benjamin)