VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: Carrying on the legacy of Ray Rinaldi
Nate Polite: Over the weekend, the Syracuse community lost a legend. Ray Rinaldi, who began his boxing career all the way back in the 1950s as the head coach and trainer of the U.S. Army team while stationed in Germany. As an amateur boxer, Rinaldi was 28-2 before severely injuring his head when he was hit by a car. While his fighting days were over, he continued to coach with the Golden Gloves Association of America. Back home in Syracuse, starting in 1994, Rinaldi taught boxing through Ray’s Kidz at the West and North Area Athletic and Education Centers. There, Rinaldi helped the city’s youth channel energy and frustration in a positive way, giving them an outlet through sport. In a statement on Facebook, those centers said that Rinaldi welcomed and guided every student with open arms and an open heart. In 2001, Rinaldi was enshrined in the Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame, cementing his legacy within the city. For another 25 years, he continued his work with Ray’s Kidz. Ray Rinaldi was 96 years old.
SYRACUSE, N.Y (NCC News) — In 2004, Dominick Tassone told Ray Rinaldi about a building on South Geddes Street, the second poorest street per capita in the United States. Right across the street from Fowler High School, nothing could stay in it. Tassone asked if Rinaldi wanted the building for his non-profit, Ray’s Kidz.
“No,” Rinaldi said. “But I’ll come look at it.”
Rinaldi was already drowning in debt from his facility on Syracuse’s north side, but he took his right-hand man and protégé Chris Burns along with him to take a look. As Burns recounts the story, the two rolled by and spotted a small group of students in front of the building smoking weed when they should have been in class instead.
“Chris, you know we’re going to have to take this building now,” Rinaldi said.
At the time, Rinaldi was in his mid-70s, and his lone goal was to continue lending a hand to the at-risk youth in the city of Syracuse.
He’d already seen success from the aforementioned Northside facility. One of those biggest success stories was Burns himself.
“I was a short, chubby 11-year-old, and I was getting into fights all the time,” Burns said. “He showed me that it wasn’t worth it to go and fight all these bullies. He gave me real confidence to where I was able to do better in the classroom and go to Le Moyne and graduate.”
Taking Rinaldi’s lessons to heart, Burns didn’t just break the cycle, he created a whole new one.
“It was weird, when I’m 15 and 16, and I’m sparring with professional fighters,” Burns said. “Then these kids would try to challenge me to fight, I was able to just laugh at them. A couple times I said ‘Okay, go to the gym,'” and they’d come to the gym and see what it was all about.”
Rinaldi, and Burns after him, subscribe to the idea that there is no such thing as a bad kid, only a bad environment. For Rinaldi, helping kids navigate those environments is what was truly important.
“We want them to be able to see that there’s more than just the six-block radius where they live,” Burns said.
That was the crux of Rinaldi’s purpose in coaching. It goes beyond the ring.
One of the coaches at Ray’s Kidz right now is Antwan Hunter, who himself grew up training under Rinaldi and Burns. At the age of 15, Hunter won an international gold medal and is a four-time national champion. Another coach is Amir Anderson, a 10-time national champion who also came up through the program.
“Ray wasn’t a businessman,” Burns said. “If he was, he would’ve had a boxing gym in the middle of Skaneateles, or Fayetteville or Manlius, and he could have charged people hundreds of dollars an hour for personal training. That was never anything that excited him.”
Rinaldi was committed to the urban community in the city of Syracuse, and in the course of his 96 years, it was clear that uplifting the people is what came first.
“It just happened to be, he was the greatest boxing coach that Syracuse or New York had ever seen,” Burns said.
In the days since his passing, dozens of people have flocked to the West Area Athletic and Education Center’s Facebook page to tell the world what Rinaldi meant to them:
“I think Ray’s biggest lesson is you can never give enough,” Yusuf Jami said.
“Ray believed in people more than they believed in themselves,” Michael Bucci said.
“Coach Rinaldi, your legacy will live on through the countless lives you touched and changed forever. Including my own,” Katrina Marie said.
After a lifetime of giving back to his people through the sport he loved, Rinaldi’s gloves are a pair that are far too big to fill.