Acosta lost shot at gold, found riches as a coach

The Journal Sentinel staff

Colorado Springs, Colo. Israel Acosta never wanted to get rich as a boxer and he certainly has not.

All he ever asked for was a chance to represent his country in the Olympics, just to walk into an Olympic Stadium somewhere wearing a white cap and blue blazer with a U.S. emblem on the pocket.

But if shouldas, couldas and wouldas were gold medals, Wisconsin would remember Acosta as it does Bonnie Blair and Dan Jansen. Acosta's got a trophy case full of Olympic what-ifs at home.

Acosta dedicated 12 years to his dream, starting in 1972 when he came to Milwaukee from his native Puerto Rico with little more than a rock-solid jaw. Before it was over in 1984, Acosta had fought exactly 500 bouts all of them amateur winning 484 times while taking countless local, national and international light flyweight (106-pound) titles.

Broach the subject of professional boxing and he turns up his nose, causing his entire face to contort.

"It's a dirty sport," he says.

Acosta has dedicated his entire adult life to amateur boxing, but he never won the bout that would allow the Olympic torch to shine down on him.

Acosta, who is called Shorty by his countless friends in the national boxing community and at Milwaukee's United Community Center, where he is the boxing coach, has never lost his perspective. It helps that he has a sense of humor.

"I'm 41 years old, but when I put on my three-piece suit, I feel like I'm 22," said Acosta, who stands 5 feet 4 inches and now weighs 125 pounds. "When I put on my leather shoes too, I feel like I'm 18."

Acosta's Olympic odyssey began in 1976 when he was 21 years old and he lost a 3-2 decision to a boxer named Louis Curtis in the Golden Gloves national finals in Miami.

By all rights, Acosta should have been invited to the U.S. Olympic box-offs, but his phone never rang. Acosta, who spoke very little English at the time and didn't have a coach familiar with the system, thinks his outsider status may have had as much to do with it as anything.

Curtis went to Montreal and Acosta stayed in Milwaukee.

"I fight Curtis again in 1977 and this time I want him real bad," Acosta said. "I knocked him real good and I beat him four more times after that."

Acosta caught the eye of the late Mel Kennedy of Neenah, a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee and president of Wisconsin's local boxing committee. There would be no slip- ups when they picked a team for the Moscow Olympics in 1980.

But as history tells us, President Jimmy Carter decreed that the United States would not participate in the 1980 Olympics as a protest to the Soviet Union's incursion into Afghanistan. U.S. Boxing went ahead and picked a team, but Acosta declined an invitation to participate in the artificial box-offs. Why bother, he felt.

"Sure, I feel disappointed," Acosta said. "1980 was my dream. I was the best around and everybody knew it.

"The guy who won the gold medal from Russia, I beat him. I beat the guy from Poland, who won the silver, and I beat the guy from Ireland who won the bronze. I knew I would win the gold."

Unlike some athletes who were denied the opportunity to compete in 1980, Acosta holds no ill-will toward Carter for his controversial decision.

"No, I'm not mad at Jimmy Carter," Acosta said. "He's the president and he say we stay home, so we stay home.

"Some people say I'm too easygoing, but I drop it. I don't keep it on my mind because what good would it do? It's time to go ahead.

"I don't like politics in sports, but what are you going to do? Politics is politics and sports is sports and that's the way it should be.

"Everything is politics now and that's wrong."

By 1980, Acosta was 25, old by amateur boxing standards, so he thought he would retire from the ring and go back to his full- time job as a maintenance man with the Milwaukee Housing Authority. That's when his wife, Dora, stepped in.

"She told me to give it one more chance," Acosta said. "She said try for 1984."

So Acosta set his sights on 1984 and the Los Angeles Olympics. He reported to the '84 box- offs at age 31, by far the oldest participant in the competition.

In the 500th and final bout of his career, he lost a 3-2 decision to Paul Gonzalez in the final. Acosta claims it was the most bitter defeat of his career.

"I beat Paul Gonzalez and everybody says that except for the judges," Acosta said. "I dropped him, but the referee said it was a slip.

"I've got that bout on tape and I've watched it over and over at home. That was much more disappointing than 1980."

Gonzalez went on to win the Olympic gold medal.

For Acosta, there would be no comeback this time. He returned to Milwaukee and began his career of coaching young boxers.

"I know this sounds crazy, but I want to put back everything to U.S. boxing that it gave to me," Acosta said. "U.S. boxing did a lot for me and now I'm paying back."

Although none of his proteges made it to the finals of the U.S. Boxing Championships on Saturday, Acosta has developed a nationally recognized program at Milwaukee's United Community Center. Much of his work is done as a volunteer.