Mike Tyson

Michael Gerard Tyson was born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 30, 1966, to Lorna Tyson and Jimmy Kirkpatrick. His father ran off before he was two years old, and Mike grew up with all the temptations of ghetto life. By the age of twelve, he was in a street gang and had been in and out of juvenile court. Finally, after an armed robbery conviction, in 1978, he was sent to the Tryon School for Boys, a reformatory, where the physical education instructor, Bobby Stewart, spotted his potential as boxer. In 1981, Stewart introduced the 14-year-old Tyson to his friend, the legendary Cus D'Amato, and D'Amato introduced him to the "sweet science" of boxing.

Cus D'Amato took Tyson in, and when Tyson's mother died a couple of years later, D'Amato became Tyson's legal guardian. Slowly, he and Camille brought Tyson out of his shell, nurturing his aspirations and overcoming his self-doubts. As he explained it to reporter William Plummer, "people, especially if they come up in a rough area, have to go through a number of experiences in life that are intimidating and embarrassing. These experiences form layer upon layer over their capabilities and talents. So your job as teacher is to peel off those layers." As D'Amato peeled layers, he discovered a young man who'd grown up wild, and who was deeply ashamed that he couldn't even read. D'Amato soon corrected that, providing a tutor and introducing Tyson to books on Joe Louis and Jack Dempsey, and other "heavyweights" like Napoleon and Alexander the Great. These were life lessons that would reshape the young fighter, and for a time it seemed the "priestly" D'Amato had redeemed the soul of Mike Tyson.