His "living room" is unlike any you might find in an interior designer's portfolio. Pictures and posters of famous and not so esteemed fighters decorate the walls that surround a regulation-size boxing ring.
"We like to call it our living room, because this is where the guys spend most of their time," laughed Andy "Buzz" Garnic Sr., owner-operator of the Round 2 training camp, nestled in a secluded area high atop Granville Hollow, Coal Center. "To them it really is home."
Garnic and boxing have been synonymous for some 50 years, and the roster of those who have trained under his rigid guidance reads, in part, like a Who's Who of professional fighters. The 68-year-old Coal Center man, a 1954 graduate of California Community High School, has earned a solid reputation among boxers, trainers and managers throughout the country for his disciplined regimen and commitment to the sport.
"Buzz is one of the best guys I've ever met in this business, a truly good person," said Don Turner, the legendary promoter/manager from Bayboro, N.C. "I have never hesitated in sending one of our fighters to work with him, and I have always enjoyed and appreciated my association with Buzz. His word is his bond; he does what he says he's going to d,o and you can always depend on him. He works a lot harder than most (trainers), and the fighters have great respect for and trust in him."
Brian "The Beast" Minto, of Butler, offered similar sentiments during a break from training for his Thanksgiving Eve test against Gary "The Bull" Winman, of Pittsburgh, at Mountaineer Race Track and Gaming Resort in Wheeling, W.Va.
"He's a great guy," Minto, a 30-year-old heavyweight, said of Garnic. "He'd give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. He knows the game so well and he understands what we need, physically and emotionally. He has a strong work ethic and it rubs off on you. He does everything the right way, and this camp is first class all the way."
Minto, a former football standout at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania, told Greg Smith of East Side Boxing, an online news service, that Garnic's training schedule "is really good conditioning." It helped Minto knock out Vinny Maddalone in a brutal fight in October in Tampa, Fla.
"It's on a mountain," Minto told Smith of Round 2 in calling attention to the running regimen. "That run is four miles on mountainous hills."
In addition, Minto and his counterparts who train at Garnic's facilities do mitt work, heavy bag, defensive drills, shadow boxing, strength training with kettlebells, sprints and sparring. They also consult with a nutritionist and "dine" on meals that are cooked by Garnic to meet their specific dietary needs.
Garnic worked with trainer Tom Yankello, an Aliquippa native, in preparing Minto and others, including highly-touted featherweight Verquan "The Show" Kimbrough, also of Aliquippa, for the Mountaineer show.
"We do six or seven shows a year," Yankello said. "Buzz is an easy choice to make in deciding where you want your fighters to train. He's so damn good at what he does. It's great to have him in your corner."
Kimbrough, who posted a 104-14 record, including two United States championships, as an amateur, concurs.
"You know it's best to listen when Buzz tells you something," Kimbrough said. "People say he still has the quickest right hand in the business, and that might be true. You sure as hell want to stay out of the way when he's showing you how to use that right hand."
Garnic got his start in boxing at age 17 with legendary manager George Humphries at the Hilltop Athletic Club in Charleroi.
"I was working in the mill at Allenport and decided to give it a try," Garnic recalled. "I had a few fights as an amateur and was doing OK until the accident."
The "accident" was a devastating car crash on Dec. 26, 1958, and Garnic admits he was lucky to survive.
"It took a long, long time to get back on my feet," he said. "The doctors finally put me back together, and my last operation was in 1964. Any thoughts I had of fighting again were erased, but I knew I wanted to stay with the game."
Garnic did just that as a trainer, corner man and "doing whatever they wanted" with Humphries, Bruno Pucci, Jimmy George, Emil Pomponio and others at the HTAC, which was located at Third Street and Shady Avenue in Charleroi in a building which was for many years the Ancitano family homestead.
"What a great bunch of men they were," Garnic reminisced about the HTAC leaders. "Being associated with them was like going to boxing school; you never quit learning. I still think Bruno was the best trainer I ever met. George was a great manager and promoter who never slowed down, never ran out of energy. Jimmy, of course, was the business manager. He was a sharp dresser, and I can still see him carrying that old cigar box held together with a gum band and holding the gate receipts from one of our shows.
He wouldn't let it out of his sight or his hands."
Garnic also remembers the fighters who carried the HTAC banner into amateur and professional shows at venues like the Turners Hall, the Bee Hive and the third floor of the borough building in Charleroi.
They also traveled to Uniontown, McKeesport and Pittsburgh, as well as arenas around the country, in shows staged by promoters/trainers like Tommy Shaffer, of Uniontown, Charlie Daniels, of Pittsburgh, and Don Elbaum, of Erie.
"We had a great trip to Detroit in 1965, I believe it was," he said. "Leroy Youngblood had just turned pro and was matched against a young kid named Hedgeman Lewis at Cobo Hall, which is now known as Joe Louis Arena. Leroy was a tough kid out of West Newton and he gave Hedgeman all he could handle that night. But he lost a close decision, and Hedgeman went on to become the welterweight champion of the world."
The ride back to Pennsylvania that stormy night also remains locked in Garnic's memory.
"It was raining very hard and there was thunder and lightning," he said. "I think Bruno (Pucci) was driving when we pulled up to the Turnpike toll booth. A loud clap of thunder boomed through the darkness, and a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky. It scared us out of our wits, and George (Humphries) kept yelling at Bruno, 'Step on the gas. Let's get out of here.' He thought we could outrun the storm!"
Other fighters among the dozens who donned the gloves for the HTAC who stand out in Garnic's mind are Sam Sellers, a solid heavyweight from Belle Vernon, and Mike Belski, a fearless puncher from Stockdale.
"Sam was a tough man who would go toe to toe with you," Garnic recalled of the former Bellmar High School football standout. "Mike was the same way. He weighed only 160 pounds but he would take on anybody. He and Butch Lucero, of Pittsburgh, faced each other in two of the best fights I've ever seen in this area."
Garnic and Belski made a memorable trip to Philadelphia in 1964 to watch Rubin "Hurricane" Carter trade punches with champion Joey Giardello for the middleweight championship.
"The transmission on Mike's car went out on our way there, and we had to hitch a ride into the city," Garnic said. "It was a great fight. Giardello won on a decision and it was his only successful title defense. Years later, I met him at another show and told him I still had the program from that title match and he said he would like to have it. I promised I would send it to him but it was destroyed in the fire. Mike still has the ticket stubs from that fight."
Belski, now 60, lives in Bentleyville, and he and Garnic "keep in touch on a regular basis," Garnic said.
Garnic opened his first training camp in Granville in 1979 after acquiring the property from Moon Kolick. He named the facility the Kolick AC in honor of his late mentor and friend.
That site was destroyed by fire in 1989, and the rubble remained until three years ago, when Garnic, at the urging of and with help from family and friends, decided to rebuild a "new and improved" facility called Round 2.
Among the "name" fighters who have found their way along Pennsylvania's highways and byways to Garnic's off the beaten path camps over the years have been Hector Comacho, Jimmy Ellis, Livingstone Bramble, Michael Moorer, Paul Spadafora, Michael Grant, Harold Knight, Lenny Shaw, Black Rhino, Calvin Brock, Carlton Johnson, J.C. Davis, Tommy "Boom Boom" Johnson, Disco Bob Tate, and the current crop of hopefuls in Yankello's stable. Moorer and Spadafora, of course, are well known in the region, as world champions. Meanwhile, Bramble, of St. Kit in the Caribbean, who also fought as Ras-I-Brambl and Prince Bramble, gained fame when he knocked out Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini in the 14th round to win the WBA lightweight title in Buffalo, N.Y., on June 1, 1984.
"It's nice to know these guys have confidence in you and appreciate our facilities," Garnic said. "I always appreciate hearing from them. They've sent card and letters, and I enjoy hearing from or talking with them."
Garnic also takes pride in remembering that he picked Michael Moorer to defeat Evander Holyfield for the heavyweight championship in 1994 and doesn't regret that he passed on the opportunity to work Holyfield's corner that April 22 night.
"Don Turner called me when they were getting ready to prepare for Evander's title defense," Garnic said. "He asked me to come down there (North Carolina) and work for only seven weeks. But I had some things going on here and I just couldn't get away. I know it could have been a nice payday working with Don and Evander, but I've really never based my life on money."
Garnic said he felt Moorer, a southpaw, could take the title away from Holyfield.
"I remember watching Michael work out with his grandfather, Henry Smith, as a kid," Garnic said. "He was only 13 or 14 at the time but he showed he had the tools to become a great fighter even then. Henry was a good teacher and Michael was a good student. He worked hard and his grandfather always preached to him about being patient, that his turn would come someday. It finally did, and I think Michael remembered everything Henry taught him that night."
Retention of what is learned in the gym is a basic tenet of Garnic's approach to training.
"I won't stand for any nonsense when they're training," he said. "You have to put your heart and soul into what you're doing, and nothing else can get in the way. It's like any sport: what you learn in practice is going to pay big dividends when you get in the game or in the ring."
While Garnic treasures his affiliations with the "big names" of professional boxing, he's just as proud of the local men with whom he has worked over the years -- guys like Ray Huffman, a principal in the California Area School District; Michael Garrow; Johnny DiFilippo Jr.; and Dr. Bob Mendicino, an orthopedics specialist at West Penn Allegheny Health System in Pittsburgh.
"Our place is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Garnic said. "We're there for anyone who wants to improve himself. It's not all about becoming a world champion. There are many lessons to be learned about life. I was fortunate to have some great mentors over the years, and I feel an obligation to do the same for anyone who comes knocking on our door."
That same type of paternal intervention applies with Garnic in his role as the father of daughters Andrea, Patty, Paula and Susan and son Andy "Buzz" Garnic Jr., a two-time Pittsburgh Gloves champion. His grandson, Marshall Fife, of Coal Center, a senior at California Area High School, has also tried his hand at boxing, but Buzz Sr. said, "We're not rushing him into anything. He's still young."
Garnic, who retired in 1987 after 33 years at Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp., said his children have helped him "in a lot of ways," and they see him in the same light.
"Dad has a big heart and has helped so many people in a lot of ways, not just fighters," said Patty Fife, Marshall's mother. "He doesn't like to talk about himself, but he's well respected, admired and loved."
Just ask those he's worked with for all these years.
Like her father, Fife has a strong ally in Don Turner, the North Carolina promoter/manager.
"Professional boxing is in a sad state of affairs right now, perhaps the lowest state in history " Turner said in a telephone interview. "Boxers don't want to learn, they have too many distractions. Worse yet, in my opinion, this country is not changing socially. We have a lot of big problems in the United States. Children aren't getting the guidance they need from their parents. When I was 5 years old, my father had me pulling weeds in the fields and working in the hog pen. We need more people like him today. We need more people like Buzz Garnic. You don't find good teachers only in a school classroom."
