EXCLUSIVEMeet the man who changed the life of Mike Tyson and taught him how to box as a tearaway in juvenile jail
They couldn’t call themselves ‘guards’. Their official title, Bobby Stewart makes clear, was ‘counselors’ and their job was to keep a lid on the tearaways at Tryon School for Boys, a juvenile jail in the woods north of New York.
Back in the late 1970s, Stewart worked the afternoon shifts in ‘group confinement’, where the doors were locked and ‘the worst kids’ were housed.
‘I was the smallest guy - like 5ft 10ins and 180lbs,’ Stewart says. As for his colleagues? ‘Monsters’ with ‘big beards’ - and traditional ideas about discipline. ‘Intimidation works,’ Stewart says. But he had his own methods for keeping kids in line.
Now 72, Stewart is a former boxer who crossed paths with Muhammad Ali and Marvin Hagler. The light heavyweight later trained kids at Tryon – on a couple of conditions: they didn’t misbehave in class and they lasted one round in the ring.
Fifty years ago, ‘Irish’ won on the undercard of Ali’s Rumble in Jungle. Not long after, he met someone else who altered the landscape of boxing forever.
Bobby Stewart was the man who first introduced Mike Tyson to boxing as a child
Stewart worked at Tryon School for Boys when Tyson was at the juvenile jail in New York
The future heavyweight champion was just 13 when he first met Stewart and his life changed
Then just 13, Tryon was Mike Tyson’s latest stop as he careered from the streets of Brooklyn towards chaos and incarceration. He had seen other kids leaving the gym looking bruised, battered - and happy. He was curious, so he asked after Stewart. '(He) turned out to be the biggest influence in my life,' Tyson once said.
Before long, Stewart had punched him in the stomach and given him a first taste of boxing.
Soon Stewart introduced Tyson to Cus D'Amato – the legendary trainer who built the Baddest Man on the Planet. A few years later, the 72-year-old was there when Tyson, aged just 20, became the youngest heavyweight champion in history. On Friday, Stewart will be in Dallas when the 58-year-old takes on Jake Paul.
This will be Tyson's first sanctioned fight since 2005. Once upon a time, he was the young novice trying to dethrone an ageing, former pro.
Stewart still lives near Tryon. He doesn’t have a cell phone or a computer or cable TV. So he isn’t too clued up on YouTubers. ‘They tell me he's a multi-millionaire,’ Stewart says.
But after introducing Tyson to boxing and steering him towards a straighter, narrower path, one thing is clear: ‘Age has nothing to do with it… if he is mentally right, there's nobody that will beat him.’
This trip to Texas poses a problem for Stewart. Even at 72, he still rides his bike. He hits the heavy bag and the speed bag and likes to heat his house by chopping firewood. ‘I work out at least two or three times a day,’ he explains. ‘(But) I won't be able to down there.’ He can only take a few pairs of clothes.
By his standards, though, it’s a small sacrifice to support Tyson. They still see each other from time to time and, in January, the former heavyweight champion picked up the phone.
On Friday night in Dallas, Tyson - now 58 - will take on YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul
The former school 'counselor' remains in touch with Tyson and still sees his former pupil
Tryon School for Boys, which closed in 2010, sits a few hours north of New York City
‘My youngest son died. And he called me just to give me his condolences.’ John Henry Stewart was 51 when he lost his battle with cancer. ‘(Mike) is a wonderful guy,’ says Stewart, who blames other ‘jerks’ for all the trouble in Tyson’s life.
He blew $300million and he served time for rape. He bit the ear of Evander Holyfield and he threatened to eat the children of Lennox Lewis. It all began in Brooklyn.
Tyson moved to Brownsville as a kid, after his family was evicted from nearby Bed-Stuy. It is a half-mile walk from Sutter Avenue subway station to his childhood home on Amboy Street - past a pawn shop, a 99c store and block after brown block of public housing.
The tentacles of gentrification, which now stretch deep into Brooklyn, have yet to reach here. Tyson once branded Brownsville 'horrific, tough and, gruesome’; it has long been considered one of New York's deadliest neighborhoods.
This week, though, on a beautiful fall morning, Brownsville was peaceful and 178 Amboy St was baked in sun. There is nothing to indicate who once lived inside the four-floor apartment block but, on a recent return home, Tyson posed for a selfie with a man who whispered in his ear: 'You robbed me when I was eight years old'.
That happened on the junction of Amboy St and Pitkin Avenue. This week, one block south, yellow buses form a long line. Tyson dropped out of school and into an underworld of guns and gangs and prostitutes and alcohol. By the time he was 13, he had been arrested 38 times.
Tyson made it out of Brownsville and his star appeal has survived every scandal since. He remains one of sport's most intoxicating personalities.
Few have scratched deeper into that troubled soul than Stewart. Even now, he, won’t share what they discussed. But there is plenty the former counselor will divulge - from that first meeting and beyond.
Stewart still works out at least 'two or three times a day', hitting the heavy bag and speed bag
A few years after meeting Stewart, Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion ever
‘I remember seeing him walking across the field,’ Stewart says. Tyson was flanked by two of the biggest counselors as he arrived from another section of the school. ‘Believe me, he's a complete idiot,’ Stewart was told. They kept him away from the other kids.
Tyson had already served time a Bridges Juvenile Center, ‘a rat-infested hellhole’ in the Bronx. Tryon was paradise by comparison – it had a swimming pool and programs that included ‘raising pheasants’.
For a time, though, Tyson continued the cycle of violence, fighting his peers and his counsellors, even dousing people in hot water. Until he met Stewart.
‘I’d have been fired at the time, if they knew what I did,’ 'Irish' explains. ‘I banged the door open… he was scared to death.’
Tyson later recalled Stewart's first words: ‘Hey, ass***, I heard you want to talk to me.’ The teen pleaded for a chance to box. ‘The first thing you do is start looking me in the face,’ Steward told him.
‘He was probably the most insecure kid I ever saw. He kept looking at the floor. He would not look me in the eye.’ But still the counsellor sensed something.
‘I used to say we deal with losers,’ Stewart says. ‘Most of them got in trouble again after they got out. (But) this kid…’
All Stewart had noticed? Tyson was willing to try. That was obvious once more when he sparred his counselor for the first time. Tyson, already 5ft 8ins, 210 pounds, was convinced he would ‘demolish’ the old man.
During a chaotic, controversial life, Iron Mike has blown $300million and served time for rape
Tyson later recalled Stewart's first words to him: ‘Hey, ass***, I heard you want to talk to me’
A young Tyson grew up in this apartment block after moving to Brownsville in Brooklyn
Then Stewart landed one shot to the stomach that sent the teen into a spiraling panic. Turns out Tyson wasn't much better than any of the other kids.
‘But as soon as we were done... he said: “What did I do wrong? I want to get better,”’ Stewart recalls. ‘I'd say do ten push ups and he did 100. Do 50 sit ups, he did 500.’
Tyson remembers Stewart ‘kicking the c***’ out of him most of the time. But staff began to notice that the teen was up all night, practicing all he learned. 'As long as you behave in school, I don't care if you flunk every subject,' Stewart told him.
On school records, Tyson was considered ‘borderline retarded’. Stewart’s message to the staff member who decided that? ‘“You’re retarded”… ‘I got in trouble for that.’
Within months of Tyson starting boxing, teachers began to call. ‘What the hell happened to this kid?’ they would ask.
In the classroom, Tyson’s scores improved across the board. In the ring, he gave Stewart black eyes and a broken nose. The other boys tried to follow suit.
‘They had plans to screw me: some of the weaker guys would go first and tire me out, and then the bigger guys in the end would knock me out… thank God it never happened.’
Instead, Stewart’s toughest challenger was Tyson’s insecurities. The kid didn’t trust anybody and he didn’t want anybody to know him, either.
Tyson will be more than 30 years older than Paul, 27, when they meet in Arlington, Texas
The former heavyweight champion is pictured after the open workout on Tuesday
Stewart hailed Tyson as a 'wonderful guy’
‘He had to have his a** kicked,’ Stewart says. ‘I was really tough on him in the beginning.’ All for a good cause.
Tyson was taken to spar in front of D'Amato. After only three rounds, he crowned Tyson a future heavyweight champion. But still the teen wasn't convinced.
‘I know I didn't do that good,’ he told Stewart, who exploded. ‘“Will you stop... you're not bad! You're good!”’
The 72-year-old can still pinpoint the workout when everything changed.
‘He was almost crying and I'm thinking to myself: “I don't know whether I should be crying”.’ Stewart had taken a pounding that day.
'I didn't do that good today,' Tyson said. 'But one thing: I'm going to be very successful someday... I'm going to have oil fields in Texas. And I'm going to have lots and lots and lots of money.’ Stewart encouraged him to dream big.
But? ‘If he wasn't there, I’d have walked out, started laughing and said: “Yeah, good luck!". But he did it.’
Tryon, later described as a ’penal colony’ for kids, closed in 2010 – following allegations of abuse that reportedly left students with ‘concussions, broken teeth and broken bones’. A few years ago, ‘explorers’ went in and found abandoned classrooms, bedrooms, corridors and lockers. The eerie remains of a broken system and tortured souls.
The former offices and staff housing are being converted into apartments. Visitors entering the development will pass signs for Bobby Stewart St and Iron Mike Way. This week, their paths cross once more – 1,500 miles away, in a football field in Texas.
‘I just hope it's a real fight,’ Stewart says. ‘If he's just doing it for money... he won't succeed.' But the 72-year-old insists: 'He has never failed anything he's properly prepared to do.’
