Howard, Roy – “Mitt” The Story of Millard Barnes, Manager of Heavyweight Champion Leon Spinks.

Description

Howard, Roy ‘”Mitt” The Story of Millard Barnes, Manager of Heavyweight Champion Leon Spinks.’ 1978 1st ed. 81-pages. VG/G+. Handwritten name and book stamp of longtime South African boxing collector J. Karel de Vries on the frontispiece.

“Mitt”: The Story of Millard Barnes, Manager of Heavyweight Champion Leon Spinks is a 1978 biographical sports book written by Roy Howard and published by Vantage Press. This relatively short, 81-page hardcover volume provides a unique, behind-the-scenes look at the business and personal dynamics of professional boxing in the late 1970s, focusing on the man who guided Leon Spinks to one of the biggest upsets in boxing history.

Key Themes & Narrative Focus:
The Rise of “Mitt” Barnes: The book profiles Millard “Mitt” Barnes, a St. Louis Teamsters union organizer who operated a hotel and ran a basement boxing gym on the side. It details how he took a young amateur named Leon Spinks under his wing, funding Spinks’ travel expenses and training to help him reach his Olympic goals.

The Road to the Heavyweight Championship: The narrative captures the historic moment when Spinks went from an unheralded contender to the undisputed World Heavyweight Champion after shocking the world by defeating Muhammad Ali on February 15, 1978.

Boxing Contracts & Promotional Battles: Published the same year Spinks won the title, the book sheds light on the immediate, high-stakes contract disputes and promotional tug-of-wars that erupted. It details Barnes’ struggle to maintain his original management grip on Spinks as mainstream boxing promoters and outside interests attempted to take control of the newly crowned champion.

Visual Documentation: The hardcover edition is heavily illustrated, featuring roughly 26 full-page black-and-white photographs that document the training camps, personal relationships, and fight nights surrounding the Spinks camp during this whirlwind era.

The book serves as a time-capsule look at 1970s boxing politics, written right from the eye of the storm.