By Bill Herr
Did a legendary sports figure once appear in a Bluffton school? The answer is yes. I know because I sat behind him at a basketball game in our gym. His name is Rufus Brassell. He was originally from Lima. In the late 1970s he moved his family to the Bluffton area to live. His kids went to Bluffton schools.He was a Lima legend in two ways. This column is his story.
Rufus was born in Mississippi to Freeman and Carrie Ward Brassell, Jr. They moved to Lima. Rufus had no siblings.He attended South High School and graduated from Lima Senior High School in 1963.
He became interested in boxing while in junior high. He liked it and became very skilled. ▶︎
He became interested in a beautiful girl named Dorothy who attended Lima Central High School. She said he didn't have a car, so he walked a long way from his house to hers in Lima to see her. He married Dorothy Davenport on April 3, 1965. They had five boys: Timothy, Erik, Jeffrey, Michael and Josua.
When the oldest, Tim, was in the 6th grade, Rufus and Dorothy made the decision to move the family to the Bluffton area. I interviewed Dorothy and when I asked her why they moved to Bluffton, she said, "We wanted to move where the boys could grow in a nice area where they wouldn't be exposed to smoking, drinking, drugs and gangs. The south side could sometimes be a tough place to grow up."
While they lived in Lima, Rufus established himself as a professional boxer. He fought big name fighters like George Foreman and Jerry Quarry. At 6 feet, ½ inches and 199 lbs, Rufus had quick feet and skilled fists. He was trained by Angelo Dundee, who was the legendary manager of Muhammed Ali. In fact, Rufus became a sparring partner of Ali.
Former Lima News sports writer, Jim Krumel, knew Rufus and told me that a man named Spider Shock operated a boxing club in Defiance. When Spider had a fighter that was getting big headed, he would take that fighter to Lima to fight Rufus Brassell. As a professional, Rufus had 25 fights in his 15-year career and his record was 18-7.
While he became a boxing legend from Lima, Brassell’s real passion and first love was what he turned to after boxing. He loved working with youth. He started a boxing club in Lima at the old Lima Jefferson School. It was called HOPE, an acronym that stood for "Helping Other People Excel." He wanted to get kids off the streets and help them to become good citizens and students. Brassell had a rule that the kids in the club had to have their homework done before stepping into the ring. His goal was to help kids make their moms proud.
In a column written years ago by Krumel on Brassell, this is how Rufus expressed his desire: "I believe that some of these kids have been or are on the edge of gang activity. I'm trying to teach them the importance of education. I'm not trying to turn them into professional boxers. The pro game is nasty. There's some good elements, but there's people using people."
Rufus died from ALS on February 6, 2004. Jim Krumel wrote that when news of his death became known, there was shock and sorrow. "A Lima legend was gone." Sadly, few knew Rufus was sick for a year and a half with the terrible disease that robs victims of their physical strength and movement. Krumel indicated that had friends known of his illness, they would have honored him. He wrote, "You get the feeling Rufus didn't care about honors. After hanging up his gloves, Rufus was more about helping others, not receiving pats on the back." Krumel told me that the most important quality he remembered about Rufus was that he was a humble person.
In his life after boxing, Rufus began building another legend, that of service. He was past director of the Salvation Army Community Center, a youth counselor, the boxing program director at H.O.P.E. Development Center, and president of Habilitation Youth Program.
He was also a manager trainee for Lee's Famous Recipe, and formerly worked for Dave's Market. Lima awarded him the Furl Williams Service Award for his commitment to the Lima Community.
Rufus was an army veteran, having served in Germany. Dorothy told me he came home on furlough: "He shouldn't have because he didn't have the proper credentials." They got married. Rufus went back and then arranged for Dorothy to come to Germany.
She is also a special person, having worked at J.C. Penney while helping to raise five boys. She was a good dancer and artist, and loved music. Rufus and Dorothy honored the Bluffton community by raising their kids in the Bluffton school system. Their oldest son, Tim, played some basketball and that is when I sat behind the Brassells at a game and got to meet them briefly. Their next oldest son, Erik, once held the high jump record in Pirate track.
I said to Dorothy that in school the boys were courteous, friendly, respectful and disciplined. How did she and Rufus push them to become like that? She smiled, and made movements with her fists like a boxer. She claimed to be in charge of discipline. She said, “I had a small paddle.”
When I interviewed Erik, he said that his dad helped out even though their mom was the primary one to discipline. Dorothy said, "We wanted the kids to have fun, but we had rules. If they got too noisy, we talked to them about how to act in public." I live near their home and I used to see some of the boys walking or jogging on the road while making boxing jabs with their fists. I thought that was cool.
Erik was in my algebra and geometry classes at Bluffton High School. He said he didn't see any of his dad's fights, just saw him box in the gym. I asked if his dad taught the boys fundamentals of boxing. He answered, "Yes, he didn't want us to fight, but he wanted us to understand how to box. He taught us how to stand, how to hold our fists correctly, how to throw a jab, how ot bob and weave, when to turn our head." I asked if the boys enjoyed going to Bluffton schools. "We did," he said. "At first it was new, living in the country, and riding a bus to school." I asked, "Did your dad have a sense of humor?" Erik said, "Absolutely! He would always throw punches at us –when he came home from work, or got up in the morning. They were not just slow punches. When his punch whistled past your ear, you felt the air whizzing past you."
I asked Erik, "How do you remember your dad?" These were his words: "That's a good question. To me he was my hero. I wanted to be like him. He could walk into a room and radiate energy. People would gravitate to him. They would soak in everything he had to say. People who didn't even know him would hang on his words. His character, the way he cared about people–especially youth–was strong, and he used boxing as a tool to get them off the street, to give them a purpose in life."
Tim was also in my algebra and geometry classes. Asked about discipline, he said his dad would have them sit down and he would explain why they would be disciplined. "He would always say, 'It's because I love you.'" Tim is now a minister and shared more about what he remembered about his dad. "I miss him. He was the most zealous man for God I've ever known. God was on his mind 24-7. He talked loud because he had lost hearing in one ear due to a fighter popping him on that ear. He would encourage me. He would always point us to God. He loved to laugh. He was a joyful, hearty, laughing person. When he laughed, his voice would get high-pitched, really high."
He shared, "Our mother was told she couldn't have children. Dad said he had a dream while in Germany. In the dream he was told they would have five boys, and the first boy would be named Timothy Jerome. He would always tell me God gave me my name. Dad was always in training.
“Even though he was retired as a boxer, he would run, he would hit the heavy bag and the speed bag. He would box us. We loved to have our friends to our house. We couldn't wait for them to meet our dad. He made it fun for them. He would take correspondence courses for improvement. He didn't follow up on most of them, but he would have us take the courses with him. One was on how to talk well on radio. He took us through it and we benefited the most. Three of us have done voice-overs on television commercials. Michael does musical work. He wrote the music for the roller coaster Space Mountain in Disney World. When riders go through the dark tunnel, they hear a song written and sung by Michael."
I asked Tim what he thought about going to school in Bluffton. He said, "I considered Bluffton awesome. We got a good education. God brought us to Bluffton." I asked if his family was treated well. He responded, "Yes, being black and living in an almost all white area was different after living in Lima. There was only one conflict. A man didn't like us living in the neighborhood. He threatened one of my brothers, and actually pointed a shotgun at him. When dad found out, he confronted the man and backed him down. There was never any trouble after that."
Tim added that because his dad had connections with the welfare department in Lima, if he found that a kid didn't have any foster parents, he would invite the kid to live with our family for a while. Some stayed all summer. He always said kids need love and attention.
I had asked Dorothy how Rufus would have answered two questions. What was his happiest event in life and what was his most painful? She thought his family and working with youth would be his happiest. She said his most painful would be the fear of killing someone in a fight. Erik told me that he thought his dad would have been even more successful in boxing had he not been afraid of hurting a boxer badly. He said his Dad didn't have the killer instinct. "He had compassion."
I said to Dorothy that it must have been hard on the family when Rufus was diagnosed with ALS. She said, "He started to have trouble walking. He used to get up in the morning and come out and he would lean against that wall." When she nodded toward the wall behind me, I could see the hurt in her eyes as she remembered.
I have a friend that lives at Mennonite Memorial Home. On the wall of her apartment is a hanging with these words below a cross: "When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure." Rufus Brassell lived a great and fruitful life, and for those that knew him, he left a treasure of many wonderful memories. He found that his purpose in life was to help young people feel better and do better. There is no higher calling than helping people to feel better.
Bill Herr taught high school mathematics and science for 32 years. After retiring from teaching, he began a nursing home ministry. He served as chaplain at a nursing home for 24 years. He has since written columns relating to sports memories from high school experiences and columns relating to experiences at the nursing home.
