Repairs too costly to keep Kronk Gym openAssociated Press
DETROIT -- The Kronk Gym, the dingy basement that helped produce world champions Evander Holyfield and Oscar De La Hoya, has closed.
Champions Thomas Hearns and Lennox Lewis also trained at Emanuel Steward's gym, which had been struggling after thieves stole copper pipes in September, cutting off its water supply.
Steward had been paying to keep the Kronk running for months after Detroit shut down the recreation center that houses it because of a budget shortfall.
The cost of fixing the plumbing and making other major repairs led officials to decide to make the gym's shutdown permanent, said the Recreation Department's deputy director, Lawrence Hemingway.
"It's the oldest rec center in the city. It has lived a useful life," he told the Detroit Free Press in Wednesday's edition.
Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press