Moore was he really from Mississippi? According to some reports, Moore was born in Collinsville (Ill.) in 1916. Some reports claimed he was born in Bolivar County’s Delta town of Benoit in 1913. His mother claimed he was born in Benoit. Archie Moore, who passed away in 1998, may have the final word. He said, “My mother should have known since she was there.” According to Billy Moore, Archie’s 68-year old son, “My daddy, Benoit, Mississippi was his birthplace and he was proud.” It doesn’t matter how many times he said it, if he did it once, he would repeat it hundreds of time.” We now know that Archie Moore was born Archie Lee Wright in Benoit on December 13, 1913. When he was a baby, his parents divorced. When he was three years old, he and his sister were sent to live in Collinsville, Illinois with an aunt and uncle. They are just 14 miles from St. Louis. He was born in St. Louis, and he adopted the surname of his aunt, Lillie Pearl Moore and uncle Cleveland Moore. He was raised in poverty and attended segregated schools until Cleveland Moore’s death at the age of 15. Archie Moore started running with street gangs and committing petty criminal acts. He was then sent to a reform school. He did not graduate from high school. After displaying good behavior, he was released from the reform school and took up a job in forestry. He began boxing as an amateur in 1933. He became a professional boxer in 1935 and started one of the most long-lasting, active, and successful careers in the history of the sport. Moore’s life could be written into a book – many people have. But, the following items are shorten Moore’s remarkable 28-year career as a middleweight. In 1935, he defeated Billy Simms by knockout in round 2. In 1963, he ended his remarkable career with a third-round knockout of Mike Dibiase. * These were the first and final of 131 career knockouts. This was a world record for any fighter fighting in any division. His record for his career was 186-23-10. * His unique, slashing boxing style was later adopted by Sugar Ray Leonard, Muhammad Ali and others. He was affectionately known as “The Mongoose”. He would move constantly and punch with one hand while the other dangled at him. He trained Ali late in his career and fought him. Moore is the only boxer who has fought Rocky Marciano and Muhammad Ali. However, both were heavyweights while he was a lighter heavyweight. He defeated Marciano in round two at 42 and was knocked out in round nine. Ali knocked him out in the fourth round at 49. Moore’s greatest success was achieved very late in his career. When he beat Joey Maxim, a Boxing Hall of Famer, in a unanimous 15-round decision in St. Louis on December 17, 1952, Moore was only 39 years old. It was Moore’s 158th professional fight. * He held the light heavyweight world title for nine years. This is another boxing record. Moore fought in all corners of the globe, including in Australia, England, Panama, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, and famously nine times in Argentina. He lived for a while in the palaces of Eva Peron and Juan Peron. Moore launched publicity campaigns to get the support of prominent sports writers like Red Smith, in order to secure fights. His son Billy Moore stated that his father taught him how to type when he was world champion. He was sending so many letters across the country. He founded the Any Body Can Youth Foundation in San Diego after his retirement. It used boxing as a lure and was designed to encourage and educate inner-city youth and keep them from falling into unsafe lifestyles. Billy Moore, who runs the ABC Foundation, said that his father saw the drug and gang problem in inner-city youth across the country. “He believed prevention was better than incarceration.” Archie Moore met three U.S. Presidents, Reagan, and the elder George Bush to discuss his ideas for saving America’s inner-city youth. Want more? Archie Moore was also a successful Hollywood and TV actor in his late years. To positive reviews, he played the role of Jim the runaway slave in the Hollywood adaptation of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He also acted in many other TV and movie shows, including Perry Mason, Wagon train, Family Affair, Family Affair and Batman. Archie Moore was inducted into The World Boxing Hall of Fame. Numerous publications have ranked him as the No. He is the No. 1 light heavyweight of all time. He is currently in several San Diego, St. Louis, and California halls of honor and will be in Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday. What would Archie Moore think? Billy Moore said that he would be “daunted proud” of the incident. “He wouldn’t say much, but he’d have a big smiling face and he’d be damned proud.” Friday’s guest: Lafayette Stribling (Mississippi’s best-dressed coach, as well as one of the state’s most successful basketball coaches