My high school gym teacher talked about his high school football career and parties in Vietnam as though it was yesterday. The class politely ignored his stories because they were irrelevant and repetitive. If only we were brazen enough to peg him with a bright green paint balloon.

On the corner of Stuyvesant and Lexington Avenue in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn a faded mural reads, “Brooklyn’s Own Mike Tyson.” Originally painted for Spike Lee’s ‘Do the Right Thing’, it’s unclear whether the mural has simply faded or was only temporary. Regardless, it has become increasingly difficult to continue flattering Mike Tyson’s career and lifestyle. Of late, Tyson is flipping pigeons in Phoenix, escaping drug rehab, and possibly most surprising: reaching his 40th birthday.

Tyson’s turning point came at age 13 upon meeting Bobby Stewart, a counselor and former boxer at Tryon School for Boys. In January 1986, William Nack featured the then 19 year-old pro boxer for Sports Illustrated and wrote:

Tyson knew that Stewart had been a boxer, and not a bad one at that. As an amateur, Stewart had won the National Golden Gloves light heavyweight championship in 1974 by beating the eventual WBA heavyweight champion, Michael Dokes. Tyson got the idea that he wanted to become a boxer, too, and he asked Stewart to work with him. Stewart resisted. Tyson persisted. “Teach me how to box. I really want to learn how to fight,” he said. Stewart gave in, but only on condition that Tyson work harder in school. He told Tyson, “I don’t care if you flunk every subject, as long as your behavior is good and you’re putting in some effort.”

Not long after the man started teaching the boy how to fight, teachers were calling Stewart to ask, “What the hell has happened to this kid? He’s paying attention, not acting up in class.” Within a few months Tyson had raised his reading level from third to seventh grade. And he was learning so quickly in the ring that Stewart decided he had better go into training himself. “I’d have gotten killed,” Stewart says. “I had to train if I was to survive.”

Photograph from Untitledname.com.