Back in 1969, a teenage and not-yet-Marvelous Marvin Hagler first laced up gloves and learned to box at the Petronelli Gym in Brockton, Massachusetts.
52 years later, the Brockton City Council voted unanimously to memorialize the late, great fighter with a street named in his honor: Marvin Hagler Drive.
Hagler, who died last month at the age of 66, moved to Brockton as a youth and launched his legendary career there. Long before he started his undisputed reign as a champion, before any of the legendary fights against his “Four Kings” rivals in the 1980’s… Hagler was just a kid who got the worst of a street fight, and walked into his local boxing gym to make sure it never happened again.
Pat and Guerino “Goody” Petronelli, the owners of that gym, wound up training and managing Hagler throughout his career as both an amateur and professional fighter.
The Brockton Enterprise reports that the move is an unusual one, and marks the first time in 17 years that the Brockton City Council voted to name a new street. After the decision was approved unanimously, City Councilor Jeffrey Thompson was quoted as saying: “I hope that Marvin Hagler Drive inspires all of us to be obsessed with sharing our talents with each other and with the world.”
Fittingly, Marvin Hagler Drive will intersect with Petronelli Way, the original home of the Petronelli Gym. Brockton officials honored the Petronellis with the renamed street back in 1999. Now, the fighter and the men who helped make him an all-time great will be connected forever, not just in history, but also in cartography.