Knowing and remembering Bill Caplan

Bill Caplan was a gem of a person. His resume was amazing. He knew sports legends, did PR work for Joe Louis and George Foreman, but never bragged or dropped names.

But there was so much more.

Above all, he was kind.

I met him several years ago at a fight card in Salinas, CA.

Salinas was a 2-hour drive from where I was living. I’d also have to drive back to the Bay Area and go directly to work. I debated not going for days before I decided to go.

The decision changed my life.

I parked my car and began the long walk.  I located the ring, set up in the middle of a field. People milled about, mostly by the concession stands. The weather was perfect. Media members used one relatively long table. There were six of us. I spotted a seat in the middle, near a bespectacled gentleman. He had his laptop open and looked pretty serious.  The first fight was coming up.

He was typing. Beyond fast. Blinding. I said, “Try typing faster,” he laughed. I, of course, am the master of the hunt-and-peck style.

We introduced ourselves. His name is Dennis Taylor. A few years later, we’d pen Intimate Warfare: The Inside Story of the Arturo Gatti and Mickey Ward fights.

As Dennis and I chatted, I glanced over and saw a rather short, heavyset man making his way to our table. He had a bag in his hand and a smile on his face.

“Here you go,” he said, handing out programs to all of us.

I said to Dennis, “Do you know who that was?”

He shook his head. After I told him, he couldn’t believe it.

I had recognized PR man Bill Caplan immediately, having seen him in several copies of The Ring Magazine and KO. But Bill was so much more than a “PR man.”

I got up the nerve to speak to him after the fight. He was busy, glanced at me, but took my card.

A few days later, I received an email from him.

Sorry, John, My hearing stinks when there’s background noise. I didn’t mean to blow you off. Let me make it up to you when I’m there for Eloy’s fight. I’d like to take you to lunch on the 26th or 27th.

All the best.Bill

I was stunned. He hadn’t blown me off.

I mean, who was I, but that was Bill.

After that, whenever Bill was in the Bay Area helping his longtime friend Don Chargin with a boxing show, we’d meet for lunch or dinner. He set up an interview for me with Oscar De La Hoya. He left tickets at the box office for Bobby Chacon and his friend.

Bill loved to talk about the first time he saw Cassius Clay.

Clay was 22 and preparing to fight Archie Moore at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles.

“I recognized that he was something special when I went to the Main Street Gym in downtown Los Angles,” said Caplan. “The day that I met him, inside a 16 foot ring, he was going backwards faster than most athletes can run forward. I had never seen legs like that on a heavyweight.”

George Foreman was a very important person in Bill’s life.

He met the rookie heavyweight who had just lost for the first time as an amateur and was considering quitting the game. Caplan, dressed for his role as the night’s ring announcer in a black tuxedo, gave the 19-year-old Foreman a pep talk, reassuring him not to worry and that one day he would prove to be a good fighter.

Caplan was working for promoter Don King when he reunited with Foreman in 1974. They grew close, with Caplan becoming more than just a publicist, but a friend, as evidenced when Foreman lost the world heavyweight championship to Muhammad Ali in Zaire.

A shocked Foreman wandered back to his corner after the referee counted him out. Alone in the midst of pandemonium, none of the former champion’s team went to his side. It was Caplan who climbed through the ropes to console the dejected boxer, reminding him that their hero, Joe Louis, had lost in his illustrious career. ”

“You’re going to be okay,” Caplan said.

Minutes later in his dressing room, surrounded by reporters, Foreman sat up from the rubbing table and said he had a statement to make regarding his loss.

“I found true friendship tonight,” he said. “I found a true friend in Bill Caplan.”

Foreman had hit on the true essence of Bill Caplan.

He cared. And he was loyal.

Bill also demonstrated tenacity when needed.

In 1992, he refused to allow WBC bantamweight champion Lupe Pintor to leave a press conference. Pintor and his team waited nearly an hour for opponent Seung-Hoon-Lee to show up. Fed up with the wait, they walked outside and got into their car before Caplan placed his 300-pound frame on the ground in front of them. He stayed there until Hoon-Lee arrived.

Herald Examiner writer Alan Malamud, a close friend of his, wrote, “Everyone was pulling for the station wagon.”

During his life, he worked as a promoter, matchmaker, ring announcer, and even a part-time actor.

He also made matches, served as a ring announcer, and promoter.

Bill was inducted into the non-participant category of the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2022.

“Bill Caplan was one of boxing’s best publicists who knew how to drum up interest in a fight like few others,” said Executive Director Edward Brophy. “The Hall of Fame extends our condolences to his family and joins the boxing world in mourning his passing.”

The words are true, but the depth of Bill’s soul ran deep.

I’ll forever miss his phone calls, “Hi John, Bill Caplan,” he’d always say.

I was so fortunate to call him my friend.

Rest easy, Bill.