Boxing attorney John Hornewer, who quietly represented many great champions, including Lennox Lewis and Wladimir Klitschko, penned a short but meaningful tribute to the late Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward. Hornewer wrote: "July 7th...  My maternal grandfather's birthday. [Also promoter] Tom Loeffler's birthday... Personally and professionally, apart from family, the birthday of Emanuel Steward is one that hits me hard when it rolls around.  I miss this man.  Wladimir would fight around this time every year, and every year we would celebrate the birthdays of Emanuel and Tom. He's gone, but not forgotten.  In fact, I probably think of him every day. I became very close with Emanuel when he recruited Lennox Lewis after the 1988 Olympics.  We became even closer once he got the call to train Lennox.  While he had an encyclopedia of knowledge about boxers and boxing, I always believed Emanuel's greatest strength was his ability to reach people and ingratiate himself to them at their core.  With me, he would start every conversation asking about my daughter (saying that she is right down the middle between me and my wife).  He had that knack of making you feel special and that he was truly interested in you.   We had so many talks about the mentality of different fighters - the similarities and differences between Lennox and Wladimir and Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko. Also about former Kronk fighters like Thomas Hearns and Mike McCallum, how he in a way was closer to Ray Leonard than to Tommy.  We talked about [other boxers he traine, such as] Kermit Cintron, Andy Lee, Johnathan Banks and others.  The stories rolled on and were always captivating... He is missed - on his birthday and every day."

 

Former world cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham added, "I met him at the Hall of Fame but then I really got to know him at Wlad's camp …… he saw me working with Wlad and was excited about the sparring and what we both brought out of each other ….. he was such a kind type guy yet you can tell the man was a man's man, a great dude. He’s missed."