The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunermedia.net

WHILE it has been 40 years that he reigned as the World Boxing Council’s light middleweight world champion, Everette ‘Elisha Obed’ Ferguson is finally getting some international acclaim from the Bahamas by being a recipient of the British Empire Medal in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List.

But Wellington Miller, chairman of the organising committee to honour Elisha Obed for his accomplishment, said they are still pushing for the boxing legend, who turns 64 on February 21, to be given some type of permanent recognition by the Bahamas Government.

“First, I want to congratulate the government for honouring Elisha Obed for his accomplishments in this year’s New Year’s Honours List from the Queen,” said Miller, a close and personal friend of Ferguson. “To me and to the Bahamian people we appreciate it but, in two days time, they will forget who got honoured in this year’s list, except for the three people who will get knighted.

“The kids, who you want to educate about Bahamian history, will not know what honour Obed got. So our committee is still going to push forward for the Government to name a street after Obed. We have identified three or four streets so far, so we are still going to push for the government to honour him in that way for the accomplishment that he achieved.”

On November 13, 1975, Elisha Obed travelled to Paris, France, where he scored an 11-round technical knockout win over Brazilian Miguel de Oliveira to become the first Bahamian to win a world boxing championship title. He successfully defended it twice, stopping Tony ‘KO King’ Gardiner in the second round in Nassau and in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire with an unanimous 15-round decision over Sea Robinson, both in 1976.

That same year, however, Elisha Obed lost a 10th-round TKO to Eckhard Dagge of Germany in Charlottenburg, Berlin, Germany as the referee stopped the bout one minute and 47 seconds into the round. He went on to fight up until 1988 when he pulled off a 10-round decision over James ‘Killer’ Coakley to avenge a rematch before he officially retired.

Miller, who currently serves as the president of the Bahamas Olympic Committee and the Amateur Boxing Federation of the Bahamas, said they can’t understand why successive governments have failed to give Obed the kind of recognition that he so rightfully deserves.

“If you can give him an honour from the head of the Commonwealth, you must be able to give him an honour from the Bahamian people,” Miller said. “They should be able to name a street after him. You give all over the world, including Trinidad & Tobago, and they have named streets after their world champions and some have even built statues of them.

“Those things help to keep their memory alive. In fact, people won’t remember those honours two days after he receives it. But if we have a street here named after him, people can always drive on the street and they can always call the name. So our committee is still going to go forward and ask the government to name one after him. That’s not too much for us to ask for.”

Miller said he has heard that it only costs about $30 to purchase one of the signs. “That’s the cheapest thing in town,” said Miller. “We won’t have to pay VAT on it, so I don’t see why they can’t do the sign for Elisha,” Miller said. “There are so many streets that need to be named or renamed and so we feel they can do one of them for him.

“He’s getting old, but not because he’s getting honoured by the Queen, they can’t name a street after him too. Many people who are honoured by the Queen, if you check, they still get a second honour by their country. So I hope the government will see the need to honour him in this way.”

And although they have identified the streets that could possibly bear Elisha Obed’s name, Miller said they prefer to wait until they can sit down with the government and discuss the location. He said they hope to do that sometime this year.