RODNEY ROD BOBICK SIGNED AUTO 3X5 INDEX CARD SPARRED WITH MUHAMMAD ALI PSA DNA

Description

One of the rarest Heavyweight autographs ever. He fought against Larry Holmes and Mike Weaver and sparred with Muhammad Ali and fought him in an exhibition match. This one was obtained on October 11 , 1975 and is dated by him 10-11-75. It was signed after he had sparred against Ali in Century City while The Greatest was prepping for the Thriller In Manila.  For series Boxing Auto Collectors, the Holy Grail of autographs. He is a member of the Minnesota Boxing Hall Of Fame. His career record was 37-7.
This one was authenticated by PSA/DNA and comes with a numbered hologram on the back along with a matching numbered card.
Winner pays .00 shipping and handling, we do combine shipping on multiple lots to save you money.
Below is info about his career.
The lead to a story in the St. Paul Pioneer Press
during the 1970s on Rodney Bobick’s fight the
night before read something like this:
When the Prom Ballroom was constructed many
years ago they certainly didn’t have someone like
Rodney Bobick in mind. After all, the facility has
always catered to dancers.
Bobick got up to the morning newspaper that day
in St. Paul, and upon his next encounter with the
author of the article did what he always did best,
growled...with a smile on his face.
Even in the ring, Bobick always appeared to fight,
with a wry grin . Boxing was fun to him, a natural
part of his boyhood past, part of growing up in
a family of 12 boys and one girl. Fighting was a
frequent activity with his numerous brothers, all
of them heavyweights. His father seemingly spent
half his time fixing broken doors, windows or
caved in sheet rock. Fighting over this or that and
many times nothing at all was part of growing up
Bobick.
Bobick was 37-7-0 with 18 knockouts when he
died in a car accident on June 5, 1977, only 25
years old. Three years earlier he outpointed future
heavyweight champion Mike Weaver with a
unanimous verdict, just four months before
his brother Duane followed up with a TKO over
Weaver.
“Everybody says that Duane was the better fighter,’’
said their brother Loren, “but Rodney could really
take a punch and had a harder punch. For Rodney,
though, it was just fun. He wasn’t that serious
about it. He just loved to fight.’’
Rodney Bobick had a genial side to him, a friendly
side, hence his nickname the Bowlus Bear. Yet,
he truly loved to fight. “He had phenomenal
power,’’ Loren recalled, citing a street brawl that
illustrated that specific recollection. “He once
threw an uppercut on a guy in a street fight that
lifted him a foot and a half off the ground before
he bounced off the blacktop,’’ said Loren.
Bobick was also a baseball player in high school.
Loren recalled a conversation between Twins
announcer Dick Bremer and former Twins pitcher
Bert Blyleven during the broadcast of a particular
game. “They were talking about some of the
longest homers off Blyleven, ‘’ he recalled, “and
Blyleven asked Bremer (a high school pitcher)
who hit the longest ball off him. ‘It was in a
little town called Bowlus,’ Bremer recalled, ‘and
Rodney Bobick hit a ball over two cornfields.’ ‘’
Big, brawny and tough, Rodney Bobick played
catcher for his high school team. “He’d throw the
ball back to the pitcher faster and harder than the
pitcher threw it to him,’’ Loren added.
Yet, despite his reputation as a street brawler,
rugged opponent in the ring and a high school
version of Babe Ruth, Bobick had another side
that outsiders seldom saw.
“You didn’t want to get on the wrong side
of him,’’ Loren said. “But Rodney would give you
the shirt off his back. He had a kind heart and
was soft spoken.’’
Loren doesn’t recall all of the details – probably
after Rodney and Duane defeated Weaver four
months apart – to a question posed to him by one
Weaver’s handlers, “My, God, how many
more Bobicks are there?’’
For the record there were many: Loren, Rodney,
Duane, Leroy, Michael, Donald, Tom, Lester,
David, Bruce, Kurt, Robert and Tara.
Bobick’s reputation as a fighter sometimes drew
challenges outside the ring. There was the time, for
instance, when a fellow came after him with a tire
iron outside a Dairy Queen on Lake Street. “He hit
Rodney on the head with that thing,’’ Loren said.
“Rodney shook it off and the guy ran away.’’
Bobick himself could not run away when confronted
by none other than Muhammad Ali following a
sparring session one time. Ali liked to use Bobick
as a sparring partner, and when the Bowlus Bear
began making arrangements to return home, Ali
stopped him.
“He wanted to know what Rodney thought he
was doing,’’ Loren said. “When Rodney said he was
going home, Ali told him to stay put, that where
Ali went Rodney went, too.’’
Differences of opinion were not confined to Ali and
Bobick, they were present in the Bobick household
itself and perhaps with good reason, at least from
the outside looking in.
“The house we lived in was only twenty feet by
twenty-two feet and one and one-half stories,’’
Loren said. “And when it was twenty degrees
below zero outside it was five below inside. There
was ice on the windows an inch and half thick.
You had to scrap it off all the time. We slept four to
a bed.’’ Loren recalled that the toilet was outside,
too, although their father did install a shower in
the house. “Then Leroy and Duane got into a fight
and went right through the wall.’’
Rodney Bobick loved to fight and he loved his
automobiles. “He loved fast cars,’’ Loren said.
“He had a 1962 T Bird, a 1964 Malibu with the
top cut off, a 1968 Firebird, a 1971 Cadillac. ’
’ And, of course, there was the Skylark convertible. “
He loved driving that thing with the top down,’’
Loren added, “driving through downtown Bowlus,
with the top down and a blanket on his lap
because it was fifteen degrees below zero.’’
Bobick was three months shy of his twenty-six
birthday when he was killed in a car accident near
his hometown. One month earlier he defeated
Walter White with a 10-round unanimous decision
in Miami, Florida, in what would be his final bout.
He began his career with ten consecutive victories,
including a six-round decision over Tommy Clark in
Madison Square Garden. He won once more before
losing the first fight of his career, on points to Dan
Johnson at the Silver Slipper in Las Vegas, Nevada.
He rebounded in his very next bout, defeating
John Clohessy on points, again in Madison Square
Garden. Bobick was 17-1 before he lost again, that
time on points to Reynaldo Raul Gorosito, again
at the Garden. Unlike his brother Duane, who
defeated fellow Hall of Fame inductee Scott
LeDoux twice, Rodney lost on points to the
fighting Frenchman. Yet, he did more than
enough to earn his place in the Minnesota
Boxing Hall of Fame