Sitting inside the office of Alfonso “Al” Rodriguez in his family’s gym evokes a time capsule of Phoenix boxing and family. Surrounded by photos and plaques hanging on walls clear up to the ceiling dedicated to boxers who have passed through over the generations, Al for decades could be found how everyone knew him best: with a Rodriguez Boxing Club ballcap and a smile under his legendary mustache.
Al and his wife Carmen, married 62 years, founded the Club in 1961 at its original location downtown on Van Buren Street. Almost 40 years ago they moved a few miles down the road to their spot in the Grand Avenue Arts District section where Roosevelt Street intersects with both Grand and 15th avenues.
The patriarch of one of Phoenix’s most celebrated boxing families and a mentor and coach to generations of residents in neighborhoods near and far died July 6 at age 79.
