4.3 • 737 Ratings
🗓️ 21 November 2025
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
On this episode of Our American Stories, as a kid wandering the hallways of Miami’s fight scene, Patti Kingsbaker thought she had seen everything. Then she spotted Frank Sinatra walking in as her father prepared to referee a heavyweight title match. Patti’s chance at an autograph disappeared behind a wall of security, and the disappointment stayed with her until she finally wrote Sinatra a letter. What happened next blew her mind. Patti joins us to share this "knockout" Frank Sinatra story!
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.6 | Guaranteed human. |
| 0:33.0 | This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show, from the arts to sports and from business to history and everything in between, including your stories. |
| 0:35.6 | Send them to Our American Stories.com. |
| 0:37.3 | They're some of our favorites. |
| 0:40.7 | And our next story comes from a Colorado listener. |
| 0:42.4 | Let's take a listen. My name is Patty Kingspaker, and I grew up Miami. My name is Patty Kingsbaker and I grew up Miami. |
| 0:58.2 | My dad was the boxing coach for the University of Miami. |
| 1:02.9 | But they discontinued boxing in 1954, I believe. |
| 1:08.8 | But at the time, I mean, he had two jobs. He worked for the Coral Gables Fire Department |
| 1:14.0 | and he was the boxing coach for the University of Miami. So when they discontinued boxing, |
| 1:20.4 | he started refereeing. And so as when I was growing up, I'm not sure how old I was when he started taking me to the fights, |
| 1:29.2 | but I feel like I was at least seven. So every Friday night, I was over on Miami Beach with my dad |
| 1:36.5 | and going to the fight. So I grew up like knowing all the boxers and growing up in that world. |
| 1:43.7 | I mean, I just loved boxing. So we found out that |
| 1:47.0 | the Johansson-Patterson heavyweight championship fight was going to be in Miami. And of course, |
| 1:55.5 | you know, I was like, my dad's going to referee, you know, but they really, they don't find out |
| 2:00.2 | who's going to referee a fight know, but they really, they don't find out who's going to referee |
| 2:01.0 | a fight until like five minutes before the fight. They come over and get tagged, you know, |
| 2:07.2 | to do it. So long story short, my dad, there was one other referee that I knew was probably |
| 2:14.3 | had enough experience or that it was between my dad and this other guy. Well, |
| 2:19.0 | and his name was Cy Godfrey. And my dad was Billy Regan. And, um, but Cy refereed a 10-rounder |
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