This dramatic full-length feature screenplay is creative non-fiction, based on the true life of boxing champion and trainer Doc Broadus, and in particular about his relationship with his most famous student, George Foreman. It is exciting, informative, dramatic, and uplifting, from his life as a boy on a farm in the deep South in the depression, his training with Joe Louis, and his World War II experience as a tank commander in Patton's all-black battalion, to his becoming the creator of the Job Corps boxing program and trainer and first manager of young George Foreman, to their victory in the Olympics in Mexico City, and to George's defeat by Mohammed Ali at the "Rumble In the Jungle," and finally to Doc's eschewing the hard side of the pro boxing industry and staying in Las Vegas as a relative unknown, teaching the honor of the sport of boxing to a new generation of young boxers.

This story was written from a year of interviews with Doc Broadus several years ago. Though he is still alive at this time, he is not in good health, and presumably would not be involved in the production. All material referring to George Foreman or other real persons described is from those interviews or from published works. All screen rights are reserved Copyright PostPubCo.

Settings:

Clearly a large production, set in many locations including the rural South in the 1930's, Joe Louis' training camp in New Jersey, the battlefields and boxing events of WWII in Europe, the first Job Corps training camp, the Olympics in Mexico City, the fight in Kenya, and finally in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Synopsis:

DOC is a drama based on the life of Las Vegas' boxing trainer Charles E. "Doc" Broadus, who is best known as the Job Corps boxing trainer who first trained George Foreman and took him through his Olympic Gold victory in 1968. Instead of going on the celebrity rocket-ride that took place thereafter, Doc put Foreman's professional career into the hands of his friend Dick Sadler, and he went back to the Job Corps to continue teaching self-discipline and self-reliance through boxing, and training young fighters for championship competition. Now past the age of 80, he is still doing that today at the PAL gym in Las Vegas, living a simple life in a tiny northside apartment. He is very happy, and the neighborhood kids all know and love him. In 1999 was admitted to the Boxing Hall of Fame.

What sets this story apart is Doc's experiences, his attitudes, and the things he taught about sport fighting -- in particular his influence on Foreman's life -- make a strong statement relevant to events and conflicts happening today. "Boxing," says Doc, "is not about your race, your religion, your reputation, or your money. You leave all those things outside when you step into the ring. There is a purity in the ring that can teach us to look beyond those things. It is man to man, and even God doesn't take sides."

During the Depression when he was young, Doc lived in the peaceful countryside of rural North Carolina, where he was told that not only was he a descendant of a slave, he was the descendant of a slave owner, and that he and some of the local white children were kin. Though of course he later discovered the harsher facts of racial prejudice in the world -- as commander of a team of five tanks in a black battalion under General Patton in Germany, and as a "colored ex-GI" in the postwar South -- he was nonetheless himself set free in his own heart and mind of the need to blame the descendants of slave owners today for the acts of slave owners in another time.

He taught an angry young George Foreman -- in a time when both positive and negative racial activism were gaining momentum -- that boxing was above racial concerns, and by understanding that, it is possible for a man to rise above racial concerns. George articulated this idea when he waved the United States flag at the Olympics in 1968 as a representative of all Americans, and in Zaire when he said Africa is home not only of the black man, but of all mankind. When his opponent in the "Rumble in the Jungle" built promotion around himself as champion of the black man's cause -- and cast "Uncle George" as the villain -- the emotional challenge took years to resolve.

Likewise Doc's exhortation to rise above religious contention was challenged by the promoters in Zaire. "God doesn't take sides in the ring," Doc says. It was not easy for George to disregard his opponent's pious boast that Allah loved Ali better than Jesus loved him. And in the face of it all, George would not be baited into his opponent's egomaniacal insult shouting. Race, religion, glory, and money -- George was challenged by his opponent's using all of them against him. Then there was conflict in the ring itself. George had done everything right -- and yet did not win the fight. All of it seemed to have proved Doc wrong. However, his eventual resolution of his inner challenge resulted in personal fulfillment for George not only in the ring, but in life -- and provides for the story an understanding of Doc's personal fulfillment in his humble but very important place.

The story follows Doc's childhood in North Carolina, his experiences training in boxing with lifetime friend Joe Louis, being a tank commander in Europe and US Army lightweight champion in the ?40's, suffering discrimination after the war, being one of the first non-Orientals to learn martial arts in Japan as an Air Force hand-combat instructor, forming the Job Corps boxing program, meeting young street thug George Foreman and training him through Olympic gold, traveling with him to Zaire, then returning to Las Vegas to devote his life to teaching the honor of sport fighting to youth. If Don King might be called "the Darth Vader of boxing" then surely Doc Broadus is the Obiwan Kenobi.

DOC is a story about black people, but it is not a "black experience" story. It is about rising above self-stereotyping. It is a story about a boxing trainer (and the most celebrated of his many students), but it is not a "boxing movie" -- it is about a man's life, and how through sport fighting he has taught others to be strong and competitive, but also tolerant and compassionate. It is about how a man may become a Champion in the ring and in life through honest competition based on respect for the rights of others.

This screenplay was a top-ten finalist in the Nevada Film Commission 2000 screenwriting contest.

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