Before he ever laced up boxing gloves, George Foreman was emerging from childhood by taking work at the job corps in Pleasanton, California, where he sat alone after his shift, hoping he could bum a ride home off one of the older counselors and maybe even stop for a pastrami sandwich along the way.
One of the counselors drove a convertible Volkswagen Beetle, a car Foreman fantasized about, thinking, “If I ever get any money, I’m gonna get me one of those.”
Instead, the counselors avoided Foreman, driving away, leaving the future U.S. Olympic gold medalist and two-time heavyweight champion of the world in solitude, hungry on the curb.
“Those incidents drive you,” Foreman said this week, recounting not only what he made of his life in the ring, but what he amassed from what started as his fondness over that VW Beetle.
Late last year, weeks before his 75th birthday on Jan. 10, Foreman finalized the emotional decision to part with his impressive car collection that at one point bulged to 69 vehicles, including – of course – a convertible black Beetle.
At an online auction of Foreman’s 51 remaining cars, the most expensive eight – including a Ford GT, a BMW Z8, a Foreman-rebuilt 1959 Chevrolet Impala, a Ferrari Spider and Testarossa and a 2015 Porsche 911 Turbo – generated a combined $1.587 million.
The 1978 VW Super Beetle went for $26,750.
“I gotta tell you, I loved that car,” Foreman said. “So when they were auctioning, I said to my sister-in-law, who did everything for me with that, ‘I’m not gonna sit there and say, ‘Not that one … or that one.’
“So I just closed my eyes and let them all go.”
Foreman isn’t ailing for money or in poor health.
He explained simply that he opted to auction off the cars that were kept inside a massive lighted and covered 16,000-square-feet garage next to his gated, 18,000-square-feet home in suburban Houston because he was moving.
Foreman explained that his wife of nearly 40 years, Joan, not only dutifully oversaw the continued cleaning of the garage but volunteered to find proper storage for the cars as they relocated.
Thinking of how his life had changed since he began investing in cars in 1990, four years before he produced his unforgettable 1994 knockout of Michael Moorer, which reunited Foreman with the heavyweight belt nearly 20 years after he lost the title to Muhammad Ali in the famed “Rumble in the Jungle,” Foreman considered how full his life is.
He visits regularly with his 16 grandchildren and still rides horses while tending to his Marshall, Texas, ranch.
The cars could go.
“I never truly intended to collect cars,” he said. “It was just one of those things that became, ‘How much is that doggie in the window?’ You look, and then you buy one. Then another and another and another. … And then I’m saying, ‘Well, I need to build a bigger garage.’
“I fell in love with those cars. I just enjoyed them. At one stage, I wanted the fastest car. I was driving a Mercedes, and a car passed me up so fast, so I [upgraded] a Mercedes so no one would do that again. Lo and behold, someone did it again. So I got another.”
How fast was he speeding?
“I know one thing: I didn’t want the police to see it,” Foreman cracked. “Then I got a Ferrari, knowing, ‘They won’t pass you with that, George.’ Then a Testarossa. But then I was told a Ferrari F40 ‘will beat anything in the world.’ I bought one. That thing was so fast, I can’t even see why they would sell a civilian a car like that. Next thing I know, I got this and I got that, and I just park ‘em and decide not to drive them again.”
Of course, a Rolls Royce and Bentley joined the collection, along with a slew of 1950s classics that Foreman himself would repair and upgrade.
“It just took over me. I built and repaired by hand three 1953 Chevrolets. I’d darn near almost break my fingers off,” Foreman said. “I’d buy engines. Unscrew this. Unscrew that. Then I did a ‘51.
“The great joy I took from it is that I’m a nocturnal person already, because of sports. I’ll wake up at 2 or 3 in the morning, go out to my garage and start working, taking apart the old cars, doing my best to put them together again. That’s always been a joy.”
The parallels can’t be denied.
Foreman the boxer was done in by Ali’s knockout victory in Africa, and famously, three years later, went into a 10-year retirement and spiritual journey before tinkering away in the ring for nearly 30 fights before meeting Moorer on that fateful night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, winning the belt again – by knockout – at age 45.
Something akin to that night would flash to Foreman on local highways when he would accelerate his 1953 Chevy past a new car just off the lot.
“I always wanted to show everyone that, ‘Hey, they said this was junk. Look at what we’ve done,’” Foreman said.
“I guess I did the same thing [in the ring] when everybody said I was broken down and worn out. I was able to get back on my feet. And that’s what I did with the ‘53 Chevy. When I was young, I admired them. I knew what those cars had in them. … I’d drive by the people and would love to see them thinking, ‘What? That thing’s going faster than we are.’ There was great joy in that.”
The drive from his home near Houston to Foreman’s ranch in East Texas was about 200 miles one way, the perfect distance to take whichever car he wanted that day.
He savored those drives – the isolation, the music, the varied experiences provided by his collection and the richest of memories that would wash through his mind.
There’s an amazing story that Hall of Fame boxing writer Jerry Izenberg tells of 50 years ago this October, when he witnessed Ali walk alone toward the Congo River in the morning hours after defeating Foreman. Ali had overcome a three-year absence related to his objection to the Vietnam War, moved past the “Fight of the Century” loss to Joe Frazier and conquered Foreman.
At the river bank, Ali merely raised both arms upward in victory, standing in that pose for what seemed like minutes.
Similarly, the sweet scene of Foreman, the great American sportsman behind the wheel of a classic roadster in America’s heartland, was the moment of cinematic gold that best captured the man who persevered through the Ali loss and the 10-year layoff to become champion again.
“Boy, you talk about having a new car to go down that road … Oh, that’s the most wonderful drive,” he said.
In Foreman’s jolly spirit, he also found a way to beat the system.
“I remember, once I bought a Lamborghini and I was going down the road and the police pulled me over,” Foreman said. “I started watching them. They just wanted to see inside my car. They’d never seen one. They wouldn’t give me a ticket.”
When someone later suggested, “They’re profiling you, George,” Foreman devised a strategy to counter misdirected law enforcement attention on the road to and from Marshall.
“If you’re going to drive on the street, always have a tie on, because, in case you make the news, you’ll look innocent,” Foreman said. “One day when I was riding the horses in East Texas with my nephew, I forgot to take the tie off and I was out in the middle of the woods, so I took off the tie and when my nephew saw it was a clip-on, he laughed his neck off … ‘George Foreman wearing a clip-on tie!’
“But a tie is important. If you’re driving fancy cars and going fast and you’re a celebrity, keep clip-on ties.”
With his younger wife in the passenger seat, Foreman recalls singing his heart out to classic songs she wasn’t as fond of.
“Oh yeah, in the Volkswagen, we’d drive and listen to the oldies and I’d say, ‘Listen to this … they played this back when!’
“Bye-bye, Miss American Pie/Drove my Chevy to the levee/But the levee was dry.”
“She’d hang her head, like hurry up and get me out of this. But that’s why I’d love driving alone, to put on my own music, my James Brown, Isaac Hayes and the likes … oh, man.”
Back home near Houston, Foreman took delight in entering his massive garage, with its scrubbed floors and freshly dusted vehicles. There, he would often reflect on what he has made of his life.
“On many nights, I’d go out there and turn on the big floodlights on top and just sit there looking at all of those cars in disbelief. I just couldn’t believe it,” he said.
“Working at the job corps, remembering this like it was yesterday. … When I’d go out to the garage, I’d think, ‘Now, I can go and get a pastrami anytime I want.’”
As time went on, the collection surged past the garage’s maximum capacity of 39 cars. He added lifts, to park some cars under the others.
“I started squeezing them in there. My wife would ask, ‘Why’d you [buy] that one?’ I’d say, ‘Well, this is my retirement car.’ I said that so many times, I had to start hiding cars,” Foreman said.
But the home that he constructed to accommodate his 10 children – five sons, five daughters – was now too big, as they were all moved out to start their lives.
“All the bedrooms are like a motel. I couldn’t even plead with them to spend the night. The house is 18,000 square feet, gated inside a gated community. It was gated to keep bad guys out. Turns out, it was gated to keep me in,” Foreman said.
“When I designed the house, I thought it’d be just what I wanted. I realized I didn’t want that much space. In the master bedroom, for instance, you get in bed and say, ‘Let me get up and go to the restroom. …’ Man, that’s a journey up there! A journey! By the time you come back, you can’t even get to sleep again. That was a little too big.”
That home is now listed for sale around $7 million, and Foreman and Joan have downsized into a home in the 2,000-square-feet range.
He said he’s so appreciative of his wife’s years-long patience with his hobby, recalling how he once visited former “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno and his car collection, and relayed to Joan, “Man, that guy’s crazy. He keeps all these cars in an airport hangar,” and she responded, “Look who’s talking.”
“My wife can now move wherever she wants. She can look in the catalog and say, ‘Oh, look at this house,’ and she doesn’t have to even worry about a garage,” Foreman said. “She’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Foreman has used some of the proceeds from the car auction to fund his grandchildren’s college education, with one entering her senior year at Baylor and another enrolled at the University of Texas.
“Sometimes, as many as half [of the 16 grandkids] are around me … I’ll tell you, that’s better than any car,” said Foreman, who still watches boxing closely on television but often rejects invitations to attend the big fights so he can stay near family and continue his work as a hometown minister.
The Foreman family dynasty is set to thrive.
“I sell a car and say, ‘OK … I’m saving my money now to get them all educated,” Foreman said. “I love being around my grandkids. There’s nothing greater. Athletes can continue to acquire a lot of things, and that’s all well and good until you have 16 grandkids. Then, you don’t want anything but hugs and the steaks and eggs with them in the morning.”
What does he drive now?
Only a Mercedes-Benz G wagon valued around $150,000.
Although …
“I’ve got to go buy a new pickup truck, and my heart is set on this GMC one I’m looking at with the big engine,” Foreman said. “You think you can live without a pickup truck, but if you’re in Texas, you’ve got to have a pickup truck.
“Just don’t tell nobody.”
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