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Additional words by John J. Raspanti<\/p>\n
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Even when they live a good, long life, it is hard to say goodbye.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Boxing, sadly, had to bid farewell to legendary publicist Bill Caplan, who passed at age 90.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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In 6-plus decades, Caplan championed the careers of stars like George Foreman and Oscar De La Hoya along with boxing\u2019s best promoters, including Don King, Bob Arum, Don and Lorraine Chargin, Aileen Eaton, and Dan Goosen, among others. <\/p>\n
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Caplan, warmly referred to as \u201cUncle Bill\u201d by friends, was well-liked and respected by his peers. His legendary career certainly brought him some well-deserved recognition for the long-time Los Angeles resident. He was inducted into the West Coast Boxing Hall of Fame, was recognized by the Boxing Writers Associations of America, first in 2010 with the Marvin Kohn Good Guy Award and again with the Barney Nagler Award for Long and Meritorious Service to Boxing in 2016. Caplan was also inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2022. <\/p>\n
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Caplan got his start in 1962 doing PR work for promoter Leo Minskoff and heavyweight great Joe Louis. Within a decade, he was working for Don King. <\/p>\n
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One of Caplan\u2018s most cherished clients was heavyweight great George Foreman, whom he represented from his amateur days and throughout his incredible pro career. <\/p>\n
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Foreman, an ordained minister, officiated the wedding of Caplan\u2019s daughter, Liz, as well as his granddaughter, and even remarried Caplan\u2019s parents. <\/p>\n
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While Caplan gained legend status in the sport for his public relations work, he did about everything else you could do in boxing short of stepping in the ring to fight. At times, he also served as a matchmaker, ring announcer, and promoter. <\/p>\n
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Caplan is survived by his wife, Sandy, and his children, Scott and Debbie. Caplan\u2019s 2 sons, Harold and Charlie, sadly predeceased him. He is also survived by 9 grandchildren and 1 great-grandchild.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
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If you do something you love, you never work a day in your life. Congratulations on a great career. <\/p>\n
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Rest in peace, Bill. <\/p>\n
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I met Bill Caplan by chance in 2011. After that, we\u2019d speak on the phone and email each other routinely, and meet for lunch. He set up an interview for me with Oscar De La Hoya in 2012. If I had a question, I\u2019d call Bill. He always had the answer or the right person to contact. I was never able to thank him enough.<\/p>\n
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Bill was an extraordinary man of depth who loved food. He took me to a couple of restaurants in downtown Los Angeles that I had never heard of. I can be picky, but I wasn\u2019t worried. The food was fabulous. <\/p>\n
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He could spin a yarn better than most.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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I\u2019ll forever remember sitting around a table with Bill and his close friend Don \u201cWar-a Week\u201d Chargin. They bantered like a comedy team, laughing the entire time. I laughed along with them. Their friendship had begun in 1962. <\/p>\n
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When Chargin died in 2015. Bill was devastated. His eyes told the story of the pain he felt. They were like brothers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Boxing has lost a legend with ties to Joe Louis and George Foreman. I\u2019ve lost a friend who can never be replaced. They broke the mold when Bill was created.<\/p>\n
I can see him in heaven cracking wise with George and Don. <\/p>\n
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John Raspanti<\/p>\n
Editor 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 Additional words by John J. Raspanti \u00a0 Even when they live a good, long life, it is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-637548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}