Paul Reyes was 55 before he knew what a comparatively short day looked like. For 27 years, Reyes worked at General Motors’ Arlington assembly plant, helping churn out Chevy Malibus, Buick Roadmasters and Cadillac Broughams. In the evenings, he trained young boxers, driving them in his ’68 Chevrolet Impala to their workouts.
“We’d all pile up and go to the gym,” son Vince Reyes, who boxed as a youth with the group for several years, says. “We thought that was normal.”
When Paul Reyes took early retirement from GM at age 55 to focus on training, he helped produce world champion fighters in Fort Worthians Donald Curry and Paulie Ayala. He was named Boxing Trainer of the Year in 1986 and subsequently inducted into the Texas Boxing Hall of Fame. Reyes died Dec. 28 after an illness. He was 85…