He's been called an altar-boy, a universally well-liked and wonderful person.
Nobody ... had a bad word to say about him,"" author Doug Moe wrote in his book about UW boxing, ""Lords of the Ring.""
But UW's Charlie Mohr was more than just well-liked. He was a boxing superstar who had won the previous year's NCAA middleweight championship.
""Charlie was a very good fighter from New York who did it for self-esteem,"" said David Walsh, the son of John Walsh, one of college boxing's most celebrated coaches who worked with Mohr for many years. ""He was a very shy, gentle and thoughtful person.""
In 1960 the UW legend was set to win his second John S. LaRowe Trophy, akin to the Heisman of boxing. But the April 9 match-up with San Jose State's Stuart Bartell dealt Mohr a blow that would send shockwaves through all of college boxing.
""He got hit and went down in the corner, and there were some punches. He got up. Looked like he was going to get hit again, so the referee stopped the fight. Charlie got up and walked off,"" said Walsh, who also serves as President of the UW Board of Regents, of the match's deciding blow.
Mohr lost the match, and though nothing immediately seemed unusual, he suffered a brain hemorrhage and fell into a coma shortly after in the locker room. He was taken to University Hospital where he died eight days later.
""We were devastated by Charlie,"" Walsh said. ""It was a different day ... I was in the hospital when he died. It was very sad. It wasn't anger. It was sadness.""
As time would reveal, however, sadness was not all that surrounded Mohr's death.
Immediately after, people began to question whether it was Bartell's hit or a previous medical condition that was to blame.
At University Hospital, Mohr was operated on by Dr. Manucher Javid, a neurosurgeon who declared the blow Mohr received from Bartell to be the cause of death.
Others, however, felt differently.
Dr. Tony Curreri, a former boxer who specialized in cancer treatments""as opposed to neurology""witnessed Mohr's operation and later death in the hospital. Curreri, who died in 1979, claimed a brain aneurysm""not the hit from Bartell""was the true cause of Mohr's death.
According to Moe's book, Curreri spoke to Walsh soon after the death. ""Don't blame this on boxing,"" he told Walsh. ""This was an aneurysm. It could have exploded at any time. It could have happened while he was blowing his nose.""
John Walsh, along with many others in the boxing community, stood by Curreri in the debate.
""[He] always insisted ‘no, Charlie didn't get hit that hard,'"" Moe said of Walsh's reactions to the match.
Despite this challenge from so many of boxing's loyal followers, Javid stands firm in his prognosis.
""This business of an aneurysm is really a foolish thing,"" he said. ""This guy died from a terrific injury to his brain ... he had no response of any kind. He never came out of this, he was completely comatose. A ruptured aneurysm had nothing to do with boxing.""
Instead, Javid suggests an alternative explanation for the controversy.
""I think they were trying to protect boxing,"" he said. ""So they raised the question of aneurysm.""
Despite the storm that arose following Mohr's tragic death, however, the accomplishments of the UW boxing program are still considered to be some of the greatest in the history of UW athletics.
""[The controversy around Charlie's death] is such a small part of the history of Wisconsin's boxing,"" Walsh said.
