There cannot be a more-fitting individual to speak about the late Grace Peter Sseruwagi, than Ayub Kalule, a former world champion and protege, who hit his peak under the tutelage of the fallen Uganda’s celebrated coach.
Rated as Uganda’s finest boxing coach, Sseruwagi died on February 6 from diabetes at Nsambya hospital. He was 87 years old.
As an active pugilist, Sseruwagi had an illustrious ring career that included competing at the (1960) Olympics, (1958) Commonwealth Games and stopping former president Idi Amin during his budding days as a heavyweight boxer in the 1950s.
Amin famously (infamously) avenged that defeat when he knocked Sseruwagi out as president in a mock bout in 1975. The defeat to Amin, however, cannot overshadow Sseruwagi’s coaching success. A strict disciplinarian, Sseruwagi engineered and oversaw Uganda’s boxing golden era, which spanned from the 1960s to the early 1980s.
He earned the country several medals from reputed international events such as All Africa Games, Commonwealth Games, Aiba World Championships and Olympics.
Kalule, the 1974 World Champion, was one of the stars of the golden generation and has fond memories of Sseruwagi’s reign.
“He was not only a coach to us but also a father figure because most of the time he ensured we behave well outside the boxing ring,” Kalule said of his former coach in an interview on February 12.
Having joined the national team as a 17-year-old from the Intermediates, Kalule recalled how Sseruwagi used to allow national team boxers go out on weekends to cinema but with strict orders not to come back drunk.
Sseruwagi never tolerated late coming. “He was always punctual in everything he did,” recalls Kalule, who once had an argument with the coach over his big appetite.
Apparently, Kalule, who had joined the national team as a bantamweight, soon he graduated into featherweight but struggled to maintain the weight, prompting Sseruwagi to limit the pugilist on the amount of food he eats.
Kalule threatened to quit camp but Sseruwagi allowed the youngster to serve as much, boosting his punching power as he paved his way into the lightweight category. The decision proved a masterstroke as Kalule went on to clinch the gold at the 1973 All Africa Games and a year later, he was crowned world champion.
Sseruwagi was laid to rest on February 10 in his ancestral village on Bukasa island, Kalangala district in Lake Victoria. He is survived by 14 children and two wives.
Despite his immense sporting contribution to the country, Sseruwagi died a sad man. Efforts to reward him had not materialized by the time of his death. After retiring from national team coaching duty in 1994, he settled in Mityana where he practiced subsistence farming.
mugalu@observer.ug