Norm Frauenheim
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Norm Frauenheim (born c. 1950) is a sports writer from Arizona. Frauenheim has a weekly boxing column at The Arizona Republic. Apart from his duties as boxing writer, he also reports on Phoenix Suns NBA basketball games, going to every Suns game throughout the NBA season, and he works on NCAA basketball games. One of his NCAA basketball game reports garnered him an award.
Frauenheim is, however, best known for his boxing articles work. With his column, he has helped Arizonan boxing fans familiarize with boxers such as Johnny Tapia, Fernando Vargas, Danny Romero and many other non Arizonan residents. He was also important in developing a fan base for local fighters like the then amateur prospect Michael Carbajal and Yvonne Trevino. He has recently worked comlumns on the careers of Phoenix residents Jesus Gonzales, Vassiliy Jirov, and Jose Miguel Cotto, who is Puerto Rican.
In 1998, Frauenheim was one of the first boxing beat writers in Arizona to announce that Mike Tyson had moved there.
Frauenheim was one of the first writers to note that Julio César Chávez allegedly left Phoenix without taking a urine drug test for the Arizona State Boxing Commission after his 2000 bout with Kostya Tszyu. On another one of his columns, this time published on February 1, 2005, he called local trainer Joe Diaz "volatile".
Frauenheim won the first place award in 2000 from the Arizona Press Club in the category "Sports Deadline Reporting" and the second place award in the same category. Both awards were related to his work as a special reporter for the Republic at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.
In 2003, he won the second place award in the same category for his article titled "Arizona humilliated by LSU". He also earned the third place on the "Sports enterprise reporting under 1,000 words" category for his article named "de la Hoya set for defining fight".
That same year, he was named, alongside 35 other boxing reporters from across the nation, to vote on a proposition by New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer. The proposition would have caused a series of measures towards protecting boxers fighting in the United States. The panel also included Larry Merchant, Wallace Matthews and International Boxing Hall of Fame member, writer Bill Gallo.
Frauenheim is frequently seen at press conferences held before fights in Arizona. He informs his readers when this press conferences are free for the public to attend, or when a boxer will have a public workout, so that boxing fans can meet their favorite boxers. He is also sent frequently to Los Angeles and Las Vegas to cover large boxing events for the Arizona Republic.
