F.X. Toole

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F.X. Toole is the pen name of boxing trainer Jerry Boyd (1930 — September 2, 2002). Toole is most noted for writing the collection of short stories Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner, which were adapted in to the movie, Million Dollar Baby in 2004. Directed by Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby won numerous awards across the world, to include the Academy Award for Best Picture. Million Dollar Baby also garnered Eastwood an Oscar for Best Director. Other Oscar wins for the movie included a Best Supporting Oscar for Morgan Freeman, with Hillary Swank taking home the Oscar for Best Actress. F.X. Toole's posthumous novel Pound for Pound was released in 2006 to rave reviews. “Cutman,” a one-hour dramatic series set in the world of boxing, drawn from short stories by F.X. Toole, is in development by AMC Television.

Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner is dedicated to Dub Huntley, the man who introduced Boyd to boxing, and many of the characters and events related in the book are from Dub Huntley's life and experience. Huntley trained Boyd to box when Boyd was in his 40's and the two became friends during that time. Immediately before his death, Boyd was acting as a cutman and assistant trainer to Huntley with female professional boxer Juli Crockett, who Huntley told Sports Illustrated in an interview was the basis for the characterization of the character, Maggie Fitzgerald, in Million Dollar Baby.