For decades, Bobby Crabtree’s days have followed a familiar routine: work at his longtime body shop, then head to the gym. On July 21, that routine will pause briefly as the City of Fort Smith honors the former professional boxer with a street naming ceremony at 1110 S. 12th St.
The event begins at 1 p.m. with food from JC’s Bar-B-Q Place, followed by the street unveiling at about 2:30 p.m.
“We want to invite all of Fort Smith, Van Buren, to the Arkansas River Valley and Oklahoma,” Crabtree said. “They all supported us for years as we traveled this journey.”
Crabtree is being honored by the City of Fort Smith for a 20-year professional boxing career and for operating his auto body shop at the same location for nearly four decades, including years when he balanced the business with training and traveling for fights.
His daily routine has changed little over the years. Crabtree spends his days at his longtime auto body shop before heading to the gym, where he alternates between weight training and working on his boxing skills.
That same discipline carried him through a 20-year professional boxing career while operating his one-man body shop on Towson Avenue, often closing the business for a week at a time when fights took him on the road.
“I did it all the time,” Crabtree said. “I would close up shop if I had to go off for a while, for a week or something. People always knew I was doing that, so they gave me a little break sometimes.”
Crabtree grew up in Lavaca and admits he was headed down the wrong path. After being suspended from school in the eighth grade for fighting, his father put him to work learning the auto body trade.
Even then, Crabtree said, fights remained a regular part of his life.
“I used to go to the bars with my brothers and get into fights,” he said.
A chance encounter with Fort Smith police officer Bob Ross, however, changed everything.
“He was the influence,” Crabtree said. “I was heading down a bad street, and he was the one who got me to work out.”
Ross, along with Bob Fields, introduced Crabtree to boxing.
“They both got me into the boxing-fighting game. So I’ve stayed with it ever since,” Crabtree said. “Working out was the main key. If it wasn’t for Bob Ross, I might have wound up in the penitentiary. So Ross and Fields got a hold of me and got me out of all that stuff.”
Crabtree said boxing taught him the self-discipline to balance a professional fighting career with running his body shop.
“I’m a loner. I like to work out by myself, which a lot of people won’t do,” Crabtree said. “You’ve got to have self-discipline. If you’re going to play the game, you’ve got to work on it.”
Crabtree compiled a 56-35-1 professional record with 51 knockouts. His career took him across North America, from Alberta to California, Washington to Florida and dozens of cities in between, but he always returned home to Fort Smith.
Along the way, he shared the ring with some of boxing’s biggest names, including George Foreman, Michael Moorer, Trevor Berbick, Tony Tucker, James “Quick” Tillis, and Andrew Golota.
“Joe Fraiser wanted me at one time to go to his training camp, but you know, this is my home,” Crabtree said. “I like it here. If you like home, you know you want to stay. You got a family, you know got to take care of them too. All my friends are here. Everybody I know is here. Between Van Buren, Fort Smith, and the area around them, you can’t live anywhere else any better than this.”
The following morning after the ceremony, Crabtree will do what he’s done for decades, unlock the body shop, put in a day’s work, then head to the gym.
This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Fort Smith honors boxing legend Bobby Crabtree with street name
