One suspects the priest possesses a rather nasty right hook which he will use when called upon. Just one glance from Fr. And, if you've ever heard him at ringside barking out directions to his student athletes, that majestic voice takes on more than a hint of the drillmaster. His boxers love him and are devoted to his instruction. Teaching young men how to fight has a pastoral function for the London-born priest.
Many people believe that young men are almost intractably and negatively competitive by nature.
The challenge, however, is to re-channel their natural aggressiveness in a positive manner. Pat has been a priest for 34 years. The son of a doctor, he used to go on rounds with his father at a time when physicians did that sort of thing. The young Pat Egan grew up near Wembly Stadium in northwest London. He attended a Jesuit-run high school, where he first learned about boxing.