Date: June 11, 1982.

Time: Early evening

Place: My uncle’s house.

Significance: Seeing my first live fight card on a satellite dish.

When it comes to electronics, my father’s brother is a genius. Ask him any question about any gizmo and he’ll likely have an intelligent answer. He was the one who introduced me to amateur radio and inspired me to get my novice license at age 17 (I still have it, but I haven’t been on the air for decades). He also was the first in his area to get a C-band satellite dish, which, in those days before descramblers and “black boxes,” allowed him to access raw feeds from around the globe with an astonishingly crystal-clear picture.

My uncle learned that the Larry Holmes-Gerry Cooney fight was going to be uplinked, so earlier in the week he invited me and my dad to the fight party. As soon as we finished dinner, Dad and I hopped into his Jeep and arrived at the house about a half-hour before the 7 p.m. start.

Since he was the only person to have a dish – and because Holmes-Cooney was such a giant attraction – nearly two dozen of his neighbors crowded inside the living room to watch the festivities. I was one of the few in the room who paid attention to the undercard fights (Trevor Berbick’s upset win over Greg Page and Wilfredo Gomez’s 10th round TKO over Juan Antonio Lopez). But when Holmes and Cooney stepped between the ropes everyone was riveted.

Almost everybody was cheering for Cooney. As for me, I wanted to see a great fight but I was intensely curious to see what would happen if Cooney landed his massive hook. Aside from an extremely low hook that cost Cooney two points, I never really got an answer.

For someone who was coming off a 13-month layoff against a prime Holmes, Cooney fought remarkably well. It wasn’t enough, however, and most drove home disappointed. Not me, though. I was thrilled to see an entire evening of boxing with people who – at least temporarily – shared my enthusiasm. It also planted a seed, for 18 months later our family bought our own dish. Thankfully, my uncle was the one who installed it for us.

Guess what the very first image on our new dish was? You guess it: HBO’s replay of Marvelous Marvin Hagler’s win over Roberto Duran.