Through the James P. Shuler Memorial Boxing Gym, Percy “Buster” Custis honors the memory of a friend while providing the community with a safe space.
From left to right: State Rep. Amen Brown, Darryl Shuler (brother of the late James Shuler) and Percy “Buster” Custus, founder and owner of the James Shuler Memorial Boxing Gym located on 750 Brooklyn Street in West Philadelphia.
Photo: Chris Murray
By Chris Murray
For the Philadelphia Sunday SUN
If you want to get an idea of how beloved Percy “Buster” Custus, the owner of the James P. Shuler Memorial Boxing Gym is in West Philadelphia, the 700 block of Brooklyn Street near 42nd and Lancaster was blocked off last Saturday, not only to witness the city’s best young and upcoming amateur boxers fight in an outdoor ring but also to celebrate the 30th anniversary of a community institution that has been a haven for both children and adults.
The boxing matches featured children aged 8 to 21 and the audience included current champions like International Boxing Federation world welterweight Jaron “Boots” Ennis, who had a few of his family members participating in the festivities, recent champions such as Stephen Fulton, and former champions like Tim Witherspoon.
The outdoor boxing matches celebrated Percy Custus’ commitment to his community and the sport of boxing over the last 30 years.
“I’m so proud of Percy because he persevered when many of the other fellows that dropped out of the game or were pushed out by the white gyms,” said Vernoca Michael, former owner of the legendary Blue Horizon boxing hall and the first African American woman to be a boxing promoter.
“He’s not only helping this community, but he is helping boxing, in general, because he has produced a lot of good, wonderful fighters. But he has also worked with young people to develop character and strive for excellence,” Michael said.
When Custus formed Shuler’s gym in 1994, he wanted a place to protect and build the self-confidence of a community that has been under constant attack by the bullies of crime and drugs.
“I dreamt on it, I prayed on it and then something said it was the discipline because when I went into boxing,” Custus said. “It taught me a lot of discipline, so I transferred that over and so they built a gym for me.”
Over the last 30 years, the gym has been like manna from heaven for a community that needs it while being a training center for elite professional boxers. Custus ‘s gym has been so successful that he was inducted into the Pennsylvania Boxing Hall of Fame in 2017.
“Being a part of this legacy is special to me because we’re able to build some relationships with so many people” said Crystal Custus, Percy’s eldest daughter.
“Just watching individuals overcome certain levels of mental toughness, physical toughness, and levels of stress and how to handle life. I always look at boxing as a metaphor for life, so if you can handle boxing, you can handle anything,” she continued.
In 30 years, the James P. Shuler Memorial has seen some of the world’s best boxers and trainers. World champion boxers like Bernard Hopkins, Steve “USS” Cunningham, Stephen Fulton, Julian “J-Rock” Williams, and renowned trainers like Brother Naazim Richardson have sharpened their skills there.
Through it all, Custus’ chief concern was always keeping young people from going down the wrong path and understanding that they can choose to better themselves.
“I think this is good because when you don’t have peer pressure, you can go to school. You can refuse to do cocaine, you can refuse to do (marijuana), You can refuse to smoke cigarettes because you know within you, you’ll fight for what you want,” Percy Custus said.
Custus said that his love for boxing and his good friend James Shuler, who was a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Boxing team, inspired him to create the gym. During his pro career as a boxer, Shuler was 22-1 and was coming off a loss to Thomas “Hitman” Hearns before he died in a tragic motorcycle accident in 1986.
“(Shuler) was just a good person and he deserved to be known,” Custus said. “He used to always help people do good things. He was always positive, he had one girlfriend. All we did was run.”
When she was on my radio show on WURD last week, Crystal Custus talked about how the gym has served as a place where young people can develop life skills.
“It means that we can get the young folks that come through the gym, not only a safe haven but a place where they can build relationships,” she said.
“A lot of kids don’t know how to do that today,” she continued. “They usually have their heads down on their phones or their video games. … They get to build camaraderie. They get to build relationships not just with people their age but with older guys. It’s phenomenal to watch. The kids came in and two days later, they got confidence. … My dad set the tone for that. He set the tone to say that this is going to be a family environment. We’re in this together.”
Crystal Custus said Shuler’s gym over the years has been a place for adults who are not training to be professional boxers, but also as a place for physical fitness and to relieve stress, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Through COVID we weren’t supposed to be open. People were so distraught about what was going on that they would come and say, ‘Can I just come in and punch on a bag? I just need to relieve some stress,” she said.
Boxing is not the only thing that goes on at the James P. Shuler Memorial Boxing Gym. While boxing is going on upstairs, the gym also houses the Custus Daycare Academy, run by Percy’s daughter Jasmine, which operates on the bottom floor.
This is yet another example of Percy Custus’s concern for his neighborhood in West Philadelphia.
“A lot of things that I do is God-inspired,” he said. “I do a lot of things. I don’t that I’m doing it. God just inspires me to do things a different way.”
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