Listen to the evolution of the Rocky Statue
CLICK HERE to listen to the evolution of the Rocky Statue being placed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art narrated by A. Thomas Schomberg, the sculptor who created Rocky and James J. “Jimmy” Binns, who is responsible for placing the statue at its current location.
Philadelphia’s Own Jimmy Binns
By Norman Marcus on March 8, 2016
“I met Stallone when I was boxing commissioner. I met him at Bookbinder’s. He was making a new movie and asked me to be in it…”
“Jimmy’s a character straight out of a pulp-fiction novel.”
Fight fans from this city all know the name Binns. James J. Binns is not just a guy from the old working-class neighborhood of Mayfair. He is definitely an anachronism, something that shouldn’t be around anymore but still is for some inexplicable reason. Jimmy is seventy-six years old now and still going strong.
“He’s certainly a man among men. You would think he grew up in the hood somewhere, as opposed to his real background,” said Tom Welsh, assistant squash pro at the Philadelphia Racket Club. But that is the puzzle of Jimmy Binns. You can’t miss him on the street. He always wears a custom tailored Italian suit, slicked back white hair and a solid gold Rolex on his wrist. He seems to have his feet planted in two different worlds, one in the law, the other in the ring. Let’s take a closer look at this guy.
Young Binns learned to box while at La Salle College. His trainer was one Franny Venuti, at a gym on Passyunk Avenue in South Philly. Joey Giardello and Sonny Liston worked out there too. Jimmy had two years of training there as an amateur boxer. He must have taken the advice of Apollo Creed, “Stay in school…Use your brain…” He went to law school at Villanova University on the Main Line.
Jimmy will take on any kind of court case that challenges him. He specializes in anything and everything. For example, in 1981, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers needed a fighting lawyer for a nasty labor strike with then Mayor Bill Green. The grinding negotiations between the two sides went on for weeks, often twenty-four hours a day. In the end, the young mayor lost the strike on points. The union got the decision. Jimmy billed union president John Murray, for so many hours in that case, that he was able to buy a swank summer home in Margate, New Jersey. Neighbors jokingly call his shore house “The ’81 strike…” He gets along so well with the cops down there that he once dressed up like a Margate police officer for a parade, gun and all. He also has a full Philadelphia Police Highway Patrol uniform, including a .40 caliber Glock automatic. Somehow Binns also came up with his own Harley-Davidson Police package motorcycle, which he rode in Hero Thrill Shows for fallen police officers. He has gotten so much in the way of free bikes, motorcycles and horses for various police departments that the boys in blue sometimes look the other way when Jimmy steps over the line a bit.
Binns can get congressmen, senators and even some wise guys on the phone at a moment’s notice. I’m talking about characters like Al Dente, from Broad and Porter Streets in South Philly. Yeah, the real Al Dente, not the firm spaghetti!
As a lawyer Binns has won thirty-one straight cases for the World Boxing Organization. The names of the vanquished are familiar, Muhammad Ali, Tim Witherspoon, Evander Holyfield, Marvin Hagler, Top Rank, Don King, and Mike Tyson. Binns is ranked in the top five percent of Pennsylvania lawyers and was named a Super Lawyer by his peers at the Philadelphia Bar Association. He was inducted into the Pennsylvania Boxing Hall of Fame in 1984.
Judge Grants Bail For Accused “Rogue” Cop; Meanwhile, Defense Lawyers Sound Pretty Cocky About Their Guys Beating The Rap
By Ralph Cipriano
for Bigtrial.net
U.S. District Court Judge Eduardo C. Robreno let former Philadelphia Police Officer Michael Spicer out of jail this afternoon, setting bail at $175,000.
Read more at http://www.bigtrial.net/2014/08/judge-grants-bail-for-accused-rogue-cop.html#fycCsAf5ewB231OD.99
James Binns Sworn in at Darby Township Police Department
75-Year-Old Rookie Cop
James “Jimmy” Binns has had a successful career as an attorney, but the 75-year-old lawyer isn’t resting on his laurels. He is now part of the Darby Township Police force after graduating at the top of his class.
James Binns Sworn in at Darby Township Police Department
ANDREA GIRARD- Upper Darby Press
Photo Credit: Photos by John Murphy
Photo 1: Attorney and community leader Jimmy Binns, 74, was sworn in as police officer in the Darby Township Police Department Thursday evening. Here he is seen with the Honorable Penna. Supreme Court Justice Seamus P. McCaffrey and Binns’ son Jimmy and grandson Jimmy at the Darby Township Municipal Building in Glenolden, PA taking the official oath.
Photo 2: Jimmy Binns, who graduated at the top of his class from the Municipal Police Academy in December, officially was sworn in as a police officer in the Darby Township Police Department on Thursday evening. Binn’s friend Chubby Checker showed his support and attended the ceremony. Both are South Philly guys.
Binns completed the mandatory nearly 800-hour, 11-month program covering physical, psychological, criminal law and firearms training and testing. He is an inspiring longtime community role model and champion in the law enforcement community in the Delaware. Binns was the Pennsylvania Boxing Commissioner and also has appeared in Rocky and Rocky V.
He has been honored for his exemplary leadership, commitment and contributions to the law enforcement community and as a role model for 30,000 youngsters in local Learning for Life & Exploring programs.
Binns is the Chairman of the annual successful Hero Thrill Show in Philadelphia designed to raise money for the education of survivors of deceased police and fire personnel killed in the line of duty in Philadelphia. Binns also is founder of the Hero Cop Plaque and Hero Firefighters’ Plague programs memorializing fallen police and fire heroes killed in the line of duty, and CopWheels, an initiative to raise money for critical police equipment and vehicles in the Delaware Valley.
Location of event July 31st: Darby Township Municipal Building, 21 Bartram Ave. (Glenolden, PA), Delaware County
July 31, 2014