Thomas Hayes could knock you out with a punch or an act of kindness. The former heavyweight boxer from the South Side deployed the “peek-a-boo” boxing style made famous by Mike Tyson.
Mr. Hayes, whose pro record was 26-2, even traveled to New York to train under Kevin Rooney, Tyson’s former trainer. He was known for his punching strength and iron chin, a combination that made it challenging to find opponents who’d fight him.
Mr. Hayes died March 13 following a car accident on the South Side. He was 43.
Veronica Hayes, his wife, said she’ll also remember him for his kindness.
One time, he asked her to buy him some Carhartt coveralls that he could wear when he helped stranded drivers in the winter.
“I used to tell him, ‘You’re going to get kidnapped one day,’ ” she said. “Because, if he sees someone on the side of the road, he’s doing everything he can to change a tire or help someone get gas.”
He’d order dozens of cheeseburgers from McDonald’s and drive around the South Side to pass them out to people in need, according to his wife, who said he’d also bring sandwiches and blankets to people living on the street on Lower Wacker Drive downtown.
“These were things we used to just randomly do,” she said. “He was always up to help. Always.”
Mr. Hayes was born March, 16, 1981, and grew near 98th and Halsted streets. Domestic violence and poverty were a part of his life, according to his family and friends. Street violence claimed the life of his older brother, Buckie Hayes.
He was raised by his mother, Marlene Hayes, who died in 2023. She doted over him when she could, friends said.
Mr. Hayes attended Leo High School, where he was a football standout.
“He didn’t have much, but he came every day with an attitude like ‘OK, this is my opportunity to get out of my situation, but also I’m going to help everyone I can,” and he did that through his actions more than words,” said his former football coach Michael Holmes. “He could have easily been a bully or the baddest dude in the building. But he never came off like that. It was always: ‘What can I do for you, Coach, to help the team, to help the school?’ He was just special like that.”
During his junior year, Mr. Hayes was sitting on a mailbox outside the school when gunfire from down the block hit him, wounding him in a shoulder, derailing his hopes to play Big 10 college football.
While at Leo, he also began boxing, training with Mike Joyce, who directed the school’s boxing program.
After graduating in 1999, Mr. Hayes played football at Joliet Junior College and later got a degree in criminal justice from Chicago State University.
Mr. Hayes became a Golden Gloves champion after winning a bout held in the gym at St. Andrew Catholic School in Lake View in 2001.
“He never judged people by anything other than character, and he was strict with his own character,” said Dave McGrew, who played junior college football with Mr. Hayes and is now a Chicago police sergeant.
In his 20s, Mr. Hayes began to focus on boxing while working as a clerk in the Cook County state’s attorney’s office’s juvenile division.
Joyce, a lawyer with a passion for boxing, became his boxing manager and helped connect Mr. Hayes with Tyson’s former trainer in New York.
His biggest success in the ring came in 2003, when he beat the then-undefeated Chris Koval in a fight televised on ESPN.
His career tapered off after losing in 2007 to the undefeated fighter Chris Arreola.
He had one more fight after that but retired due to shoulder problems and soon found a new way to share his passion as the head of the Chicago Park District’s youth boxing program — a job he held for more than a decade.
He also regularly returned to Leo High School to talk with kids about overcoming challenges and to help with the boxing program.
“He’s a really really towering figure here,” said Dan McGrath, Leo’s president. “He really came from a rough upbringing. And, to straighten himself out and give back, we have the highest regard for him.”
Mr. Hayes was working as a security guard at an event at the Art Institute of Chicago when he met his future wife, who also was working security for the museum. For their first date, he took her horseback riding.
He became a father 10 years ago and put his energies into trying to provide his three kids with everything he didn’t have growing up.
“Everything for him always began with love, and that’s what our kids know because that’s what they saw, they never saw arguments or nastiness,” Veronica Hayes said. “It was hugging and kissing and playing around and random dance parties in the kitchen.”
He moved his family to Arizona because he wanted a safer environment for them.
Mr. Hayes recently had been working as a security guard and training Chicago cops in boxing for the Battle of the Badges, an annual event in which police officers and firefighters square off for charity.
He also was about to enter the police academy to work as a police officer in Chicago Heights.His plan was to get experience in law enforcement and eventually work for a police department in Arizona and be with his family again.
“My mama joked that God probably called him home because he needed somebody strong to move something in heaven,” his wife said.
Mr. Hayes also is survived by sons Thomas Hayes Jr. and Michael, daughter Carla, his father Carlos Hayes and siblings DeAndre Hayes and Lyretta Abushanab.
Services have been held.