Whatever hit Dick Katende, never to rise from the ‘canvas’ in his washroom, must have hit him below the belt.
In a 3am nightmare, Joyce Birungi, his love for the last 34 years, yelled for help. Katende was lying on the floor, gasping for breath.
Hassan Khalil, Katende’s childhood friend and fellow coach was far, Hussein KhaliI, a former teammate, was late. Katende’s body was lying in a pool of blood oozing from his head. The towering, jolly, flamboyant Katende, aged 56, had breathed his last Tuesday morning at his Naguru home.
A man of his own
Katende’s unique sense of style, stature made him a popular around the suburbs of Naguru, Kololo and Lugogo – you could not mistake him for anyone else. Baggy high-waist pants, shirts and a fedora, synonymous with Congolese musicians, was his trademark – he could only alter it with Kitenge suits. He moved with his briefcase, even if he was going to Kikuubo for his own business. He earned names like Kavimbo from boxers, cricketers and other sportsmen that admired his swag.
Yet it is the consistence on job as a national boxing coach between 1990-2007 and 2014-2015 which gave him a showroom for his flamboyance.
Katende begun coaching at early age of 26, when his teammates like John ‘Beast’ Mugabi, John Munduga, Vitalish Bbege, were enjoying their professional boxing careers. The injury he sustained on his right eye in one of his amateur fights finally put him out of action as a professional in 1985.
Final moments
On his last day, Monday, Katende inadvertently said good bye to Joseph Lubega, perhaps the most successful boxer of his era.
“We coincidentally met in Katwe, yesterday. We chatted as usual,” Lubega, a former national captain narrated. “He asked me about my next fight…he even checked my body with light punches and he told me ‘I know you’re always fit….”
“See you my son,” were Katende’s parting words. The next thing Lubega heard on Tuesday morning was the passing of his coach. “I couldn’t believe it. I thought my brother (Charles Ssemakalu) was joking until I got to Facebook to see posts everywhere…so sad.”
Lubega’s fondness for Katende dates back in 2002.
“I’ll forever cherish a man who gave me my first chance to board a plane,” said Lubega while referring to his 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
“He told me I trust you, you will beat those guys and bring a medal.” But it almost flopped. Lubega’s ‘rural-urban excitement’ saw him eat whatever came his way and before he knew, he was overweight and Katende was forthwith bitter with him.
“He accused me of being careless and undisciplined;” Lubega, a former WBC-International champion, recalls. “He persuaded officials that I fight as a light heavy, but he doubted I could manage.” The dividends was that silver medal and the two celebrated like they had never quarrelled before.
Bodyguard in Glasgow
Katende knew how to guard his job but he never denied anyone an interview. “He was the most cooperative coach. That’s why I never missed a boxing story,” recalls Sande Bashaija, our Olympics correspondent in Rio, during his time while covering the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. “He would tell me the developments in camp or text me even before I could ask.”
But the fondest memory: “There were reports that some boxers were planning to flee and stay in UK,” relives Bashaija.
“Dick made sure he moved with all his boxers to all corners of the Games Village including the dining hall. “I actually nicknamed him ‘bodyguard’ and we joked about it all the time.”
Two rugby players fled camp, but Katende the bodyguard, was relieved to return with all his boys.
Katende vs. Odokpira
If you have been to Katende’s training sessions, you should have noticed Swahili and English are his lingua.
I had always wondered Luganda was not his thing. Theories are many but Katende said: “I’m Dick Odokpira, an Acholi, but growing up in the Naguru Quarters, I had a childhood friend called Katende, with whom we shared a lot. Whenever his mother called him we could go together…and soon everyone started calling us the Katendes.”
You think Katende died too soon? Maybe not. In 1977, when the Acholi were an endangered tribe during President Idi Amin’s regime, Katende survived death by a whisker.
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