‘I’m grateful for everything.’ A summer heart attack has reminded Spokane boxing trainer Rick Welliver to relish friendships

Few people know the value of second chances better than Rick Welliver.

For years, Welliver has provided plenty of them from his boxing gym in downtown Spokane. But this time he was on the receiving end – an outpouring of love and generosity following his heart attack last summer.

“Everything seems a little cooler, a little better now, because I’m alive,” Welliver said last week. “I’m grateful for everything.

“But it’s the friendships that mean more than anything. People reaching out, and my ex-fighters telling me what I meant to them.”

Friends also reached out with financial help for Welliver, who lacked health insurance. Personal donations and a GoFundMe effort have made a big dent in his $80,000 medical bill.

“We haven’t even cut it in half, but we will,” said Welliver, who made it clear that money was hardly his priority. During a coffee shop interview a couple of blocks from his Spokane Boxing Gym, he pondered the near-death experience of a heart attack but also ahead to what he hopes will be a brighter future for downtown and its homeless.

“For my boxers and this town, I want to do more,” said Welliver, who recently was named by Spokane Mayor-elect Lisa Brown to be part of a committee focusing on homelessness.

A few months ago, the 50-year-old Welliver couldn’t even get out of bed.

Last June in Milwaukee, he joined friends for a weekend of music – Willie Nelson, John Fogerty and Robert Plant.

Prior to the concert, Welliver complained of heartburn.

He felt better after a meal, “but then it got super intense,” said Welliver, who experienced periods of elevated heartbeat before deciding to take a nap. Instead, one of his friends insisted on a trip to the hospital – good thing, because doctors found a blockage that may have formed at childhood.

“I do remember thinking that this is what death must feel like,” said Welliver, who spent the next few days recovering and pondering the past and future.

At once, he experienced mixed emotions of fatalism and determination.

“Hitting 50, I didn’t think I was going to live this long anyway,” said Welliver, who recalled the premature deaths of his father and several uncles.

“But when you feel what I felt in the hospital, you start thinking about the future,” Welliver said.

In the short term, that meant trying to pay his medical bills. Friends and businesses quickly chipped in Perry Street Brewery held a fundraiser, while friend Erin Johnson sponsored a GoFundMe account that has raised almost $10,000.

More than charity, they emulated Welliver himself.

Raised in Hillyard on a diet of “government cheese” following his parents’ divorce, Welliver found confidence and self-respect in the ring. Fighting professionally as a 185-pound cruiserweight, he had a record of 12 wins, five defeats and one draw.

Retirement brought a void that was only filled when Welliver stepped back in the ring as a coach.

Spokane Boxing sits on the ground floor of a 115-year-old building in a downtown neighborhood that’s slowly finding new life – much like the folks in Welliver’s gym.

Located at 115 S. Jefferson Street, the facility is straight out of “Rocky,” with exposed brick, high ceilings and weathered hardwood floors. Old boxing posters line the walls. In a nod to fractured times, a “Black Lives Matter” flag hangs a few feet from a “Blue Lives Matter” banner.

Late on a Monday afternoon, about 20 people are warming up. They come from all walks, and some had to walk to get to Welliver’s gym. One of them rode his bike from Airway Heights.

Some are looking for that second chance.

“Suddenly, you have a trophy in your hand, you’re somebody,” Welliver said of his youth. “And at that moment I was somebody. To give that feeling of pride and inclusion to another person is really why I do this.”

Moving recently from the South Perry neighborhood, Welliver now lives in an apartment a block from his gym.

This year, Welliver’s sights have expanded beyond the ring, or even the immediate neighborhood.

Like many in Spokane, he’s frustrated by the city’s homeless crisis. On the two-block walk from the coffee shop to the gym, he passed a pair of upscale clothing stores.

Suddenly, an older man staggers onto traffic on Madison Street. He’s disheveled and speaking loudly to himself, drawing a sympathetic reaction from Welliver.

“There may be just a pill that guy is lacking,” Welliver said.

Quickening his pace toward the gym on a frigid afternoon, he warms to the topic of homelessness. While conceding that there are no easy answers, Welliver said he’s certain the city can do better.

“Our city is failing its youth and the homeless and mentally ill,” said Welliver, who sees the results first – and as people camp overnight in the alley south of the gym.

“More than anything, I want to do more,” Welliver said.