LEWISTON – Like a tired fighter, the peeling white landmark teetered in place as Bruce Pinette tried to free it from the ground.
“Joey, you’re heavy,” Pinette said, giving the 300-pound sign a heave and lowering it until it lay flat. Breathing heavily, Pinette stared down for a moment at the smiling image of Joey Gamache.
“The champ was tough to bring down,” Pinette said.
The Route 202 sign, celebrating the Lewiston native and two-time world champion, was erected in Pinette’s yard 13 years ago.
“The lawn will look naked without it,” said Pinette, who dug up the sign Tuesday with the help of his grandson, Tyler Richard.
They hope another will one day take its place.
Nothing’s certain, though.
Pinette, a longtime friend of Gamache, erected the sign on his lawn in 1992, after city leaders squabbled about how best to honor the local boxer.
When leaders failed to put up a sign, family, friends and fans went to work. They built it. Local singer Nick Knowlton painted it. And Pinette, who lives near the Lewiston-Greene line, offered his yard.
“We just wanted to honor what Joey did,” he said.
It wasn’t only the two boxing titles. Pinette has known Gamache for decades. As a kid, Joey hung out with Pinette’s grandsons, Tyler and Nick Richard. And when he achieved some fame, Joey gave a hand to Nick, who has a disability that put him in a wheelchair.
For all these years, Pinette never minded having the sign in front of his house, he said.
People would stop and take pictures. Boxing fans from Boston and New York would knock on the door for permission, sometimes enlisting Pinette to take their photos in front of the sign.
That all ended Tuesday.
Pinette sold the house. He’s moving to Greene. And the new owner doesn’t want the sign.
It will go to Joey’s dad, Joe Gamache Sr. The proud father hopes another can be made and erected somewhere else in Lewiston. After all, Joey won championships in both junior lightweight and lightweight classes. He retired from boxing in 2000.
“He’s the only Maine-born world champion ever,” Gamache Sr. said.
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