Promising Philly boxing prospect was killed in a hit-and-run on this week in Philly history
Andre "Thee" Prophet was 20 years old when he died in a North Philadelphia crash on Aug. 13, 1988.
He was a puncher with potential.
By the late summer of 1988, Andre “Thee” Prophet was 20 years old and undefeated with 12 wins — 10 by knockout.
Prognosticators saw him as Philadelphia’s next world champion.
“He was the best puncher to come out of Philly in a while,” promoter J Russell Peltz told the Daily News.
Prophet “was the guy who was going to revive Philadelphia boxing on a big scale,” Peltz added.
And then a little before 5:30 a.m. on Aug. 13, his bright future ended on a North Philly street.
Promising fighter
His story began where it ended.
He grew up with his mother on the 2400 block of North Colorado Street, dodging drug dealers and searching for outlets.
He found boxing at 12, and a gym at 16.
“He would talk to the guys in the neighborhood,” his cousin Pamela Prophet said days after his death, “and believe it or not, a couple of them left drugs alone because of him.”
The fighter started as a light heavyweight, but his trainers believed they could beef up his 6-foot-3 frame. He built himself into a cruiserweight. Next was planned to be heavyweight.
His manager, Scott Kendall, saw Joe Frazier’s power mixed with Muhammad Ali’s speed.
“I really believe that these kind of guys come along every five or 10 years,” Kendall said.
The goal was for him to eventually challenge then-champion Mike Tyson, considered by many to be one of the sport’s greatest heavyweight champions.
In his last fight, on July 28, Prophet scored a third-round knockout over Melvin Ricks.
His next fight was scheduled for September, and he was planning to return to training on Aug. 13.
Around 5:20 that morning, Prophet was riding a friend’s 1988 Kawasaki motorcycle, heading west on York Street near 22nd Street.
A 19-year-old lady friend, Tres Kelly, sat behind him.
The intersection was only a few blocks away from his mother’s house.
Fallen Prophet
A driver in a 1983 Buick Riviera was heading south on 22nd Street and struck the motorcycle.
The bike was thrown to the southeast corner of the intersection.
The car sped away.
Police found the Buick, abandoned, a few blocks away. Its driver was never publicly identified.
Both Prophet and Kelly were pronounced dead at the scene.
“We believed that he could be a champion,” Prophet’s mother, Diane Walker, told the Daily News, “we all felt it.”