Thursday, September 29, 2011

HALL OF FAME - WESTERN CANADIAN BOXING

THE HALL OF FAME and CANDIAN BOXERS & BUILDERS"
by Brian Zelley

From coast to coast and on and International basis, some of the
many folks that have been involved in amateur or professional
boxing have been inducted into one or more halls of fame.

BRITISH COLUMBIA
As of September 2011, only seven of the thousands of  folks
 that have been  involved in boxing have been inducted
into the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame:
Jimmy McLarnin, Billy Townsend, Tommy Paonessa,
Harold Mann, Bert Lowes, Dale and Lennie Walters.


                                           BERT LOWES - BUILDER
                             DALE WALTERS  and LENNIE WALTERS

British Columbia Amateur Boxing Hall of Fame:
As of  September 1, 2011 there are 25 inductees in the 
BC Amateur Boxing Hall of Fame:
from Alan Brown (Junior & Youth Boxing)
to the 
1967 International Centennial
 Diamond  Belt Championships 

                  Six of 15 Inducted in 2010 - members of the core group
                        Freddy Fuller -  Eddie Haddad - Frank Scott
                          Dale Walters -  Dick Findlay - Fred Desrosiers

ALBERTA
As of September 2011, there are 29 boxing folk inducted into the
Alberta Sports Hall of Fame.  Some of the 29 include:
Allan Ford, Bill McGrandle, Kai Yip, Paul Hortie,
Scotty Olson, Wilf Greaves and Willie deWit
                                              SCOTTY (Bulldog) OLSON
                                                     WILF GREAVES


SASKATCHEWAN


A few of the names from Saskatchewan boxing inducted
in the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame are:
Adam Faul, Ken Goff, and Hank Hartenberger.


                                HANK HARTENBERGER and BOXERS
                                     Soo Line Boxing Club, Weyburn, Sask.
                               (reprint from the BC Amateur Boxing News  - b. zelley, editor)


MANITOBA
Some of the names of inductees in the 
Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame are:
Charlie Belanger, Eddie Haddad, Frankie Battaglia,
Herb Embuldeniya and Steve Trojack.


Cities, Municipalities and Town Sports Halls:
Throughout the various Provinces, there are alos
numerous Municipal Sports Halls of Fame such as
Prince George, Burnaby, Nanaimo and Greater Victoria


In Prince George, one of the boxers inducted is JACK MEDA
                           Along with Jack Meda, some other names are
                                      Sid McKnight, Harold Mann, 


In Greater Victoria, there is boxer Eddie Haddad and builder Mike Caird
                             IAN WEIR - MIKE CAIRD - BRIAN ZELLEY
                            .1974 photo from the "Victorian" by Jim Ryan
                       used in a Patty Pitts story about the revival of boxing 
also named in the article as one of the persons helping with the revival 
was "Dynamite" Dan Wright.  Wright along with Zelley also started the
revival of boxing with the formation of the Nanaimo Boxing Club 1971.


(Ian Weir was from Saskatchewan and can be seen in the photo with
Saskatchewan Hall of Famer, Hank Hartenberger of the 
Soo Line Boxing Club, Weyburn)





Tuesday, September 27, 2011

JOHNNY COULON, Canadian Born boxing champion

JOHNNY COULON (1899 - 1973):  by Brian Zelley

Looking back, it has been some time since reading about Johnny Coulohn.
Johnny was born in Toronto and died in Chicago and was a former
bantamweight boxing champion.

Johnny also operated a boxing gym in Chicago called Coulon's Gym.
And, was a manager of former jr. welterweight champ Eddie Perkins.
                          EDDIE PERKINS - Jr. Welterweight Champion

Sunday, September 18, 2011

CANADIAN BOXERS 1979

CANADIAN BOXERS 1979 and 1980: by brian zelley

Trevor BERBICK, Jean guy BINETTE Frank BULLARD, Wayne CAPLETTE,
Albert and Jim CHARD, Arthur CLARK, Chris CLARKE, Pat CUILLO,
Cleveland DENNY,  Kim EDWARDS, Barry EMO,
Jean Yves FILION,  Charles FINDLEY, Nick FURLANO, Ron FURLOW,
Gary GIRISH, Jimmy GRADSON, Clyde GRAY,Lawrence HAFEY,
Ralph HOLLETT,  Gary HUNTER, Lancelot INNLES, Terry JESMER,
Don JOHNSON, Goodwin JOSEPHS, John KUBINEC,  Jean LAPOINTE,
Jean LE CLAIR, Earl McLEAY, ron ROUSSELL, Raymont ROUSELOT,
Danny STOKES, Gary and Johnny SUMMERHAYES,  Alain TURENNE,
Dave VENT and Ron WILSON.

RON WILSON made his mark in amateur boxing in British Columbia in 1967
He turned pro and headed south, and at one time he was joined by
6666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666and Steve sent me the original documentation which covers a lot of boxing in
the Fifties and some pro boxing post 1958 and names such as Dave Brown,
Bert Lowes, Lindy Lindmoser, Harold Mann, Kai Yip and many others.
RON WILSON was a member of the South Burnaby Boxing Club along
with coaches HARRY TWIST and JOHNNY PHILLIPS,  Some well known
boxers that are alumni of the club include Freddy Fuller, Frank and Keith Scott. 
                                            Donato Paduano

CANADIAN BOXERS 1971

NAMES ON THE WALL of 1971 and 1972:  by brian zelley

Canadian Boxers in the Game during the early Seventies

Luigi APRILE,  Carl, Frank and Walter ARSENAULT,  Paride BALDASSARE,
John BARIL, Al BASHIR,  Andre BEAUBIEN, Ernie BIGNEY, Bob BOZIC
Leslie and Joe BORDEN, Raymond BOUCHARD, Don BOULTER,
Gary BROUGHTON, Levi BROWN, Ron BRYDEN, Clement BUREAU,
Jackie BURKE, Marshall BUTLER, Charlie CHASE, Ray CHRISTIAN,
Ray DOIRON,Vic DOUCETTE, Tony DOWLING,
Bill DROVER, Fernand,  Joey and Rene DURELLE, Gary FALLS,
Colin FRASER, Gay GAGNON, Marc GERVAIS, Les GILLIS,
Michel GODIN, Stu GRAY, Art and Lawrence HAFEY,  David HILTON,
Jo Jo JACKSON,  Jimmy MCGOWAN,  Billy MCGRANDLE,
Earl MCLEAY,


Gary MCNEIL Rocky MACDOUGALL,  Gary MACLEAN, Jim MALLISH,
Fernand MARCOTTE, Leo NOEL, Jack OAKLEY, Donato PADUANO,
Don ROSS, Kalman SANTOSI,  Barry SPONAGLE, Lonnie STATES,
Gary, Johnny and Terry SUMMERHAYS, Les Vegas,  Bobby WOODS,

GEORGE CHUVALO - CLYDE GRAY - AL FORD -

JANUARY 1972, PACIFIC COLOSEUM, VANCOUVER, BC
Main Event:   George Chuvalo vs Charley Chase
Semi-Main:    Clyde Gray vs Lonnie States

MAY 1 1972,  PACIFIC COLOSEUM, VANCOUVER, BC
Main Event:  MUHAMMAD ALI vs GEORGE CHUVALO
Semi Main:    CLYDE GRAY vs MANUEL GONZALEZ
In the undercard, Jimmy Nobody faced Les Vegas and 
Tom Burns faced Leslie Borden. 


GEORGE CHUVALO
                                                 CLYDE GRAY

Friday, September 16, 2011

CANUCK CLOUTERS, LANGFORD, WALLS, CHUVALO, DURELLE

CANADIAN BOXERS by brian zelley
From Sam Langford to George Chuvalo and
the heavyweights,  Yvon Durelle and the
light-heavyweights.  

CANADIAN BOXERS, welterweights and middleweights

CANADIAN BOXERS
- Welterweights and Middleweights -
By Brian W. Zelley
                                                    CLYDE GRAY and WILFIE GREAVES


The Long Road of Excellence
On the world stage we have seen the likes of:
Jimmy McLarnin, Lou Brouillard and Arturo Gatti.
But, along the way, there have been countless good
welterweight and middleweight Canadian boxers.
Some of the names:
TOWNSEND,   GRAY and GREAVES

CANADIAN BOXERS - FLYWEIGHTS TO LIGHTWEIGHTS

THE CANADIAN BOXING STORY
  -  Flywights to Lightweights -
- By Brian W. Zelley

Over the years, Canada has produced some excellent boxers in the
lighter weight classes from flyweight to lightweight with such names
from GEORGE DIXON to ART HAFEY. from AL FORD  to
TYRONE GARDINER and RICHARD (Kid) HOWARD,
 then there was Buddy 
Daye (see photo)
(photo from Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame)

Looking back through the Eighties and Nineties
 from amateur and professional boxing
two names of interest are
 SCOTTY OLSON and DALE WALTERS 
and in the here and now of 2011
LOGAN MCGUINNESS and BENOIT GAUDET

VIC FOLEY, CHAMPION
Won the Canadian Bantamweight title in 1924, then fought 
an eliminaton tournament for the featherweight title and
lost a controversial decsion to LEO (Kid) ROY in Montreal
Also, fought world Jr. Lightweight champion TOD MORGAN
in an exciting battle in Vancouver, BC in 1927.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

GREAVES, RICHARDSON, EMERY and SPARKS

  CANADIAN BOXERS:
 GREAVES, RICHARDSON, EMERY and SPARKS
- by Brian Zelley

There are many ways to tell the story of   Canadian
boxing, but when the final bell stops ringing, it all boils 
down to the hundreds of individual stories of all the boxers.

Looking back,  four of the many that provide some interesting
highlights  of the sport in Canada are Al Sparks, Blair
Richardson, Burke Emery and Wilfie Greaves.  But we cannot 
forget  ARMAND SAVOIE and ARTURO GATTI, GORDON
WALLACE, FRANKIE GENOVESE and JOHNNY GRECO.

                                                  AL SPARKS


                                                  WILFIE GREAVES



                                     BLAIR RICHARDSON


NAMES ON A PAGE OF BOXING HISTORY
Al Ford, Al Sparks, Art  Hafey, Billy Townsend,  Blair Richardson, 
Bob Cleroux, Chris Clarke,  Clyde Gray,   Dale Walters,
Dave Downey,  Earl Walls, Fernand Marcotte,  George Dixon,  
George Chuvalo,  Harold Mann, Jimmy McLarnin,  Ian Clyde,  
                                                    IAN CLYDE
Jimmy Walters, Jo jo Jackson, Kenny Lindsay,  Lennie Walters,                                                        Les  Gillis, Leslie Borden,