JCC

I was looking into one of my dad's old scrap books today... the thought occurred to me that the amatuer boxing and the Golden Gloves touraments was by far more popular back in the 1950's than today and draw bigger crowds to the arena's and had by far more press coverage.

1950 article ...

Right Quick-like ---

CROWLEY GETS THERE FUSTUS WITH MOSTUS

By BLACKI SHERROD -- Press Sports Editor

As any old barroom bouncer can tell you: there ain't no lick like the first, lick. If a man is forced into fisticuffs, that first punch is worth its weight in molars.

J. C. Crowley does his bouncing with gloves on his mitts, but he too is a firm believer in paste first that ye not be pasted.

Another young man, D-ick Garnia of Dallas also must be a convert to that line of reasoning today.

Crowley, the Fort Worth lightweight campaigner in the state (Texas) Golden Gloves tournament bested Mr. Garnia in exactly 35 seconds by the Will Rogers Colisuem clock last evening, and the first lick was the cause of it all.

Garnica comes highly recomended. He battled the veteran state champ Johnny O' Glee to a fare-thee-well in last year's Dallas regional meet. He is a boxer of some note, a cool, heady competitor.

But he never had a chance to show it last night. The bell rang, the lads advanced to the center and feinted breifly. Crowley launched his favorite persuader, a left hook, and the birds sang loudly.

Garnia, who said afterward that the blow stunned him into numbness, then took one of the most severe thumpings one human being can offer another in 35 seconds, without the benefit of machinery.

A ROOSTER

As the Dallas youth tried to hold on, Crowley used every club in his bag and they all connected cruelly. Ever see a rooster flog another? That was Crowley last night.

Just as it seemed that Garnica's noggin was weaking at the seams, the bout was stopped and Crowley declared the winner and world's champion, as far as Garnica was concerned.

Any other night the two might have fought a close three-round setto. But the first lick --- that left hook of the copperhead species -- was principally responible for sending Crowley into the quarterfinals on tap tonight at the coliseum. And labeling him as the lad to beat in the lightweight division.

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"The more I sweated in the gym, the less I bleed in the ring."

bill1234

Great thread.

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MEMBER OF BOXINGFORUM.COM HALL OF FAME-JANUARY, 2008

The Auctioneer

We are lucky here in the Baltimore area. We have several gyms with a lot of kids.Most of the amatuer show get sold out. Each gym usually has at least one kid who is the local favorite and who can sell a lot of tickets.It is very strong here and the shows are great with lots of action both in the novice and open level......I strongly recomend seeing an ametuer show. It helps out the kids and you won't be disappointed....

lancepimpdurmom

yes, great thread indeed

JCC

The guy named in the article who in 35 seconds of the first round, got the knockout and won the fight was my dad.

He began began his amatuer boxing career in his late teens in 1949, fighting first as featherweight and later as a lightweight and his amateur boxing record was 123-9, with 88 KO's.

He told me that of those 9 losses, 8 of the 9, did give him a return match, and he reversed 8 of those losses in at least that sense about any way. So really only one guy held a legitmate win over him in the amatuer ranks.

As for the golden gloves (as well other others) he won the featherweight state title several times, and also the lightweight state title several times between the years 1949and 1955.

He turned pro as lightweight in 1955, and retired from the ring in 1959, his professional record was 25-1, with 19 KO's.

Perhaps the most notable thing as far was what stands out in most in my mind any way, was that he had once been a sparring partner in the early 1950's for the featherweight champion of world Willie Pep, and also in being that my dad won by a knockout in the third round over the lightweight state (Texas) champion in the professional ranks in San Antonio in the late 1950's.

The reason in part that stands out so much in my mind is because the guy my dad knocked out at the time was the professional state champion and was a hometown favorite in San Antonio where the fight was held, and when the guy got knocked out in the third round, it incited a riot.

Fans starting throwing stuff into the ring, and all the fighters in the dressing room had to come out and help the police to get my dad safely back to the dressing room. Can you imagine that? That actually did happen!

JC

__________________
"The more I sweated in the gym, the less I bleed in the ring."

JCC

Good for you and Baltimore, I'm happy to hear that!

If I were to mark the time that fans began to lose interest in amatuer boxing and the Golden Gloves touraments here in Texas. It was when the rules changed and they started being required to wear head gear.

Right after happened attendance fell off by near 50 percent here.

JC

__________________
"The more I sweated in the gym, the less I bleed in the ring."

The Auctioneer

Thats a shame about the head gear, it is an absolute necessity with the Juniors but it never stops the action.As to riots, There have been a few here when the hometown hero doesn't win.Those are usually great fights with drmatic finishes,also throw in a few drunken fans who want to set things straight and whala a riot.Never the less most amatuer shows here have the same if not more action than a pro show.Sometimes an amatuer show will have as many as 15 fights(we have done that twice),most pro shows here are 5 to 6 bouts if that.

Sonny Liston

I agree too!

JCC

As I understand it. It was due to some serious injuries that caused the rules to be changed in amatuer boxing is why head gear is now required.

I took up boxing at age 9, in 1960, and first began fighting in kid boxing touraments not old enough then to fight in the golden glove touraments at that time and I did well, and had alot of fights and fought in alot of touraments and won them in all in my weight class with the exeception of only one and lost only one fight.

I continued to box amatuer in my teens until my early twenties and there I also only lost one fight in all the years I boxed amatuer. I was good at it and had an ambition to turn pro ... but never did.

We didn't wear any head gear back then in any fights.

Back then in the amatuer ranks and even in the kid fights the only time I ever saw any one wear head gear back then was in the gym sparring. Only, I never wore head gear, only because I just didn't like it.

But it was never worn in fights ... only in the gym sparring that some wear head gear back then.

I don't remember really any serious injuries to have happened back them. It happened of course in some fights but it so rarely happened except for little things like cuts over the eye or a bloody nose and just little stuff like that but not serious injuries such as a broken jaw or any thing like that. Though that also did happen but rarely happened in more than 10 years I was there in boxing.

I only know of that to have happened in a golden gloves fight when I was there only one time that a guy got his jaw broke in a fight that I can remember.

I've been out of the loop for some years now, so you tell me? What changed in amatuer boxing?

Are the kids not as well trained today, not as salty, not as tough in body and in mind as before, not as well-conditioned in amatuer boxing as they use to be since I was there? What changed? You tell me? (smiling)

As for the wearing of head gear in amatuer fights ... when that rule came into effect it killed amatuer boxing here and attendance at the golden gloves fights dropped way off and many fans began to lose interest and the next thing that happened as a result the fights were moved from being held in the bigger and more prestious arena's to other places it was terrible in my veiw that this happened and press and media coverage dropped off and now every year since amatuer boxing and the golden glove touraments does good now even to get a brief mention as for press coverage in the news today here.

And now on top of being required to wear head gear in fights. Now bigger gloves are required too. Which are near twice as big of gloves compared to the 8 once gloves that were worn back when I was there.

Of course, there are other changes in the rules besides only wearing now of head gear and bigger gloves to tame the sport even more now in the amatuer ranks.

When I was there and for the many years I was there I guess I was fortunate, I finished unmarked. The most serious injury I ever had boxing was a cut of an eye, one time. But that was nothing. Some guys have skin that cuts more easily. But in all the fights I ever had from the time I was a kid and to have first taken up boxing I can only remember my eye being cut only one time.

See my signature at the end of my post!

That's me! "The more I sweated in the gym, the less I bleed in the ring."

I was fanatical about physically conditioning. And though I'm an old guy now, not fighting any more. I still to this day, workout daily just to stay in shape, only I don't train now as strenously as I had once done before. I believe there was a time in which boxers were over all the most well-conditioned athletes in the world of all sports.

I'm convinced that in both the amatuer and pro ranks too that fighters today are generally not as well-conditioned as they had use to be at one time and since I was there.

We even got some fighters training with weights like bodybuilders or weight lifters today in some ways too.

That was unheard of in my day when I was there.

You see more muscular physiques in boxing today.

But look how they get tired in the ring quicker ... and that in part can be the reason why some do. The more muscle bound you are the quicker you lose oxygen to your body and your muscles and when that happens in a fight! Your toast!

Take for example, in alot pro fights today!

Notice all the clinching they do today, I see it in near every pro fight today, and ask yourself why they do?

Why all this holding on to each other?

The two primary reasons they do is they are either tired or hurt! We didn't use to see as much of that in boxing like it it now today. Why? Because fighters were in my veiw in more well-conditioned and in better shape generally than most fighters are today.

If you hasn't been staggered or hurt, there is no reason to clinch and to hold on to another fighter unless your tired.

That I mention only to allow you to see what I see today as for how the sport use to be compared to the way things are in it today.

Really, I would like to see the sport recover and to come back to the place of popularity that it once was but really as things are now, I can't see it happening.

JC

__________________
"The more I sweated in the gym, the less I bleed in the ring."

The Auctioneer

I have great faith in pro boxing today despite the many things that are bad about it. I still think it has a good fan base.This site can atest to that,with not all here being "old School".As to head gear in the Amt ranks. It's always been around so I can't tell you when it was instituted.I am sure it had to be the result of an injury/law suite. The gear and bigger gloves has kept injuries down while keeping the matches very competitive.Here they are strict about weight differential and expierence levels.Rarely is there a mismatch which always leads to action....Again I strongly urge all readers to when they can to try and see an amatuer event,as I announce at all of the shows I do "See tomarrow's champions tonight!"