Sports

THE LAST BELL RINGS

by B. Zelley | October 27, 2009 at 01:00 am

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The last bell will ring at 250 Willingdon, Burnaby, BC, Canada on November 6 th. ,2009 when the Action Boxing Club and the North Burnaby Boxing Club host "Friday Night Fights" in a building that has been an important focus of amateur boxing in British Columbia for over Twenty-Five years.

In the early Eighties, the facilities became the training centre for Boxing BC also known as the British Columbia Amateur Boxing Association. It would be the site of many Provincial boxing tournaments from Golden Gloves action to the site of the 1984 Canadian Junior Nationals Boxing Championships and Olympic Box-offs for some of the senior boxers to determine which athletes would join the likes of Lennox Lewis and Dale Walters on the 1984 Canadian Olympic Boxing Team.

The facility would also serve as the training site for the 1984 and 1988 Canadian boxing teams before heading to the Olympic Games. In 1984, the BCABA Executive consisted of George Armson, Bill Long, Sid Knopp, Marg O'Reilly, Larry Carney, Shirley Knopp, Bert Lowes, Glynn Jones, Brian Zelley and Dave Thompson.

In December 2009. the facility will be no more, but over the decades, it has been a busy place for action and decision making, a place where hopes and dreams were realized and a place where dreams ended for those that didn't make a provincial or national team.

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B. Zelley

at 19:01 on October 27th, 2009

Ten days counting, and how will the final event in this long time BC Amateur Boxing establishment be remembered, and who will attend to see the bright lights fade to black and the hear the final bell ring.

For many years, it has been the training location of the North Burnaby Amateur Boxing Club under the direction of former Canadian Olympic boxer and former professional boxer Manny Sobral.

Manny has been a major force in reviving professional boxing in the Greater Vancouver area with a number of interesting and exciting pro fight cards including the recent light-heavyweight Canadian title fight in Richmond where Ralph Junior Moar won the title.

Looking back through the decades, Manny was engaged in amateur boxing activity at the Boxing Centre as a junior boxer in 1984 when he participated in the 1984 Junior Golden Gloves on April 28 th, 1984. In that tournament, Sobral defeated Mike Wood of Campbell River to win the lightweight championship and earned the Jr. Golden Boy runner-up award while Tony Duffy of the Sunshine Boxing Club in Gibson's was declared the Jr. Golden Boy with victories over Shane Galloway of Richmond and Tony Francis of Maple Ridge. Francis was a Provincial winner for past activity when he was declared the best junior boxer and winner of the special "Jimmy Symes" award.

Francis was in good company, as some previous award winners included the likes of Wayne Boyce, Chris Ius, Laurie Mann, Mickey Griffin, Cliff Ballendine and Alan Brown and a number of others since 1967.

B. Zelley

at 19:43 on October 27th, 2009

As we await in anticipation for the final bell at 250 Willingdon, we can look back at the old BC Amateur Boxing Association hub and remember not all the action took place under the bright lights of the ring action, but there were those many important decisions that were discussed and debated at Board meetings or at at Annual General Meeting,

One such meeting took place on September 8th., 1985 when the BCABA Annual General Meeting took place. At the beginning of the meeting, the Executive members included George Armson, Fred Fuller, Sid Knopp, Bing Bakkan, Marg O'Reilly, Bert Lowes, Stan Smith, Glynn Jones, Dave Thompson, Shirley Knopp, and Brian Zelley. At the end of the meeting the new executive consisted of: George Armson, Sid Knopp, Bing Bakkan, Marg O"Reilly, Jean Bayne, Bert Lowes, Larry Carney, Brian Zelley, Dave Thompson, and Terry Copeland.

In the interim, there were discussion on important future events and plans such as the:

.Best Ever '88 Program (Provincial,

.Quadrennial Plan (National),

.National Decisions, and

.Coaches and Officials Clinic Programs.

Various Provincial boxing clubs were represented from far and wide from the Astoria Boxing Club in Vancouver to the Williams Lake Boxing Club. A sample of club representatives included: Burns Lake (Alex Crabbe), Cranbrook Eagles (Mike Moore), Kimberley (Paul LeMay), Comox Valley (Lloyd Anderson), Maple Ridge (Wally Hill), Richmond (Ralph Galloway), Victoria Jaycees (Mike Sartori) and many more.

B. Zelley

at 11:22 on December 30th, 2009

May 1984 - Some of the Canadian officials in attendance at the Junior Nationals:

Bert Lowes, Fred Fuller, Ron Whalley, Bob Carswell, Morgan Williams, Len Johnson, Al Tucci, Jean Paul Ricard, Jerry Shears, George Fraser, Allan Tummon.

BCABA (Boxing BC) Executive (1984):

George Armson, Bill Long, Sid Knopp, Shirley Knopp, Marg O'Reilly, Larry Carney, Bert Lowes, Glynn Jones, Brian Zelley and Dave Thompson.

CABA (Boxing Canada) Executive (1984):

Herb Embuldeniya, Omar Gagnon, Jerry Shears, Bill Starr, Dick MacLean

Committee Chairmen:

Taylor Gordon, Allan Tummon, John Raftery, George Fraser, Joseph Falletta Joe Hajnal, Bill Arsenault.