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(Unofficial) British Columbia Amateur Boxing Hall of Fame
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by B. Zelley | November 24, 2009 at 08:27 pm
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AMATEUR BOXING HALL OF FAME: By Brian W. Zelley, B. Com., C A
As I look back through the decades of amateur boxing history of the BC Golden Gloves from 1939 to 2009, there have been many BC Golden Boys such as two time Golden Boy Dick Findlay and three time BC Junior Golden Boy Cliff Ballendine. But, neither of them and many more are in any boxing or sports hall of fame.
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As I look back through the decades of amateur boxing history of the BC Diamond Belt tournaments in the Fifties and Sixties in Vancouver or the revival of the tournament at Victoria in 1980, there have been many Diamond Boys such as Vancouver Firefighters Boxing Club's Dave Wylie in 1967 and Victoria's Gary Robinson in 1980. But, neither of them and many more are in any boxing or sports hall of fame.
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As I look back through the decades of amateur boxing history of the British Columbia amateur boxing clubs, past and present, there are and have been many clubs of distinction that have contributed to the success of Amateur Boxing in British Columbia in a variety of ways. There was the London Boxing Club of Victoria that hosted a Vancouver Island Amateur Boxing Championship in 1964, hosted club cards that featured the 1964 Olympic Games boxer Fred Desrosiers, and hosted a 1976 BC Selects vs NW England junior boxing tournament that included 1984 Olympic bronze medal winner Dale Walters. There is the Nanaimo Boxing Club that revived boxing in Nanaimo in 1971 by Dan Wright and Brian Zelley, had the first Canadian senior boxing champion Jack Snaith (1973) since 1967 when Bill Taylor of the London Boxing Club was champion. There was the North West Eagles Boxing Club that hosted many of the BC Bronze Gloves tournaments in the Sixties for junior novice boxers, produced various Canadian champions such as Chris Ius and Les Hamilton under the direction of head coach Elio Ius and coaches Mel Ius and Terry Cooke, and allowed their gym to be used by Muhammed Ali and George Chuvalo, Manuel Gonzalez and Clyde Gray in 1972 before a major pro boxing show. There have been many other boxing clubs scattered throughout British Columbia but they are not included in any boxing or sports hall of fame.
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Throughout the decades there have been many excellent officials and regional amateur boxing commissioners such as Vancouver Island's Bert Wilkinson (Sixties), Howard Curling (Seventies) and Rick Brought (Eighties) but their names are not mentioned or listed on any boxing or sports hall of fame.
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Over the years, some folks have been inducted into a Provincial Sports Hall of Fame such as Harold Mann and Bert Lowes (BC) or Eddie Haddad (Manitoba), but there are many deserving individuals, teams and clubs that are worthy of such recognition such as the British Columbia senior boxing team of 1970, but they appear to be forgotten memories of a few.
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The British Columbia Amateur Boxing Association (Boxing BC) has the provincial responsibility to ensure the proper organization, education and growth in the sport. To understand true education should not be to limit the learning to coaches and officials clinics but to educate the members and general public of the history of the sport of amateur boxing in British Columbia. The establishment of a BC AMATEUR BOXING HALL OF FAME would provide an important public relations opportunity and recognize some of the many past boxers, coaches, officials, and other builders, and members of the sports news media.
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B. Zelley
Victoria, Canada
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at 22:40 on November 25th, 2009
CANADIAN TOURNAMENTS IN BC
Over the decades, we have had numerous boxing tournaments in British Columbia including some Canadian tournaments in such places as Vancouver, Burnaby and Campbell River. One of which was the 1984 Junior Nationals. I remember this one as I was one of the three picked to select the best boxer. BC boxers in the running for this special award were AARON WOLFE, TONY DUFFY, and WILLY CURRY. Of the three, Wolfe and Curry would win their divisions, and Tony was the 1984 junior Golden Boy in the junior BC Golden Gloves.
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Donna L. Huls (not verified)at 15:24 on December 1st, 2009
John Phillip Herbert, welterweight boxer, golden gloves champion 1978 - 1979 whose fighting record is published on BoxRec.com lives here in Vancouver. He is worth including in the web site and could be contacted. Please reply to this email address. D.
at 17:53 on November 26th, 2009
THOUSANDS of names in British Columbia Amateur Boxing:
A logic starting point for selecting manes for a BC Boxing Hall of Fame would be to consider some of the names of members of other Halls of Fame.
In the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame there are seven names of which five were directly involved in amateur boxing over the years such as Harold Mann, Bert Lowes, and Dale Walters.
In various communities, there are a number of names to consider such as those in Prince George which have such names as Harold Mann, Laurie Mann, Jack Meda and Sid McKnight.
In Burnaby there are such names as Harry Twist or in Greater Victoria there is the late Eddie Haddad and 2009 inductee Mike Caird (See various stories on the 2009 induction ceremony and the story on Vancouver Island boxing).