BOXING

Being edited

Boxing program. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding

Photo courtesy: Bob Reding

BOXING. Paying four dollars, eager spectators in 1868 took the ferry to Dunleith (East Dubuque, Illinois) and then the train to Menominee. The area's first boxing match--a bare-fisted, illegal contest--was fought outside by Johnny Bernard, age 22 at 147 pounds and Peter Toohey, age 20 weighing 134 pounds. As described in the December 1868 issue of the Dubuque Herald, the fighters took "rattlers" to the jaw, "roasters" to the face, and drew "claret." Bernard eventually won the bout on a foul.

Amateur bouts were popular. Photo courtesy: Paul Lembke

In 1871, Dubuque promoters hosted their first bout between Mike O'Connor and Danny Carr, both local men. The bruising slug-fest lasted an incredible fifty-seven rounds. A round, in those days, ended when a participant was knocked down or put his knee to the ground. John L. Sullivan, the only boxer who visited Dubuque while he was champion, gave a three-round exhibition in 1883.

C.Y.O. boxing matches brought many fighters to public attention. General admission seats cost twenty-five cents with reserved seating costing forty cents. Children were admitted for fifteen cents. A typical evening of sixteen bouts--each three rounds--began with the first bell at 8:00 p.m.

WORLD WAR I brought many changes to boxing. For over 200 years, boxing had followed the Queensbury rules. This was not aggressive enough for the military which put an emphasis on aggressiveness. Army rules provided for two judges on either side of the ring and a referee in the ring. At the end of three rounds, each two minutes in length, the judges declared the winner. If they did not agree, the referee decides. Points were awarded for direct clean hits with the knuckle-side of the glove of either hand on the front or sides of the head or body above the belt. If the two contestants tied on the number of points, the winner was decided by the fighter who displayed the better style. (1)

Arch WARD, the sports editor of the Chicago Tribune, started the idea of the Golden Gloves amateur boxing tournament. The program was designed to help youth and promote amateur competition. The only material reward was a small golden glove, symbol of amateur championship, awarded to the winner of each weight division. The first Golden Gloves tournament was held in 1923.

In 1936 the Cedar Rapids Golden Gloves was started. Young men sponsored by the YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION (Y.M.C.A.), American Legion, C.Y.O.,DUBUQUE BOYS' CLUB, and private business trained in several facilities throughout the Dubuque area. Names like Clement KELLY, Milt AARONSON, Marv CLENDEN. Roger WELTY, Mark BURDS, and Bobby SLATTERY began appearing on sanctioned boxing cards and in newspapers throughout the United States.

The Catholic Youth Organization (C.Y.O.) Tournament of Champions in 1937 was attended by an estimated 5,000 fans. The Rev. Mathias M. HOFFMANN, founder of the C.Y.O., crowned Jerry Roth the heavyweight champion and nine other boys their title trophies. (2)

High school boxing was banned by the Iowa High School Athletic Association in 1946. The action was taken a month after a high school boxer was killed in a match between two schools in western Iowa. LORAS ACADEMY, one of the few major high schools in the state with an interscholastic boxing team, offered boxing as a major sport for three years. Rather than eliminate the sport, the Loras coach supported changing the rules to ensure no further fatal accidents. (3)

In Dubuque, the 40 and 8 group of the American Legion began sponsoring a Dubuque boxing program in 1955. The training was carried out on the second floor of the American Legion building at the corner of Fourth and Locust, the later site of the SHOT TOWER INN (THE).

The American Legion ended its boxing program in 1963. Frankie Farrell, a former boxer, took over the program in a number of locations including an upstairs location across the street from the ORPHEUM, a club on Pinard Street, and the old Y.M.C.A. building on Eighth and Iowa. Farrell continued the program until his death.

John GLYNN and Mark BURDS have been credited with reviving the sport in Dubuque around 1969 with training at the new Y.M.C.A./Y.W.C.A. From 1970 through around 1974, an estimated 80-85 boys participated in the program. The team won 15 state championships and the junior team won the Junior Olympic trophy in April, 1974. The same year four team members entered the all-Iowa Golden Gloves Tournament and all four won titles. (4) From 1975 until 1978, Marv Clenden ran a boxing club in a building he had constructed for the purpose. The Boys' Club began a program in 1974. The original instructors and coaches included Mark Burds, Ralph Bolsinger, and Marv Clenden.

Recent boxing history in Dubuque included Scott LINDECKER, Tom RUSK, and Pat Swan, the only professional boxer in Dubuque in 1997 with a record of fifteen wins and only three losses. Pete Henkels, Dave Hess, and Fran BECHEN were the only active state boxing officials from Dubuque. Henkels worked as a judge for amateur boxing matches; Hess was a supervisor of the Iowa Boxing Association and was an active judge in the NABF, USBA, WBO, and the IBC.

In 1999 Julius Pruitt, a native of Freeport, Illinois and a boxing fan moved to Dubuque. After about six months of participating in training and a 3-1 record in the ring he was looking for a club in Dubuque but found none. He eventually set up his own gym and by 2000 had earned his Iowa amateur boxing license. He then let officials with the Iowa Amateur Boxing Association know that he was available for a match. (5)

Pruitt's experience was not unique. Amateur boxers seldom knew who they would fight until the day of the weigh-in. Few clubs were year-round because the boys participated in other sports making the season end in April with the Golden Gloves match. Kenny Buffington, president of the Iowa Amateur Association, suggested at the time that anyone thinking of beginning a boxing club should get incorporated so that they could get funding for non-profit organization. Amateur boxing, he felt, was well-organized and operated. Coaches had to receive a six-to-eight hour course and officials watched to see that matches did not involve mismatched competitors. Amateur boxing was about scoring points not knocking out the other competitor. In 2000 boxing clubs existed in Cedar Rapids, Marshalltown, Des Moines and Davenport. (6)

Between the late 1970s and 2006 professional boxing was hosted in Dubuque with mixed results. Amateur boxing returned to Dubuque in 2006 when Pete Henkels and Fran Bechen brought the Second First Annual Dubuque Amateur Boxing Show to the Dubuque County Fairgrounds. The program's unique name was the consequence of the program which been planned for the previous year being canceled because of a snowstorm. According to the amateur rules, boxers until the age of 17 had to face opponents who fell within twenty-four months of their age. Both contestants had to weigh within eight pounds of each other in the 125-pound class, 10 pounds in the 165-pound class, and 15 pounds in the 201-pound class. Bouts lasted three rounds and rounds lasted between one and two minutes based on the boxers' experience. Coaches had to approve of the fight. With boxing clubs through the Tri-State area participating, as many as ninety fighters were expected. (7)

In 2015 a pilot boxing program was moved from the Dubuque Community Y to the DUBUQUE DREAM CENTER. Art Vorwald with the assistance of such figures as Fran BECHEN hoped to use the boxing program to develop discipline and a good work ethic in those participating. (8)

The criticism of boxing is decades long. In 1984 the American Academy of Pediatrics stated that "simple changes in rules and medial supervision and increased awareness of the dangers of boxing are not enough" to protect children and young adults. The Journal of the American Medical Association in 1995 estimates that chronic brain damage as indicated by dementia, memory loss, slurred speech, tremor and abnormal gait was seen in 10%-15% of professional boxers. It went on to state,"Evidence that boxing produces irreversible brain damage is now as indisputable as the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer." Neurologists have stated that even when a boxer does not lose consciousness, repeated blows to his head can have an accumulative, destructive effect on his brain. (9)

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Source:

1. "Boom in Boxing Follows the War," Telegraph-Herald, September 11, 1919, p. 2

2. "Eight New Champs Reign Over CYO Ranks; 5,000 Fans See Finals," Telegraph-Herald, April 23, 1937, p. 21

3. Lagerstrom, Hal, "YMCA Boxing Team Brings Sport Back," Telegraph-Herald, June 16, 1974, p. 14

4. Ibid.

5. Piper, Andy, "A Solitary Struggle," Telegraph-Herald, November 5, 2000, p. 37

6. Ibid. p. 8C

7. Leitner, Jim. "Amateur Boxing Makes Return to Dubuque," Telegraph Herald, January 21, 2006, p. 1B

8. Piper, Andy, "Boxing Gets a Bounce," Telegraph Herald, April 16, 2015, p. 9

9. Beck, Joan, "Boxing Cannot be Tolerated," (editorial), Telegraph Herald, March 8, 1995, p. 4