The Australian National Boxing Hall of Fame seems to be a fine organization for the most part. It is very hard to find any of their inductees who aren't worthy of the honor, something that can't be said of many other organizations of their type. But it appears that the inductees don't include the likes of Joe Wallis, the main boxing referee at Sydney Stadium for about three decades; Jack Munro, an important Australia boxing man who managed Sydney Stadium after World War I and was the manager of Ron Richards; Val Quirk, a Melbourne-based referee; Llew Edwards; a UK-born lightweight who piled up a fine record and was an excellent drawing card while boxing in Australia; and Fritz Holland, an American-born fighter who played such an important part in the history of Australian boxing. I was told that the very colorful American-born "Harry Hop" Stone, a popular fighter who had a large number of bouts over a period of many years in Australia, was belatedly inducted this year, but in the Honorary Category. Bob Fitzsimmons, an extremely important figure in Australian boxing history, also was inducted in the Honorary Category. Many Americans considered Fitzsimmons to be an Australian boxer. After their boxing careers ended, Edwards and Stone lived in Australia for the rest of their lives. Holland apparently never went back to the United States after boxing in Australia and lived in New Zealand for the rest of his life. - Chuck Johnston
