Pre-internet, who had the best fight library?

lol, i love to bs,

i dont even remember typing this, best part is, i never met my dad and from the little i know he never played handball or played handball with Jimmy Jacobs. thats the best part of this post.

 

For old newspapers?

 

I’m starting to regret taping over my Harry Greb career collection VHS with Gilligan’s Island episodes.

 

My buddy Djanders.

 

@djanders still watches fights on his kinetoscope.

 

Lol.

 

It was tongue in cheek, BC.
But, yes. You could be sitting on a gold mine, pal.!!

 

Not a video library, but Hank Kaplan had what has been called the greatest collection of boxing memorabilia — posters, photos, a bunch of other stuff and a ton of newspaper clippings.

He ran Hank Kaplan’s International Boxing Digest, which was a bit rough as a publication as far as look (it was not slick at all) but had a ton of reports and information from around the world.

That collection is now housed at the Brooklyn College library and I think can be seen by anyone on appointment if you’re in the area or planning a trip that way.

 

I've Spoken too, Met, and/or bought from a good few during my 3 Year Research period and they are...

Harry Schaeffer - Antiquities of the Prize Ring.
Mike DeLisa - Collector & founder of the CBZ
Tracy Callis - Historian, Collector
Clay Moyle - Collector
Mike Casey - Historian, Collector
Chas Taylor - Collector
Gary Luscombe - Collector
Joe Rein/John Garfield - Writer, Researcher
IBRO members...

a few others whom sadly I can't think of their names atm...

and Myself too,
I had a very good Moderate collection, sold onto the Hatton's, but I still have much of the 30s & 40s Material - Boxing News, the Ring and so on.

 

Hell yeah man I remember this Era fondly. I started recording in the mid 80’s. My dad started it all when he bought our VCR in the early 80s. One of the first fights I remember recording myself start to finish was Larry Holmes - Michael Spinks 1. I used to buy tapes from people online even though I was only a teen at the time, me and my buddy would scrape together as much money as we could and order tapes from guys online and then Dub each other’s copies. The first guy we ever ordered a set of tapes from was a fellow named Chuck Miller. We ended up using primary Jeff Comastro, i’ll never forget the dude was from Carroll Springs Illinois. I sent many a money order his way in the late 80s and early 90s. I’d usually get the 60 rounds for $60 bucks deal, basically one 4 hour LP Tape. Many years later, I begin to trade fights myself and even had a website by the early 2000s. I had people all over, in the UK and basically anywhere something might be shown that I wouldn’t have access to in the States. It was all trading at that point. I had amassed quite a collection having been recording EVERYTHING at that time since the early 80s. That and everything I had collected in between. I always continued to upgrade quality over and over until I got pristine versions of the things I didn’t record myself. One thing I always did with my own versions was recording on SP quality so a lot of my stuff is still perfect even to this day, or as perfect as it can be based on the time and what was available as far as the way the picture looked, but I still have all my tapes, all safely stored and in perfect condition. Occasionally I go through boxing tape marathons. Good stuff.

 

I've recently bought an Old Cinematic Reel, supposed to be 1940s British Boxers,

it maybe the usual ones that are now seen on Youtube, it maybe more obscure Fights, heck in might not even be UK Fighters, might be long lost Greb or some others for all I know.

I haven't been able to check it yet, but as soon as I know, I will certainly let you know.

Fingers crossed for some Obscure Gems.