Aside from World or International Boxing Halls of Fame, an important area for recognizing the service and dedication of the builders including coaches, promoters and administrators, or the elite performance of the boxers are the various "Sports Hall of Fames" from a city to a region or a country. As one looks into sports of fames, sometimes we will find very few persons inducted from the sports of amateur and/ or professional boxing. For instance, the Canadian Sports Hall Of Fame has some obvious inductees such as George Dixon, Sam Langford, Jimmy McLarnin, Lennox Lewis and Tommy Burns, and others including George Chuvalo, Bert Schneider and Sammy Luftspring. It is likely, very few today could recall the deeds of a boxer such as Sammy Luftspring. In the Province of British Columbia, only seven names appear including Bert Lowes, Harold Mann, Tommy Paonessa, Billy Townsend, Jimmy McLarnin and the father and son team of Lenny and Dale Walters. Of interest the Walters names also appear in the Municipality of Burnaby's Sports Hall Of Fame along with an old time coach Harry Twist. If we were to review amateur boxing alone in BC from 1939 to 2008, there have been good folks involved in the boxing and building of the sport from Vancouver Island to the Alberta border. It is most unfortunate that so many have been left on the sidelines by the decision makers. Looking at individual locations such as Greater Victoria, boxing come up almost empty. One of the three folks included with some involvement in the sport of boxing was boxer Eddie Haddad. As we shift east a few more names are included in various halls of fame such as Al Sparks in Manitoba, and Gale Kerwin in Ottawa, and Walter Arsenault in PEI. It would be interesting to hear from others concerning there own region be it Portland, Oregon or London, England, or Australia.
AUSTRALIA: Good to see that Australia has the "Australian National Boxing Hall of Fame". Some of the many inductees are: Les Darcy, Dave Sands, Lionel Rose and Johnny Famechon. CALIFORNIA BOXING HALL OF FAME A good list of inductees such as Raul Rojas, Frankie Crawford, Danny and Ernie Lopez, and Cal & Eileen Eaton. NEW JERSEY BOXING HALL OF FAME A lot of worthy inductees from Gene Armstrong to Jimmy Young. Texas Sports Hall of Fame Texas is pretty stuck on football players, but there are a token few boxing folks like Curtis Cokes, George Foreman, Lew Jenkins,Jack Johnson, and Tex Rickard. It is a real sad situation that Garland (Ripper) Randall is not included. However, he left boxing to fight and die in Vietnam. Randall's name is listed on the Vietnam Memorial Wall, but it would be cool if Texas sports folks could include his name in their sports hall of fame. Along the way Randall fought the likes of Curtis Cokes and Manny Gonzalez.
The Welsh Sports Hall Of Fame It is not surprising that the likes of Freddie Welsh, Jimmy Wilde and Howard Winstone are members, but despite being an active boxer Joe Calzaghe is an inductee. One person that could be considered a boxer and a builder would be Eddie Thomas, the lad from Merthyr Tydfil. Other inductees include Jim Driscoll, Tommy Farr, Colin Jones, Jack Peterson, and Steve Robinson. I guess one day the late Johnny Owen may find a spot in the hall of fame. Let's hope the light of wisdom and fairness will shine down on the decision makers so they may make that important decision to remember the late Johnny Owen as a Welsh sports hero that is worthy to appear in the Welsh sports hall of fame. I'm sure there are many more worthy Welsh boxers and builders that deserve a nomination. But what about England, Ireland and Scotland
Good news - In reference to the Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame. Despite limited numbers for boxing, that will change in November 2009 when long term amateur boxing coach MIKE CAIRD will be inducted into the Hall in the building area. Having coached with Mike in the Seventies, this comes as pleasant news. After the sixties, the state of boxing on Vancouver Island and places such as Nanaimo and Victoria, BC, Canada were struggling on the ropes with nowhere to go but down and out. But with a rebuilding process starting with Nanaimo in 1971 and Victoria in 1973. Island boxing was ready to rock with some exciting action throughout the Seventies. Sadly, one of the Washington state boxers that competed in Nanaimo in 1978 would be one of the members of the 1980 USA Boxing team that were lost in the plane crash in Poland i.e. CHUCK ROBINSON.
