BC AMATEUR BOXING HALL OF FAME - BC BOXING TOURNAMENTS











DIAMOND BELT TOURNAMENTS, GOLDEN GLOVES and BC OLYMPIC TRIALS

One of the outstanding tournaments of the Sixties was the 1967 BC Diamond Belt Tournament that featured
ROCKY MARCIANO as a guest referee. When the last bell rang and it was time to select the Diamond Boy,
the pick was Vancouver's DAVE WYLIE of the Firefighters Boxing Club coached by Bert Lowes and Pat West,
Some of the others entered in the tournament were Frankie Scott, Wayne Boyce, Brian Zelley, Fred Fuller.
Billy Taylor, Dick Findlay, Chester Douglas, Ed Williams and many more.

The 1968 tournament was also used as the BC Olympic boxing trials and featured many of the boxers from
1967 and some former junior boxers. Some names to remember were John Carr, Dave Allardice, Ron McEachern,
Wayne Boyce, Brian Zelley, Rick Fleck, Darryl Olsen, Freddy Fuller and Robbie Grant.

Stepping back to 1951 some names to remember - Billy Pinkus, Len Walters and the McMurtry brothers from Seattle.

After 1968, the Diamond Belt tournament remained silent, until the bright lights were turned on in Victoria in 1980.
When the final bell rang, the Diamond Boy was Victoria's GARY (Tiger) ROBINSON.

Some tournaments may not be high on the tournament list, but for the boxers such tournaments as the SILVER GLOVES
are important, and for some a step towards bigger tournaments, and for all additional experience. For boxers of the
Victoria Athletic Association, the 1978 Silver Gloves was one of those tournaments for two Victoria boxers 0
Henry Heggelund and Matt Montgomery.

Heggelund pounded out three victories in Vancouver on February 3 and 4, 1978 to win the senior novice welterweight
Silver Gloves Championship. Henry was also the senior silver-boy runner-up. The last Victoria boxer to win a senior
Silver Gloves championship from Victoria was Danny O'Sullivan in 1975. Montgomery won junior Silver Gloves
championship after defeating a boxer from the Port Kells boxing club. Henry three victories were over boxers from Vancouver, Campbell River and Nelson.

Also, in 1978 Victoria boxer Gary Robinson left for a two week training session for the Junior National Championship
on June 17th. Over the years, Robinson was coached by Mike Caird, Gordie McGaw, Larry Montgomery, Brian Zelley
Lou Bujdoso and Jim Ballendine.

Comments

  1. alcoolbcNovember 24, 2015 at 2:19 AM

    Dave Wylie was spectacular that whole tournament, stealing the Diamond Boy honor from Freddy Fuller!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

50 years Nanaimo Boxing 1963 to 2012

Image
NANAIMO BOXING HISTORY 1963  to 2012: by Brian Zelley The modern history of the Nanaimo Amateur Boxing: The modern era begins in 1963 with the formation of the  Newcastle Boxing Club  by George Nepper .  Other primary coaches were  Harry Pollitt and Skimp Williams.   Also, Rene Nepper and the Seriani brothers helped out along with Gardiner Smyth. Jerry Sorensen, Roger Nepper and others helped. The second club was the Nanaimo Boxing Club which was founded  by Brian Zelley and Dan Wright in 1971.  The present coach for the Nanaimo Boxing Club is former seventies boxer Barry Creswell. Some of the earliest boxers in action for the club would be Darren Lussier, Wayne Peace, Bob Pegues, Dan Wright and Brian Zelley. Some of the trainees would be John Ormandy, Stu Springett and various persons from Ladysmith such as Bob Jamison.  Other boxers in the early years would be Mickey Griffin, Alan Toth, Jack Snaith, Fred Wicks and many more. In 1974 another new one would be Barr
Read more

GETTING STARTED - bc boxing hall of fame

Image
WHY A BC BOXING HALL OF FAME - bY brian W. Zelley Before an actual BC Amateur Boxing Hall of fame is introduced, the question why needs to be asked with some logical and reasonable answers given as to why. If we were to focus just on the period from 1939, thia would cover the history of the GOLDEN GLOVES in British Columbia. Past Golden Gloves boxers would be obvious candidates to be considered for induction, but the important objective would not to consider Golden Boy staus. Logic would require a broad focus on past boxers including their involvement as coaches and officials and/or directors of a Provincial or Regional Boxing organization such as BOXING BC or the Greater Victoria Amateur Boxing Association, or as a zone or regional representative. FORMER MEMBERS in other Halls of Fame - A reasonable source of obtaining potential names of members from decades ago would be the inductees of various other Halls of Fame, but it should not be the only source as some towns or r
Read more

Fifties BOXING - Vancouver Island

Image
VANCOUVER ISLAND AMATEUR BOXING - 1954 The primary organization regulating amateur boxing was the Greater Victoria Amateur Boxing Association. In 1954, one of the major tournaments was the 1954 Vancouver Island Golden Gloves Tournament. The 1954 Tpurnament at Victoria's "Bay Street Armoury" - Champions: Bobby Bates - Lloyd Tahouney - John Turton - Bernie Hamilton - Eddie Robertson - Dave Errington - Bert Wilinson - Trent Ketchison - Doug Kerr - Tom McGaw
Read more