The Golden Gloves in British Columbia, Canada has been a key amateur boxing tournament since its inception in 1939. The debut Golden Gloves champions in 1939 were Wayne Morris, Alan Dunn, Phil Vickery, Erick Burnell, Bob Hickey, Henry Devine and Kenny Lindsay. The first Golden Boy was Phil Vickery.[1]
Following promotion of amateur boxing in 1938, the executive of the BC Amateur Boxing Association believed it was time to start a Golden Gloves tournament. The Vancouver Sun newspaper accepted the sponsorship for the province of British Columbia. The first tournament took place in 1939.[2]
Some of the Golden Gloves Alumni (boxers) from 1939 to 2010 were:
The tournament was sponsored by The Vancouver Sun, and was held February 14 and 15, 1946 at the Hastings Park Forum, Vancouver, BC.
Some of the boxers highlighted in the official program were Jimmy Crook, Lyle Kehoe, Ken McPhee, Terry Doyle, coach Tommy Gann, Vic Murdoch, coach Russ Gatake, coach Len Gervais, Jackie Tuner, Freddy Steele, Roddy MacDonald, referee Ernie Brown, Jack Herwynen and world champion Barney Ross.
A special section of the official program included names of some of the past British Columbia boxers that were in previous Seattle Golden Glove tournaments between 1942 and 1945: Gordon Grayson, Robert Hickie, Tommy Symes, Jackie Turner, Joe Ashenbrenner, Hank Egli, Roy Burnell, Bert Lepitre, Freddy Steele, Bobby Parker, Vic Murdoch, and Lyle Keho.[6]
Following the competition, the boxer selected as the Golden Boy was Victoria boxer Alan Curtis.
The Golden Boy for 1961 was Bill "Curly" Adams.[7]
The Golden Boy for the second year in a row was Dick Findlay.[8] [9]
From the newspaper files, the results were published in a February issue of the Vancouver Sun.[10]
Jack Straza, Orlan Ralph, Leo Chabot, Stephen Flajole, Cliff Belcourt, Bob Kacer, Wayne Boyce, Ken Henderson, Brian Zelley, Vern Fouth, Del Deugau, Danny Gontes, Ron White, Fred Fuller, Dave Wylie, Steve Tohill, Pete Salgot, Pat O'Reilly, Jim Dixon, Lennie Erdmann, Kevin Jones, Fred Desrosiers, Toby Crook, Colin Coleridge, George Perez, Denis Rorick, Ken Egan, Gord Sinclair, Kelly Adams, Ron Wilson, George Smith, Ken Tommy, Howard Hewitt, Glenn McGee, Terry Eastman, Marion Kolar, Richard Fleck, Travis Lepine, Ken Alexander, Ed Ostapovich, John Kirk, George Van Nockay, Roy Smith, Jack Meda, Bill Taylor.
Derek Austin, Randy Jones, Ray Lampkin, Frank Scott, Brian Zelley, Dick Coulson, Philip King, Dick Findlay, Freddy Fuller, Lennie Erdmann, Steve Tohill, Gordon Sinclair, Colin Coleridge, Ron Manson, Ron Wilson, Ken Tommy, Marion Kolar, Wes Craven and Jack Meda
The 1968 BC Golden took place in Vancouver, BC at the PNE Garden Auditorium.
The semi-final action winners were Derek Austin of Langley, Dave Johnson and Dave Allerdice of North West Eagles, Brian Zelley, Frank Scott, John Carr of Vancouver Firefighters, Laurie Rorick of Prince George along with 2006 British Columbian Champion (9 1st round k.o's) Travis Lepine, Billy Taylor, and Rick Fleck.
The final champions were John Howard, Mike Colbert and Ray Lampkin of Portland, Oregon, Joe Cooke and Dave Allerdice of the North West Eagles, Derek Austin, Frank Scott, George Perez of Othello, Washington, Billy Taylor and Dick Findlay of the East Vancouver Optimists.[11]
The Golden Boy for 1968 was Ray Lampkin, and the 1966 and 1967 BC Golden Boy Dick Findlay[12] was Golden Boy runner-up.[13]
Ray Lampkin, the 1968 BC Golden Boy, would turn professional and become a top ranked lightweight boxer. In 1975, he was considered the United States lightweight champion.[14] In world rankings in July 1975, Lampkin was the number one contender for the lightweight title held by Panama boxer Roberto Duran.
The tournament took place in January 1984 in Burnaby at the Boxing BC Training centre, which would also be used as a training camp for the 1984 and 1988 Canadian Olympic boxing teams.[15]
At the end of the tournament the Golden Boy for 1984 was boxer Michael O'Connell and the runner-up was Joe Pendry, and the best youth boxer was Deep Butter.
Bert Lowes, Fred Fuller, Rudy Bianco, Sid Knopp Vic Murdoch, Larry Carney, Earl Vance, Jack Mellor, Larry Krangle, Brian Zelley, Rick Brough and Bob Newbrook.
Announcer: Joe Swift. Glovers: Tommy Yule and Gordon Miller.
Bassam Batrani, Scott Bannink, Jamie Ballard, Gary Wood, Dale Walters, Scott Cessford, Joe Pendry, Ken Smith, Alex Angelomatis, Tim Howie, Leon Chambers, Dan Zaleski, Lee Gauthier, John Wilson George Pires, Derek Wolfe, Deep Butter, Willie Curry, Michael O'Connell, Kika Singh, Al Harper, Garry Serko, Cody Redford, Joe Martin and Tom Coady.
The 2012 BC Golden Gloves were scheduled to take place in Vernon, BC in April.[5] The 2012 Silver Gloves were scheduled to be hosted by the Mission City Boxing Club in June 2012.
The Silver Gloves has a history that begins in 1943 due to the efforts of Val Roach. In 1960, the tournament was hosted by the South Burnaby boxing club under the direction of Harry Twist. From 1961 to 1967 the tournament remained inactive until a revival in 1968 in Richmond, BC.[16]
The Paonessa records are courtesy of John Paonessa