VANCOUVER ISLAND BOXING

Recently Island Sports News Network published a brief overview of Vancouver Island Amateur Boxing.

The article is not a complete history but it covers various eras from the Fifties to 2009.
One of the many highlights of the Fifties was the 1954 Vancouver Island Golden Gloves

VANCOUVER ISLAND BOXING, FIFTIES

The piece was done in 2009, and formed part of the story
that appeared on the "Island Sports News" original site
but in the conversion to a new site, the 2009 stories were
lost. Here the Fifties part has been reposted from a source
from a Nanaimo Information site.

The key tournament in the Fifties story was the
1954 Vancouver Island Golden Gloves tournament
and the GOLDEN BOY was BERT WILKINSON who would be
an Island Boxing Commissioner in the Sixties, and
in the early Nineties would be part of the boxing
volunteer team for the 1994 Commonwealth Games.

VANCOUVER ISLAND BOXING, The Sizzling Sixties.

the sixties had many interesting moments from winners in the
1960 BC GOLDEN GLOVES to the participation by four Island boxers in
the 1967 International Diamond Belt Centennial Championships.

THE SEVENTIES, new beginnings

There are a number of important things that happened to Vancouver Island boxing
in the Seventies from new clubs to some important tournaments. One fresh new
beginning would happen in 1979 when the late RICK BROUGH became
the new Island Commissioner.

1985 BC CLUBS & COACHES

As of September 1, 1985 there were 44 amateur boxing clubs registered in British Columbia
from the Astoria Boxing Club in Vancouver to the Williams Lake Boxing Club under the
direction of L. Albrechtsen.

On Vancouver Island there were clubs in Campbell River, Gold River, Comox, Parksvile-Qualicum,
Nanaimo, Crofton, and Victoria.

There were some old time clubs such as the Spruce Capital club in Prince George, the contact person being Ward Walker, and the Ladner Boxing Club under the leadership of Len Barker and
Darryl Olsen. Another well known club ion the North West of BC was the club in
Prince Rupert under the direction of Dick St. Louis.

Board of Directors of the British Columbia Amateur Boxing Association (BCABA) was comprised
of: Georger Armson,Fred Fuller, Sid Knopp, Bink Bakkan, Marg O'Reily, Bert Lowes,
Stan F. Smith, Glynn Jones, Dave Thompson, Shirley Knopp and Brian Zelley.