VANCOUVER ISLAND AMATEUR BOXING CHAMPIONS

PHOTOS:
1.rick brough and scott cessford
2. alan brown, vic murdoch and brian zelley
3. nanaimo's newcastle boxing club
4. list of champions

VANCOUVER ISLAND AMATEUR BOXING CHAMPIONS -
THE SELECT TWENTY: by Brian W Zelley

From 1964 to 2010, there are twenty Vancouver I sland boxers that have
earned the title of Vancouver Island boxing champion. This is their story.

Each one of the twenty boxer has a story from ALAN BROWN to WAYNE POWELL,
also their various clubs have a story
from the Gold River and Campbell River Eagles Boxing Clubs
to the Parksville, Nanaimo, Crofton and Victoria Boxing Clubs, and
the military boxers such as RIFLEMAN WALSH and WAYNE POWELL.

In 1964, it was Nanaimo's Newcastle Boxing Club with champions
BRIAN ZELLEY and GILLES NEPPER, and in 1984 it was the
Nanaimo Boxing Club with MIKE MURRAY and the Parksville club
with the CESSFORD brothers and DEAN MACDONALD and
the Campbell River club with GARY WOOD.
ALAN BROWN began with the Campbell River Eagles until his
father MONTY BROWN started the GOLD RIVER BOXING CLUB.

Beyond the boxers, there were a number of coaches and officials.
such as SKIMP WILLIAMS and TAYLOR GORDON in 1964 and the likes
of RICK BROUGH and HOWARD CURLING in 1984.

And then there was the host of the 1964 Championships, Victoria's
LONDON BOXING CLUB under the direction of HARRY MORRIS
and who could forget their Island champions
HOWIE RABEY, KEN ALEXANDER and TOMMY BLACK

Tommy Black
Tommy fought in Victoria long before the formation of the
LONDON BOXING CLUB. In 1960, Tommy was one of three
Vancouver Island boxers to win in the 1960 BC Golden Gloves
in Vancouver. in the 1964 Championships Black faced the heavy hitting
navy boxer FRED DESROSIERS and outboxed him to win the title, but when it came time for the selection of the 1964 Canadian Olympic Boxing team, it would be Fred that would earn a spot over the best of Canadian boxers in his division.

1964 to 1984 - The Link

The idea of reviving the 1964 Vancouver Island Boxing Championships twenty years later began in earnest in 1983
with a combined coaches and officials meeting. The three officials involved were former Island Commissioner
HOWARD CURLING, the Island Commissioner RICK BROUGH, and BCABA director and 1964 Champion B. Zelley.
Along with the various coaches, a preliminary step was to have the VANCOUVER ISLAND NEWS with a 1983 spring and fall issue. Also, official BOB PERRY joined in.

1967 DIAMOND BELT

THE LAST GREAT PROVINCIAL AMATEUR BOXING TOURNAMENT in BRITISH COLUMBIA

Since before the first BC Golden Gloves tournament in British Columbia - 1939,
and throughout the decades leading-up to the Provincial Boxing Championships
at Kelowna, BC on November 21/22, 2009, there have been hundreds of tournaments
and club show. Some have had a Provincial focus, some had a National focus
and some like the 1954 British Empire Games in Vancouver or the 1994 Commonwealth
Games in Victoria, and then there was the 1967 BC Diamond Belt Amateur Boxing
tournament that was held at the PNE facility in East Vancouver while the out-of-
town folks crashed at a Motel in North Vancouver including the legenday undefeated
heavyweight champion of the world - ROCKY MARCIANO.

There were many participants, and I was one. I (BRIAN ZELLEY) travelled from the Newcastle Boxing Club in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. I was one of four Island boxers, the other
three were from Victoria's London Boxing Club: LES VEGAS - KEN ALEXANDER - BILLY TAYLOR.

Others would come from as far as California, and one of Canada's best from
Montreal - DONATO PADUANO who would compete in the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico.

There were many more, but the first two that I met outside the North Vancouver
Motel were two of our fine First Nation's boxers ED WILLIAMS and CHESTER DOUGLAS.