George Blake
Name: George Blake
Nationality: US American
Hometown: San Diego, California, USA
Judging Record: click
Refereeing Record: click
Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Born: 1881-01-06
Died: 1952-12-20 (Los Angeles, CA)
George V. Blake arrived in Los Angeles from Chicago in 1904. He became the chief United States Army boxing instructor during World War I. (Nov. 2, 1920 Los Angeles Times (LAT).)
By the very early 1920s he and Charles Keppen were promoting monthly amateur boxing shows, on Thursdays, at the Los Angeles Athletic Club, where Blake took an interest in a young, promising, and talented Fidel LaBarba--the future Olympic Gold Medalist and Flyweight World Champion. (Jan. 20, 1921 LAT.) Other young amateur boxers he took under his wing during the early 1920s were Joe Schlocker, Manuel Martinez, Julius Jessick, and Hugh McDonald. (March 21, 1922 LAT.)
Besides LaBarba, other professional boxers Blake eventually managed include former Bantamweight World Champion Pete Sanstol, Harry (Kid) Matthews, Joe Salas, Clayton Frye, Joe Stone, and Toby Vigil.
Blake was known as a man of impeccable character, and thus was a much-respected and popular referee. By the early 1920s he had become the regular referee for Southern California boxing venues such as Jack Doyle's Vernon Arena and the Hollywood Legion Stadium. Some idea of his integrity is shown by a quote Sanstol gave to The Knockout magazine (April 1, 1933 issue), shortly after Blake agreed to take on the Norwegian boxer: " 'I told LaBarba that I knew Blake would not have anything to do with a fighter who wasn't clean and honest and that I had set that as my ideal ever since I met him in Paris [back in 1929],' said Pete.... 'I know Blake inquired into my habits, checked up everything I had done--my fights in Montreal and elsewhere--before he gave his answer. It was the happiest day of my life when he signed me to a contract. I rushed out and cabled my mother and father in Oslo of the great news--that I was being managed by the biggest figure and the best-liked man in all America.' "
By the summer of 1935, according to the August 1935 The Ring magazine, p. 51, Blake was "back in Honolulu to help revive professional boxing in the Islands. He brought with him Henry Moreno, a featherweight, and Sonny Valdez, a bantamweight."
Some of the title bouts Blake officiated included Max Schmeling vs. Young Stribling, Henry Armstrong vs. Jimmy Garrison, Henry Armstrong vs. Baby Arizmendi, Joe Louis vs. Jack Roper, and Jimmy McLarnin vs. Young Corbett III. His last assignment was the 1940 Henry Armstrong vs. Ceferino Garcia bout. (According to The New York Times upon Blake's death.)
Mr. Blake died at the Brothers of St. John of God Sanitarium, Los Angeles, after a long illness, and is interred in the Calvary Cemetery.
- Photo of Blake officiating (1940)
- He had the briefest of cameos in the 1933 The Prizefighter and the Lady movie, being introduced as a ringside judge. He has a more extended cameo refereeing a fictional world heavyweight title bout at the end of the 1937 movie Kid Galahad.
- Inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame, "Expanded Category" (Referees & Judges & Timekeepers)
