Classic American West Coast Boxing

[kikibalt]

A star from on high, falls out of the sky, and slowly grows dimmer.
"Sleepy Lagoon," music by Jack Lawrence

The Sleepy Lagoon was the larger of two reservoirs used to irrigate crops on the Williams ranch in rural Los Angeles, in what is now Bell, California. For many young people in the area, it was a swimming hole by day and a lover's lane by night. The reservoir, nicknamed after a popular song of the times, was frequented mostly by Mexican American kids who were often denied access to city-owned recreation facilities. On August 1, 1942 the Sleepy Lagoon became part of Los Angeles history when the murder of a young man on the Williams ranch resulted in a violent clampdown by the police against Mexican American young people.

The night of August 1, 1942, began with romance and ended in death. In the early evening several young couples from Los Angeles' 38th Street neighborhood arrived at the Sleepy Lagoon to spend some time together. Among the couples were Hank Leyvas and Dora Barrios. Hank was one of the oldest boys that spent time on 38th Street, and was feared and respected by many. Dora was his girlfriend. As they sat in their car, under the light of a waning full moon, they were suddenly and viciously attacked by a group of boys from a rival neighborhood. Hank and Dora were beaten mercilessly.

Later that night an injured Hank returned to 38th Street and gathered reinforcements. Finding people to accompany him was not difficult. Hank was immensely popular and the boys they were going after had violated an unwritten rule by beating Hank's girlfriend Dora. Close to thirty young people -- boys and girls -- piled into cars and headed for the Sleepy Lagoon.

That same night José Díaz, born in Mexico but raised in the United States, had decided to attend a birthday party on the Williams ranch where he and other immigrant families worked and lived. José had reason to join the party: in just a few short days he would report for induction into the Army and head for boot camp. The traditional fiesta was lively -- with food, music, dance and plenty to drink.

The spot where Hank Leyvas had been beaten earlier that evening was deserted, but he and his friends could hear the sounds of the birthday party at the Williams ranch. Convinced that the boys who assaulted him were there, Hank and the others converged on the small house. The fighting was brutal. Men and women, boys and girls struggled for about ten minutes. The fight had all the markings of an Los Angeles teenage rumble, except for what neighbors discovered shortly after the fighting. Lying in the shadows was José Díaz. He had been beaten and stabbed. He died later that night at Los Angeles General Hospital.

The governor, Democrat Cuthbert L. Olson, was becoming increasingly concerned about juvenile delinquency. He used the murder of José Díaz as a call to action. The Los Angeles Police Department (L.A.P.D.) rounded up more than 600 youth -- mostly Mexican Americans known as "zoot-suiters" for the ballooned pants and long coats they wore -- and indicted Hank Leyvas and twenty-one others for José Díaz's murder. The subsequent trial dominated headlines in the City of Angels for months. The 38th Street boys were convicted in Los Angeles' tabloid journals -- and the jury agreed. Hank Leyvas was sentenced to life in San Quentin.

Within months of the convictions, Los Angeles erupted in the Zoot Suit Riot. For the better part of a week, sailors and other servicemen dragged kids off streetcars, from restaurants, and out of movie theaters. The boys were beaten and often stripped of their zoot suits. Thousands of white civilians cheered them on and helped the sailors. As the riot progressed, Mexican American boys moved to defend their neighborhoods, setting traps for sailors and assaulting them in their cars. The L.A.P.D. let the riot continue for the better part of a week. After the riot ended, the Los Angeles City Council banned the wearing of zoot suits on Los Angeles streets.

Within a year of the riots Hank Leyvas and the boys were released from prison. Their convictions in the Sleepy Lagoon case were overturned on appeal. The court ruled that there had been serious errors in the trial: a biased judge, the denial of counsel, and a lack of evidence. Authorities declined to retry the case. Whoever killed José Díaz got away with murder.

When Hank and the boys returned, the City of Angels, and their place in it, was changed forever. In little time the zoot suit style faded from view. And eventually the small reservoir known as the Sleepy Lagoon fell victim to urban sprawl and was filled in.

[kikibalt]

This is from the Napoles vs. Backus II Welter title fight 6/4/71-The FORUM
I found this paper on a table in the dressing room after fighting on the card.
It was in the referee's dressing room, where Dr. Schwartz stitched Billy Backus after Napoles had beat him up.

It lists the referee & judge selection for each bout scheduled.
This was the second world title card I'd appeared on in 1971.
The fights were over, the sell-out crowd of more than 18,000 was leaving,
and I decided took keep this little paper as a souvenir. I also have the program somewhere.

Boxrec does not list this fight on my record- I won a five-round, split dec. over Rafael Munoz
Less than two weeks later, the same Rafael Munoz would stop me in four rds. in Santa Monica.
Boxrec lists the rematch, but not our first bout on this June 4, 1971 World Championship card.
It may not seem like a big deal, but when you win a fight, you want it recognized along with the losses.

-Rick Farris

[kikibalt]

Jose Luis Garcia would easily KO Lou Hicks on this night.
'67 Nat'l GG Champ, Thurman Durden was featured, as was
Jose Luis Martin Del Campo, Rod Contreras and myself.

-Rick Farris

[kikibalt]

My stablemate and good friend, Al "Kit" Boursse'.
In 1969, manager Johnnie Flores brought 18-year-old Kit Boursse' to New York,
to serve as sparring partner for heavyweight Jerry Quarry, who was training for
a World Heavyweight title fight with Joe Frazier.
Boursse' would write me from their training camp at Grossinger's Resort in the
Catskills. "Jerry's punching the crap out of everybody. He's injured every sparring
partner but me," Kit wrote. "Nobody gives Jerry a chance, but he's likely to KO Frazier."

Kit was the guy I worked with at a Jack-In-The-Box in '69. He was killed saving the life
of a child, run over by a freight train. That was Kit.

At Forest Lawn Cemetery in the Hollywood Hills, his grave palque reads:

ALAN "KIT" BOURSSE
-Our Hero-

Rick Farris

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Amateur Boxing- Southern California vs Baja, Mexico- 1969

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[dagosd2000]

TEX RICKARD

[dagosd2000]

This is from the Napoles vs. Backus II Welter title fight 6/4/71-The FORUM
I found this paper on a table in the dressing room after fighting on the card.
It was in the referee's dressing room, where Dr. Schwartz stitched Billy Backus after Napoles had beat him up.

It lists the referee & judge selection for each bout scheduled.
This was the second world title card I'd appeared on in 1971.
The fights were over, the sell-out crowd of more than 18,000 was leaving,
and I decided took keep this little paper as a souvenir. I also have the program somewhere.

Boxrec does not list this fight on my record- I won a five-round, split dec. over Rafael Munoz
Less than two weeks later, the same Rafael Munoz would stop me in four rds. in Santa Monica.
Boxrec lists the rematch, but not our first bout on this June 4, 1971 World Championship card.
It may not seem like a big deal, but when you win a fight, you want it recognized along with the losses.

-Rick Farris

Rick
I was there that night. I'll vouch for you.

[dagosd2000]

Hey fellas,
I didn't mean to come off rude. Gato called me up about something and I invited him and Barb to eat with us. He lives about 30 minutes away.
Frank,Rick,Randy you and the wives are invited also. Sunday at 3 pm. My place.

[kikibalt]

TEX RICKARD

Great painting, Rog, Chata's painting was also great, Thanks.

[dagosd2000]

Hey Frank
Next time Sierra comes over take a picture with her,Chata,and the painting and post it. Thanks

[Rick Farris]

Tom...Joe Medrano was very ordinary, maybe thats why McCoy dropped him....

Frank, my memory of Medrano was that he was steaming hot in '71-'72. A real hot prospect along with Danny Lopez, Tury Pineda and Bobby Chacon. I saw his fight with Masahito Takahashi, who had just gave Pineda a murderous time before being stopped in 5, but Medrano had no such problem with the Japanese and stopped him in 2. He really looked the goods to me. However, he signs to fight a rematch with Jorge Rodriguez, a man he stopped in 8 rounds about 6 months before. The fight doesn't look like it's going to be a problem for Joe as he dropped Rodriguez with a quick left hook in the 2nd round. But that was it for Joe. Although the fight went the distance, Medrano took one merciless beating after being caught thereafter. Five times in all he was down. The fight should have been stopped but that was a beating one does not recover from. I saw his next couple of fights against Jorge Valenzuela and Leoncio Meza and believe me, that was not the same joe Medrano, who simply became a trial horse.

Scartissue

Scar . . . Like Frank, I wasn't impressed with Medrano. Mel Epstein was interested in matching me with Joe in a prelim in 1971 but the match never came off. A guy that I won and lost to, Rafael Munoz, kicked Medrano's ass at the Olympic and had him ready to go, before Medrano butted him and opened cut. Before Munoz trainer, Jake Horn, could patch the cut in the corner, Dr. Schwartz stopped the fight. Munoz's cut wasn't that sever, and had only been bleeding for half a round. It was a strange ending, and kept McCoy's fighter from losing. Without reference to the butt, the bout was given to a battered Medrano on a TKO. Medrano hit pretty good, but was very mechanical, I wanted to fight him real bad. He was getting a lot of attention, but he was the weakest of the great McCoy stable.

-Rick Farris

[Rick Farris]

This is from the Napoles vs. Backus II Welter title fight 6/4/71-The FORUM
I found this paper on a table in the dressing room after fighting on the card.
It was in the referee's dressing room, where Dr. Schwartz stitched Billy Backus after Napoles had beat him up.

It lists the referee & judge selection for each bout scheduled.
This was the second world title card I'd appeared on in 1971.
The fights were over, the sell-out crowd of more than 18,000 was leaving,
and I decided took keep this little paper as a souvenir. I also have the program somewhere.

Boxrec does not list this fight on my record- I won a five-round, split dec. over Rafael Munoz
Less than two weeks later, the same Rafael Munoz would stop me in four rds. in Santa Monica.
Boxrec lists the rematch, but not our first bout on this June 4, 1971 World Championship card.
It may not seem like a big deal, but when you win a fight, you want it recognized along with the losses.

-Rick Farris

Rick
I was there that night. I'll vouch for you.

Gracis Rog!

[Rick Farris]

Hey fellas,
I didn't mean to come off rude. Gato called me up about something and I invited him and Barb to eat with us. He lives about 30 minutes away.
Frank,Rick,Randy you and the wives are invited also. Sunday at 3 pm. My place.

Roger . . . thanks for the invite, but Monica and I will have to take a raincheck. However, next saturday we look forward to hooking up with everybody at the Women's Boxing Lunch. Gato is a great guy to watch fights with.

-Rick

[kikibalt]

[kikibalt]

Hey fellas,
I didn't mean to come off rude. Gato called me up about something and I invited him and Barb to eat with us. He lives about 30 minutes away.
Frank,Rick,Randy you and the wives are invited also. Sunday at 3 pm. My place.

Roger . . . thanks for the invite, but Monica and I will have to take a raincheck. However, next saturday we look forward to hooking up with everybody at the Women's Boxing Lunch. Gato is a great guy to watch fights with.

-Rick

Same here, Rog, Can't make it, Thanks for asking though, say hi to the champ for us....

[Rick Farris]

When there were teachers . . .

Frank . . . Did you know Johnny Forbes? He had some great fighters. I have often thought of that six-rounder that you remember so well, Teran-Cadilli. Guys could really box back then, and if they had a punch too, you really got a show. Everybody gets a kick out of a match pitting a couple dead game, toe-to-to sluggers, who put on one of those "do or die" performances. However, aside from a lot of action, they really dokin't impress me like the smart fighters. The guys who could think, set-up a an opponent, make 'em miss and make them pay, without running backwards like clown. An explosive chess match.

With all due respect to the great Muhammad Ali, I credit him for saving the sport in some ways, but in others he ruined it. Ali was courageous, athletic, smart and talented. However, Ali was also sloppy, and a catcher, especially when his legs would no longer dance out of range. Too many young fighters tossed aside the "basics" thinking they could get away with the things Ali did (that is when his opposition was old, small and less talented).

Today, a first class boxer is very, very rare. The biggest reason is that there is nobody to teach it. Today's best trainers would have trouble keeping a prelim kid afloat during the Golden Era of L.A. boxing. Most of them are executive bucket boys, at best.

-Rick Farris

[dagosd2000]

REYNOSA,MEXICO


I often think what would have happened if Jose Napoles hadn't had a problem with cuts. I remember seeing a long time ago on Mexican TV when the trial horse L.C. Morgan cut Napoles when Jose was running up a big streak of victories by KO. Like that Jose's brow split open, and it kept getting worse. He had some plastic surgery done to make the skin tougher around he eye brows,but it didn't work. The doctors would have had to make all the skin on his face tougher to prevent further damage.

He lost his title to Backus on a cut. The ref in Buffalo saw that Jose was getting close, and halted it before Jose could finish Billy off. In the rematch at the Forum,you could still hear the sound of the opening bell and Jose was bleeding from his brow. I was at that fight and didn't notice the bleeding until the end of the round. Afterwards watching the replay,Jose sensed he was cut again and stepped back and pawed with his glove at the eye. He looked at his glove and saw the blood,then went back to work. Right hand leads breaking Billy down until the he was bleeding more than Jose. Bleeding pretty badly. Billy was on his behind in the eighth and the doctor wouldn't let it continue.

But the cuts were alweays going to be a problem. I think Napoles knew that every fight would present this problem. Monzon,both Muniz fights and finally a face torn to shreds with Stacey. What was the point? Even if he trained hard ,which he wasn't inclined to do later in his career,his face would open up.

I remember seeing him years later in Tijuana with his musical group in some dingy club on Revolution Street called the Rancho Grande. I told you guys about that one. The fight broke out and I was out of there. But prior to the melee,I was in a back room with Mantequilla and his band indulging myself with anything that would put me under the influence. I'll never forget what I did when I looking face to face with the great Mantequilla. I wanted to look at the scar tissue around his eyes. I could see the smoothed over lines under his eyebrows. They were in a terrible place. Blood would ooze right into the eyes.

I didn't want Napoles to notice that I was examining those old wounds. Fighters are sometimes touchy about stuff like that. But like i said,if L.C. Morgan hadn't have split open that brow in that obscure arena in Reynosa, Mexico...Oh well who thinks of things like that anyway?

[dagosd2000]

Mantequilla Napoles

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When there were teachers . . .

Frank . . . Did you know Johnny Forbes? He had some great fighters. I have often thought of that six-rounder that you remember so well, Teran-Cadilli. Guys could really box back then, and if they had a punch too, you really got a show. Everybody gets a kick out of a match pitting a couple dead game, toe-to-to sluggers, who put on one of those "do or die" performances. However, aside from a lot of action, they really dokin't impress me like the smart fighters. The guys who could think, set-up a an opponent, make 'em miss and make them pay, without running backwards like clown. An explosive chess match.

With all due respect to the great Muhammad Ali, I credit him for saving the sport in some ways, but in others he ruined it. Ali was courageous, athletic, smart and talented. However, Ali was also sloppy, and a catcher, especially when his legs would no longer dance out of range. Too many young fighters tossed aside the "basics" thinking they could get away with the things Ali did (that is when his opposition was old, small and less talented).

Today, a first class boxer is very, very rare. The biggest reason is that there is nobody to teach it. Today's best trainers would have trouble keeping a prelim kid afloat during the Golden Era of L.A. boxing. Most of them are executive bucket boys, at best.

-Rick Farris

Rick...Yes I knew "Senator" Johnny Forbes, not real well, just knew him from the gym when he was working with his fighters, which he had in abundance. He ask me if I would spar with Keeny Teran when Keeny was getting ready for his fight with Gil Caddili, I was just a young teenager at the time and Keeny would take it easy on me. The Teran/Cadilli fight was a fight between two well school fighters, nothing sloopy about those two, it was a thing of beauty to watch two well school fighter fighting a fast pace fight.

[dagosd2000]

ARMANDO MUNIZ

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Johnny Forbes and Nick Diaz

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(front of table L-R) Rick Farris, girlfriend Karla Nelson, Kam Nelson Seagren
(back to wall L-R) Olympic pole vault legend Bob Seagren, Australia's Anne & Chris Fisher (a world record holder mid-distance runner)

Professional Track Tour 1973-74

Track & Field athletes are some of the greatest on earth. They didn't make a penny ( at least not above the table) during the late 60's and early 70's. After two consecutive gold medal winning Olympics for sixteen-time world record holder Bob Seagrean , and other track legends of the era such as miler Jim Ryan, shot putter Brian Oldefield, Kenya's Kip Keino, women sprinters Barabara Farrell, Wyomia Tyus and dozens more, they left the amateurs to join a fledgling pro track tour that would travel nationally for two years, 1973-74, before folding up.

In April 1973, the pro track tour was in San Diego at the International Sports Arena, where Ken Norton had just upset Ali two weeks before. The photo above was taken the next morning at breakfast in the hotel restaurant.

-Rick Farris

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I've had this card for more than thirty years.
Art Aragon helped me get a buddy out of L.A. County Jail in the mid-70's.
When my friend was released, he wanted to thank Aragon and asked me to stop by his office.
When my friend walks in and meets the Golden Boy, he tells him that he was once an amateur boxer.
Art looks him up and down and says, "You're not a boxer . . . you're a cocker spaniel."

-Rick Farris

[scartissue]

(front of table L-R) Rick Farris, girlfriend Karla Nelson, Kam Nelson Seagren
(back to wall L-R) Olympic pole vault legend Bob Seagren, Australia's Anne & Chris Fisher (a world record holder mid-distance runner)

Professional Track Tour 1973-74

Track & Field athletes are some of the greatest on earth. They didn't make a penny ( at least not above the table) during the late 60's and early 70's. After two consecutive gold medal winning Olympics for sixteen-time world record holder Bob Seagrean , and other track legends of the era such as miler Jim Ryan, shot putter Brian Oldefield, Kenya's Kip Keino, women sprinters Barabara Farrell, Wyomia Tyus and dozens more, they left the amateurs to join a fledgling pro track tour that would travel nationally for two years, 1973-74, before folding up.

In April 1973, the pro track tour was in San Diego at the International Sports Arena, where Ken Norton had just upset Ali two weeks before. The photo above was taken the next morning at breakfast in the hotel restaurant.

-Rick Farris

Dude, that is an awesome photo. I recognized you and Seagren right off. Was totally perplexed on the others however. Great shot.

Scartissue