I am trying to locate any information on my great uncle; Louis Cunningham who won in his weight class in the 1923 The Olympic (not to be confused with the Olympic Games), the Chicago Tribune's sponsored boxing tournament. Sportswriter and columnist Arch Ward staged a tournament to challenge the ban on boxing in Illinois. The tournament ran for days, and the champions were presented with a single gold glove. The small keychain-like golden glove has long been lost...
Louie Cunningham was from Grand Rapids, MI... I understand there my have been some backing by Knute Rockne of Notre Dame since Knute was good personal friend of the coach at Catholic Central High School in Grand Rapids.
The tournament ran from Wed 21 - Fri 23 March 1923
Thank you!
Jim
Golden Gloves was called; The Olympic circa 1923
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El Intocable
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Re: Golden Gloves was called; The Olympic circa 1923
This was a week-long tournament with final bouts on Wednesday, March 28th. Louis Cunningham was definitely neither among the winners nor among the semi-finalists; I could not find his name in any of the other published results either.
Chicago Tribune had excellent coverage of the event; here is a list of winners:
112: Morris Angel, Milwaukee A.C.
118: Charles Woods, Arcade gymnasium
126: Phillip Staffel, unattached
135: Walter Neely, Arcade gymnasium
147: Arthur Earl, Arcade gymnasium
160: Earl Pruess, Belle Plaine A. C.
175: Joe Cahill, Arcade gymnasium
175+: Frank King, Arcade gymnasium
Chicago Tribune had excellent coverage of the event; here is a list of winners:
112: Morris Angel, Milwaukee A.C.
118: Charles Woods, Arcade gymnasium
126: Phillip Staffel, unattached
135: Walter Neely, Arcade gymnasium
147: Arthur Earl, Arcade gymnasium
160: Earl Pruess, Belle Plaine A. C.
175: Joe Cahill, Arcade gymnasium
175+: Frank King, Arcade gymnasium
Re: Golden Gloves was called; The Olympic circa 1923
Thank you for looking into that... I figured someone had good documentation from The Chicago Tribune...
He definitely fought in the 1920s when the fight was called; "The Olympic" and took home a single gold glove "keychain". He would have been about a junior featherweight standing just about 5'. Having been from Grand Rapids, Michigan Chicago is closer than Detroit... Maybe Grand Rapids even had a tournament? Are there any resources out there to locate when and where he may have fought?
I know Knute Rockne had a close eye on the Grand Rapids Catholic Central boys since the sports coach was a good friend. When the Catholic Central High School football team took All-City Championship in the fall of 1923, Knute came up and gave a congratulatory speech. All the city seem to come out to the event. A few of the Catholic Central football players won scholarships to join the Fighting Irish in the 1924 football season.
Thank you.
Jim
He definitely fought in the 1920s when the fight was called; "The Olympic" and took home a single gold glove "keychain". He would have been about a junior featherweight standing just about 5'. Having been from Grand Rapids, Michigan Chicago is closer than Detroit... Maybe Grand Rapids even had a tournament? Are there any resources out there to locate when and where he may have fought?
I know Knute Rockne had a close eye on the Grand Rapids Catholic Central boys since the sports coach was a good friend. When the Catholic Central High School football team took All-City Championship in the fall of 1923, Knute came up and gave a congratulatory speech. All the city seem to come out to the event. A few of the Catholic Central football players won scholarships to join the Fighting Irish in the 1924 football season.
Thank you.
Jim
Re: Golden Gloves was called; The Olympic circa 1923
My grandfather's name was Lyle Perry Sr. My dad just wrote me a letter and in it he told me that grandpa was part of a group of fighters from Grand Rapids MI who went to Detroit to fight in the golden gloves and he was the only one who won his fight. We have a silver chalice type trophy at my dad's house, but I'm not there right now, so I'm not sure what year he did this. Lyle Perry was born in 1905, or 1906, I believe. Do you have any information on a Lyle Perry, who was part of the early Golden Gloves, winning a amateur fight in Detroit maybe in the late 20's or early 30's? My Grampa went on to train boxers, and he had a baseball team from Trufant MI, named "Perry's Supermarket" that played teams from Grand Rapids. He passed away in August of 1948 around the same time Babe Ruth died. I thank you in advance for any information you can share with me. Sincerely, Lonn Perry.