Classic American West Coast Boxing

[Rick Farris]

San Diego,
April 1969 . . .


I was a junior in high school. My heavyweight team mate and friend, Kit Boursse', was in his first year of junior college.
Kit was taking police science classes at Valley College, just in case he didn't reach his goal of a world heavyweight title one day. Kit didn't win the title, but he did become a cop.
We'd both won regional AAU championships at El Monte Legion Stadium the previous week, and were in San Diego with the rest of the L.A. team for the Nationals.

We had two heavyweights on our team. Kit Boursse' had earned his spot by winning the Southern Pacific regional title like the rest of us on the team.
Walter Moore, our other heavyweight, had won the National Golden Gloves title in Kansas City the previous month, automatically guaranteeing a trip to the AAU Nationals.
I'd been on the Golden Gloves team that went to Kansas City with Moore, Mike Quarry, Petey Vital Jr., Rudy Acuna, Florentino Ramirez and a few others just a month previous.

We drove down to San Diego the day before the four day tournament started at the new International Sports Arena.
Our coaches were Jake Horn, Ernie DeFrance, Sonny Ray and Memo Soto.
Manuel Diaz, Kit's and my coach at the Johnny Flores Gym, drove us down to S.D. in his new Buick Riviera.
On the drive down, all Diaz would let us listen to on the stereo was his new Jose Feliciano tape. It was the one that featured "Light My Fire."
After that three hour drive, I never wanted to hear the song again. Manny and Feliciano ruined it for me. I used to like the DOORS and still do, but not that song.

All of nearly 500 fighters plus coaches were lodged at the LeBaron Hotel on Hotel Circle. I was happy to find that not everybody on our team would be in just one room.
That's what it was like in the juniors when you fought out of town. You would have two, sometimes three kids in one bed, on the floor, wherever?
That was fun when your a kid, but in San Diego I'd share a two-bed room with my stablemate.

After we'd settled into our rooms, we went looking for some of the other guys on our team.
There was Rudy Acuna, who we called "Porky". Porky was the nephew of my professional stablemate, Ruben Navarro. Porky was our team's Lightweight rep.
Our bantam was a sharp little fighter from Santa Paula in Ventura County, Florentino Ramirez. Tino was trained by light-heavy headliner, Ray "Windmill" White.
Middleweight Bobby Torrance was on the team, as was featherweight Spike Sanborne, 130 pounder Henry Verastique and Tommy Coulson at welter.
Two of our regional winners, Mike Quarry and Petey Vital decided to skip the national tournament in favor of staying home and making their pro debuts.
Both Quarry and Vital were offered matches on the undercard of the first Curtis Cokes vs. Jose Napoles welter title fight, which was held at the Forum that same week.

The big name of the tournament was heavyweight Jim Elder of the Navy.
Elder had upset L.A. amateur legend, Clay Hodges, twice the previous year and was favored to win.
There was also Walter Moore, himself a recent National champ. It was pretty much determined that Elder or Moore were the favored heavyweight candidates.
Nobody had much interest in a big fighter from Cincinnati. His name was Earnie Shavers.

Despite the two heavyweight favorites, one boxer stood above the rest when considering the best of the best, and that was the Army's welterweight, Armando Muniz.
Muniz was a defending Nat'l AAU Champ, and an Olympian in the Mexico City Games just months earlier. He was also the All-Army and Inter-Service champ.
With the exception of the Olympics, Muniz never lost as an amateur after joining the Army's boxing team. The Army's coach was the best of the era, Pat Nappi.
We would soon discover that the Army had the best boxing team in the tournament.

I had the not so great pleasure of discovering that the Army certainly had the best flyweight in the tourney, 23-year-old Spec. 4, Caleb Long.
Caleb Long would be my second bout of the day, having won a close decision over a kid from Cinncinati in the afternoon.

At the Nationals, you have three days of eliminations, Wed-Thur-Fri, with the final championship matches held on Saturday.
I had a bye the first day, the second day I fought twice, winning the first match by a close decision in the afternoon. Later in the evening, I fought a great amateur fighter.
I say this not because he was the only boxer to stop me in the amateurs, but because his 173 bout career validated it.
I was down twice in the opening round and today they'd have stopped it.
I hung in, and actually had a fair second round, but in the third I caught a punch high on the forehead that did not hurt me, but it caught me off-balance and I reeled backwards.
It looked like he'd knocked me across the ring, and I was trying to keep my feet under me. As I say, I was not at all hurt but it looked as if I was, I guess. The ref called it.

Caleb Long went on to win the Nationals. Armando Muniz told me before the fight that this guy was good, and that I was "in deep." That was an understatement.
I was only knocked down twice as an amateur, and both knockdowns took place in that opening round.
I finished on my feet, unhurt at the end, but he really rang my bell in round one.

I asked Mando whatever happened to Caleb Long. The former welter contender told me that Long had been discharged from the Army a few months after the tournament.
He said he'd heard that he was involved with an armed robbery and had been shot and killed. I need to investigate and see if what Muniz had heard was correct?

I can't speak for all boxers, but I never forgot a guy who hurt me. If I fought them a second time, they never hurt me again.
A solid punch gets your attention, to say the least, and you take it seriously. It will make you fight better, at least more aware.
Of course, if you are a dog it will make you quit. I may have had a few fleas, but I never quit.
Caleb Long hit me so hard that night, I can still feel it more than four decades later.

In the heavyweight division, my buddy Kit Boursse' was also eliminated in his second fight. The guy who beat him lost to Earnie Shavers.
Walter Moore? Well Walter seems to have come down with a stomach problem.
When he discovered he'd be fighting Jim Elder in the opening round of the eliminations, he came down with a stomach ailment, and pulled out.

Elder was cocky, a kind of soft bellied white fighter with good basic skills and an inflated ego. He walked thru everybody right up to the final match, the championship bout.
He was actually intimidating most of his competition. They were scared, you could see it in a couple.

The guy who looked most scared was the big, hard punching kid from Cincinnati, Earnie Shavers.
When they met in the center of the ring, you could see Elder smirk at his wide-eyed opponent.

The bells rings and Shavers runs right across the ring and begins to throw bombs with both hands. One clips Elder on the chin and he reels back into the ropes.
He must have taken a dozen solid shots, a couple as he fell to the canvas. Elder struggled to push himself up but he couldn't. He was counted out.
The biggest upset of the tournament.

That was the final match of the tournament. The Champions were crowned, and the Fighter of the Tournament was announced . . . Armando Muniz of the U.S. Army!
That was no suprise, Mando was surely the man that year.

The year was 1969 . . . a few months later a man walked on the moon for the first time, Rocky Marciano was killed in a plane crash, Viet Nam was going hot & heavy, Ruben Olivares flattened Lionel Rose to win the bantam title, and a guy named Charles Manson orchestrated two bloody mass murders in Southern California.
It was quite a year.


-Rick Farris

[kikibalt]

Great memories, Rick, something that nobody can take away from you....

[dagosd2000]

It must be the holiday season. Pozole. Pozole. Pozole

[dagosd2000]

YOU WANT TURKEY!!!?

"You want turkey!!!?"
"Yeah.It's Thanksgiving."
I knew this was going to be a tough sell with my father.
"Why in the hell would you want turkey when we're going to have lasagna and egg plant parmesian?"he shot back with.
"But we have that all the time."
"You should consider yourself fortunate. How many people eat egg plant parmesian cooked the Esposito way?"
No one except his grease ball side of the family. At least what was left of them.

I saw my mother walk into the kitchen where I was making my feeble pitch to get a turkey on the table for Thanksgiving.
"Can you believe Roger wants turkey for Thanksgiving,"he said to her with this cock of the walk smirk on his face.
My mother said nothing and walked out of the kitchen.I could see I was going to wipe tomato sauce off my mouth for Thansgiving again.

The next day,Thanksgiving,my sisters were setting the table for the big meal. Out came the platters of lasagna,egg plant parmesian,a bowl of sausage and peppers,antipasto,breadsticks,hot Italian bread,and bottles of chianti. I thought that was it,but then came my mother in with a turkey. A little turkey,but a real cooked turkey.I looked over to my father.
"Thanks",I said.
"Don't thank me.I had nothing to do with it."
My father then uncorked the chianti.
"Pass me the cracked olives",he said as he through out his chest.

[kikibalt]

The Hollywood Flames

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aiN9qKrYhg

"One Night With A Fool"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXLb849HAfg

"Peggy"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hvbt201OJ0

"I Know"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFFm7SySjHU

"There Is Something On Your Mind"

Did you know that James Brown got his start with The Hollywood Flame?

[dagosd2000]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUij8FCg0z8

Flight Of the Bumble Bee

Rafael Mendez

THE TRUMPET GENIUS

Rafael Medez was considered the greatest trumpet player who ever lived.He performed everything from contemporary through the classics. There was nothing he couldn't master. Conservatories were named after him.He wrote manuscripts on the trumpet that are used all over. By the way,he was born in Jiquilpan.

One of Mendez's first gigs was when he was 13 years old. A protege,his family sent him to Mexico City to study. At the time Villa and Zapata had occupied the capitol. One day when Mendez was performing,he caught the attention of The Centaur Of The North. Villa,a man who wouldn't be denied,approached the young Rafael and invited him to lead the charge with his bugle as Villa's Dorados stormed hell bent for leather into enemy fire.Naturally,the Mendezes protested. At least very carefully. Villa,a man who wouldn't be denied,responded that he would shoot Mr. and Mrs. Mendez if they wouldn't allow their son the honor to ride beside Pancho.

Evidently Rafael didn't wind up "dobied"(shot in front of a firing squad) or strung up from an oak tree because he went on to become a music legend. Villa? Well he was assassinated and later they stole his head from the graveyard. I bet more people know of Pancho Villa than Rafael Mendez.

[dagosd2000]

The Hollywood Flames

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aiN9qKrYhg

"One Night With A Fool"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXLb849HAfg

"Peggy"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hvbt201OJ0

"I Know"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFFm7SySjHU

"There Is Something On Your Mind"

Did you know that James Brown got his start with The Hollywood Flame?

Frank
You should put together a book on The Blues.

[dagosd2000]

Frank
You know something is wrong with the Universe when you mention The Hollywood Flames to someone and they've never heard of them,and don't care to know anyway. :(

[dagosd2000]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uz2oxMuJrA

Slim Gaillard jammin' in South Central LA. 1946.Cozy Cole on drums. Don't recognize the bass player.

[kikibalt]

Little Willie John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i93-hlwULUk
"Fever"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9ntxgS682c

"Talk To me, Talk To Me"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syxgc2665w4

"Need Your Love So Bad"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq6Jq_GOR1c

"All My Love Belongs To You"

[dagosd2000]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNJpes0XFGU

Lover Man

Charlie Parker. (recorded Hollywood Ca. 1946)

[Rick Farris]

San Diego,
April 1969 . . .


I was a junior in high school. My heavyweight team mate and friend, Kit Boursse', was in his first year of junior college.
Kit was taking police science classes at Valley College, just in case he didn't reach his goal of a world heavyweight title one day. Kit didn't win the title, but he did become a cop.
We'd both won regional AAU championships at El Monte Legion Stadium the previous week, and were in San Diego with the rest of the L.A. team for the Nationals.

We had two heavyweights on our team. Kit Boursse' had earned his spot by winning the Southern Pacific regional title like the rest of us on the team.
Walter Moore, our other heavyweight, had won the National Golden Gloves title in Kansas City the previous month, automatically guaranteeing a trip to the AAU Nationals.
I'd been on the Golden Gloves team that went to Kansas City with Moore, Mike Quarry, Petey Vital Jr., Rudy Acuna, Florentino Ramirez and a few others just a month previous.

We drove down to San Diego the day before the four day tournament started at the new International Sports Arena.
Our coaches were Jake Horn, Ernie DeFrance, Sonny Ray and Memo Soto.
Manuel Diaz, Kit's and my coach at the Johnny Flores Gym, drove us down to S.D. in his new Buick Riviera.
On the drive down, all Diaz would let us listen to on the stereo was his new Jose Feliciano tape. It was the one that featured "Light My Fire."
After that three hour drive, I never wanted to hear the song again. Manny and Feliciano ruined it for me. I used to like the DOORS and still do, but not that song.

All of nearly 500 fighters plus coaches were lodged at the LeBaron Hotel on Hotel Circle. I was happy to find that not everybody on our team would be in just one room.
That's what it was like in the juniors when you fought out of town. You would have two, sometimes three kids in one bed, on the floor, wherever?
That was fun when your a kid, but in San Diego I'd share a two-bed room with my stablemate.

After we'd settled into our rooms, we went looking for some of the other guys on our team.
There was Rudy Acuna, who we called "Porky". Porky was the nephew of my professional stablemate, Ruben Navarro. Porky was our team's Lightweight rep.
Our bantam was a sharp little fighter from Santa Paula in Ventura County, Florentino Ramirez. Tino was trained by light-heavy headliner, Ray "Windmill" White.
Middleweight Bobby Torrance was on the team, as was featherweight Spike Sanborne, 130 pounder Henry Verastique and Tommy Coulson at welter.
Two of our regional winners, Mike Quarry and Petey Vital decided to skip the national tournament in favor of staying home and making their pro debuts.
Both Quarry and Vital were offered matches on the undercard of the first Curtis Cokes vs. Jose Napoles welter title fight, which was held at the Forum that same week.

The big name of the tournament was heavyweight Jim Elder of the Navy.
Elder had upset L.A. amateur legend, Clay Hodges, twice the previous year and was favored to win.
There was also Walter Moore, himself a recent National champ. It was pretty much determined that Elder or Moore were the favored heavyweight candidates.
Nobody had much interest in a big fighter from Cincinnati. His name was Earnie Shavers.

Despite the two heavyweight favorites, one boxer stood above the rest when considering the best of the best, and that was the Army's welterweight, Armando Muniz.
Muniz was a defending Nat'l AAU Champ, and an Olympian in the Mexico City Games just months earlier. He was also the All-Army and Inter-Service champ.
With the exception of the Olympics, Muniz never lost as an amateur after joining the Army's boxing team. The Army's coach was the best of the era, Pat Nappi.
We would soon discover that the Army had the best boxing team in the tournament.

I had the not so great pleasure of discovering that the Army certainly had the best flyweight in the tourney, 23-year-old Spec. 4, Caleb Long.
Caleb Long would be my second bout of the day, having won a close decision over a kid from Cinncinati in the afternoon.

At the Nationals, you have three days of eliminations, Wed-Thur-Fri, with the final championship matches held on Saturday.
I had a bye the first day, the second day I fought twice, winning the first match by a close decision in the afternoon. Later in the evening, I fought a great amateur fighter.
I say this not because he was the only boxer to stop me in the amateurs, but because his 173 bout career validated it.
I was down twice in the opening round and today they'd have stopped it.
I hung in, and actually had a fair second round, but in the third I caught a punch high on the forehead that did not hurt me, but it caught me off-balance and I reeled backwards.
It looked like he'd knocked me across the ring, and I was trying to keep my feet under me. As I say, I was not at all hurt but it looked as if I was, I guess. The ref called it.

Caleb Long went on to win the Nationals. Armando Muniz told me before the fight that this guy was good, and that I was "in deep." That was an understatement.
I was only knocked down twice as an amateur, and both knockdowns took place in that opening round.
I finished on my feet, unhurt at the end, but he really rang my bell in round one.

I asked Mando whatever happened to Caleb Long. The former welter contender told me that Long had been discharged from the Army a few months after the tournament.
He said he'd heard that he was involved with an armed robbery and had been shot and killed. I need to investigate and see if what Muniz had heard was correct?

I can't speak for all boxers, but I never forgot a guy who hurt me. If I fought them a second time, they never hurt me again.
A solid punch gets your attention, to say the least, and you take it seriously. It will make you fight better, at least more aware.
Of course, if you are a dog it will make you quit. I may have had a few fleas, but I never quit.
Caleb Long hit me so hard that night, I can still feel it more than four decades later.

In the heavyweight division, my buddy Kit Boursse' was also eliminated in his second fight. The guy who beat him lost to Earnie Shavers.
Walter Moore? Well Walter seems to have come down with a stomach problem.
When he discovered he'd be fighting Jim Elder in the opening round of the eliminations, he came down with a stomach ailment, and pulled out.

Elder was cocky, a kind of soft bellied white fighter with good basic skills and an inflated ego. He walked thru everybody right up to the final match, the championship bout.
He was actually intimidating most of his competition. They were scared, you could see it in a couple.

The guy who looked most scared was the big, hard punching kid from Cincinnati, Earnie Shavers.
When they met in the center of the ring, you could see Elder smirk at his wide-eyed opponent.

The bells rings and Shavers runs right across the ring and begins to throw bombs with both hands. One clips Elder on the chin and he reels back into the ropes.
He must have taken a dozen solid shots, a couple as he fell to the canvas. Elder struggled to push himself up but he couldn't. He was counted out.
The biggest upset of the tournament.

That was the final match of the tournament. The Champions were crowned, and the Fighter of the Tournament was announced . . . Armando Muniz of the U.S. Army!
That was no suprise, Mando was surely the man that year.

The year was 1969 . . . a few months later a man walked on the moon for the first time, Rocky Marciano was killed in a plane crash, Viet Nam was going hot & heavy, Ruben Olivares flattened Lionel Rose to win the bantam title, and a guy named Charles Manson orchestrated two bloody mass murders in Southern California.
It was quite a year.


-Rick Farris

Trivia . . .

The night Armando Muniz won his second consecutive Nat'l AAU title in San Diego, Jose "Mantequilla" Napoles knocked out Curtis Cokes to win the welter title in L.A.
The two would eventually get to know one another very well.

[kikibalt]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNJpes0XFGU

Lover Man

Charlie Parker. (recorded Hollywood Ca. 1946)

A man and his horn

[dagosd2000]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCDOr6au_H8

After You're Gone

Bessie Smith(she sang in Diamond Joe's speakeasy in Chicago).Where's my time machine?

[dagosd2000]

San Diego,
April 1969 . . .


I was a junior in high school. My heavyweight team mate and friend, Kit Boursse', was in his first year of junior college.
Kit was taking police science classes at Valley College, just in case he didn't reach his goal of a world heavyweight title one day. Kit didn't win the title, but he did become a cop.
We'd both won regional AAU championships at El Monte Legion Stadium the previous week, and were in San Diego with the rest of the L.A. team for the Nationals.

We had two heavyweights on our team. Kit Boursse' had earned his spot by winning the Southern Pacific regional title like the rest of us on the team.
Walter Moore, our other heavyweight, had won the National Golden Gloves title in Kansas City the previous month, automatically guaranteeing a trip to the AAU Nationals.
I'd been on the Golden Gloves team that went to Kansas City with Moore, Mike Quarry, Petey Vital Jr., Rudy Acuna, Florentino Ramirez and a few others just a month previous.

We drove down to San Diego the day before the four day tournament started at the new International Sports Arena.
Our coaches were Jake Horn, Ernie DeFrance, Sonny Ray and Memo Soto.
Manuel Diaz, Kit's and my coach at the Johnny Flores Gym, drove us down to S.D. in his new Buick Riviera.
On the drive down, all Diaz would let us listen to on the stereo was his new Jose Feliciano tape. It was the one that featured "Light My Fire."
After that three hour drive, I never wanted to hear the song again. Manny and Feliciano ruined it for me. I used to like the DOORS and still do, but not that song.

All of nearly 500 fighters plus coaches were lodged at the LeBaron Hotel on Hotel Circle. I was happy to find that not everybody on our team would be in just one room.
That's what it was like in the juniors when you fought out of town. You would have two, sometimes three kids in one bed, on the floor, wherever?
That was fun when your a kid, but in San Diego I'd share a two-bed room with my stablemate.

After we'd settled into our rooms, we went looking for some of the other guys on our team.
There was Rudy Acuna, who we called "Porky". Porky was the nephew of my professional stablemate, Ruben Navarro. Porky was our team's Lightweight rep.
Our bantam was a sharp little fighter from Santa Paula in Ventura County, Florentino Ramirez. Tino was trained by light-heavy headliner, Ray "Windmill" White.
Middleweight Bobby Torrance was on the team, as was featherweight Spike Sanborne, 130 pounder Henry Verastique and Tommy Coulson at welter.
Two of our regional winners, Mike Quarry and Petey Vital decided to skip the national tournament in favor of staying home and making their pro debuts.
Both Quarry and Vital were offered matches on the undercard of the first Curtis Cokes vs. Jose Napoles welter title fight, which was held at the Forum that same week.

The big name of the tournament was heavyweight Jim Elder of the Navy.
Elder had upset L.A. amateur legend, Clay Hodges, twice the previous year and was favored to win.
There was also Walter Moore, himself a recent National champ. It was pretty much determined that Elder or Moore were the favored heavyweight candidates.
Nobody had much interest in a big fighter from Cincinnati. His name was Earnie Shavers.

Despite the two heavyweight favorites, one boxer stood above the rest when considering the best of the best, and that was the Army's welterweight, Armando Muniz.
Muniz was a defending Nat'l AAU Champ, and an Olympian in the Mexico City Games just months earlier. He was also the All-Army and Inter-Service champ.
With the exception of the Olympics, Muniz never lost as an amateur after joining the Army's boxing team. The Army's coach was the best of the era, Pat Nappi.
We would soon discover that the Army had the best boxing team in the tournament.

I had the not so great pleasure of discovering that the Army certainly had the best flyweight in the tourney, 23-year-old Spec. 4, Caleb Long.
Caleb Long would be my second bout of the day, having won a close decision over a kid from Cinncinati in the afternoon.

At the Nationals, you have three days of eliminations, Wed-Thur-Fri, with the final championship matches held on Saturday.
I had a bye the first day, the second day I fought twice, winning the first match by a close decision in the afternoon. Later in the evening, I fought a great amateur fighter.
I say this not because he was the only boxer to stop me in the amateurs, but because his 173 bout career validated it.
I was down twice in the opening round and today they'd have stopped it.
I hung in, and actually had a fair second round, but in the third I caught a punch high on the forehead that did not hurt me, but it caught me off-balance and I reeled backwards.
It looked like he'd knocked me across the ring, and I was trying to keep my feet under me. As I say, I was not at all hurt but it looked as if I was, I guess. The ref called it.

Caleb Long went on to win the Nationals. Armando Muniz told me before the fight that this guy was good, and that I was "in deep." That was an understatement.
I was only knocked down twice as an amateur, and both knockdowns took place in that opening round.
I finished on my feet, unhurt at the end, but he really rang my bell in round one.

I asked Mando whatever happened to Caleb Long. The former welter contender told me that Long had been discharged from the Army a few months after the tournament.
He said he'd heard that he was involved with an armed robbery and had been shot and killed. I need to investigate and see if what Muniz had heard was correct?

I can't speak for all boxers, but I never forgot a guy who hurt me. If I fought them a second time, they never hurt me again.
A solid punch gets your attention, to say the least, and you take it seriously. It will make you fight better, at least more aware.
Of course, if you are a dog it will make you quit. I may have had a few fleas, but I never quit.
Caleb Long hit me so hard that night, I can still feel it more than four decades later.

In the heavyweight division, my buddy Kit Boursse' was also eliminated in his second fight. The guy who beat him lost to Earnie Shavers.
Walter Moore? Well Walter seems to have come down with a stomach problem.
When he discovered he'd be fighting Jim Elder in the opening round of the eliminations, he came down with a stomach ailment, and pulled out.

Elder was cocky, a kind of soft bellied white fighter with good basic skills and an inflated ego. He walked thru everybody right up to the final match, the championship bout.
He was actually intimidating most of his competition. They were scared, you could see it in a couple.

The guy who looked most scared was the big, hard punching kid from Cincinnati, Earnie Shavers.
When they met in the center of the ring, you could see Elder smirk at his wide-eyed opponent.

The bells rings and Shavers runs right across the ring and begins to throw bombs with both hands. One clips Elder on the chin and he reels back into the ropes.
He must have taken a dozen solid shots, a couple as he fell to the canvas. Elder struggled to push himself up but he couldn't. He was counted out.
The biggest upset of the tournament.

That was the final match of the tournament. The Champions were crowned, and the Fighter of the Tournament was announced . . . Armando Muniz of the U.S. Army!
That was no suprise, Mando was surely the man that year.

The year was 1969 . . . a few months later a man walked on the moon for the first time, Rocky Marciano was killed in a plane crash, Viet Nam was going hot & heavy, Ruben Olivares flattened Lionel Rose to win the bantam title, and a guy named Charles Manson orchestrated two bloody mass murders in Southern California.
It was quite a year.


-Rick Farris

Trivia . . .

The night Armando Muniz won his second consecutive Nat'l AAU title in San Diego, Jose "Mantequilla" Napoles knocked out Curtis Cokes to win the welter title in L.A.
The two would eventually get to know one another very well.

Rick 'ol pal
You want to clear out a room at a party? Start talking about Mantequilla Napoles and the Hollywood Flames. People will think you're nuts. :(

[Rick Farris]

San Diego,
April 1969 . . .


I was a junior in high school. My heavyweight team mate and friend, Kit Boursse', was in his first year of junior college.
Kit was taking police science classes at Valley College, just in case he didn't reach his goal of a world heavyweight title one day. Kit didn't win the title, but he did become a cop.
We'd both won regional AAU championships at El Monte Legion Stadium the previous week, and were in San Diego with the rest of the L.A. team for the Nationals.

We had two heavyweights on our team. Kit Boursse' had earned his spot by winning the Southern Pacific regional title like the rest of us on the team.
Walter Moore, our other heavyweight, had won the National Golden Gloves title in Kansas City the previous month, automatically guaranteeing a trip to the AAU Nationals.
I'd been on the Golden Gloves team that went to Kansas City with Moore, Mike Quarry, Petey Vital Jr., Rudy Acuna, Florentino Ramirez and a few others just a month previous.

We drove down to San Diego the day before the four day tournament started at the new International Sports Arena.
Our coaches were Jake Horn, Ernie DeFrance, Sonny Ray and Memo Soto.
Manuel Diaz, Kit's and my coach at the Johnny Flores Gym, drove us down to S.D. in his new Buick Riviera.
On the drive down, all Diaz would let us listen to on the stereo was his new Jose Feliciano tape. It was the one that featured "Light My Fire."
After that three hour drive, I never wanted to hear the song again. Manny and Feliciano ruined it for me. I used to like the DOORS and still do, but not that song.

All of nearly 500 fighters plus coaches were lodged at the LeBaron Hotel on Hotel Circle. I was happy to find that not everybody on our team would be in just one room.
That's what it was like in the juniors when you fought out of town. You would have two, sometimes three kids in one bed, on the floor, wherever?
That was fun when your a kid, but in San Diego I'd share a two-bed room with my stablemate.

After we'd settled into our rooms, we went looking for some of the other guys on our team.
There was Rudy Acuna, who we called "Porky". Porky was the nephew of my professional stablemate, Ruben Navarro. Porky was our team's Lightweight rep.
Our bantam was a sharp little fighter from Santa Paula in Ventura County, Florentino Ramirez. Tino was trained by light-heavy headliner, Ray "Windmill" White.
Middleweight Bobby Torrance was on the team, as was featherweight Spike Sanborne, 130 pounder Henry Verastique and Tommy Coulson at welter.
Two of our regional winners, Mike Quarry and Petey Vital decided to skip the national tournament in favor of staying home and making their pro debuts.
Both Quarry and Vital were offered matches on the undercard of the first Curtis Cokes vs. Jose Napoles welter title fight, which was held at the Forum that same week.

The big name of the tournament was heavyweight Jim Elder of the Navy.
Elder had upset L.A. amateur legend, Clay Hodges, twice the previous year and was favored to win.
There was also Walter Moore, himself a recent National champ. It was pretty much determined that Elder or Moore were the favored heavyweight candidates.
Nobody had much interest in a big fighter from Cincinnati. His name was Earnie Shavers.

Despite the two heavyweight favorites, one boxer stood above the rest when considering the best of the best, and that was the Army's welterweight, Armando Muniz.
Muniz was a defending Nat'l AAU Champ, and an Olympian in the Mexico City Games just months earlier. He was also the All-Army and Inter-Service champ.
With the exception of the Olympics, Muniz never lost as an amateur after joining the Army's boxing team. The Army's coach was the best of the era, Pat Nappi.
We would soon discover that the Army had the best boxing team in the tournament.

I had the not so great pleasure of discovering that the Army certainly had the best flyweight in the tourney, 23-year-old Spec. 4, Caleb Long.
Caleb Long would be my second bout of the day, having won a close decision over a kid from Cinncinati in the afternoon.

At the Nationals, you have three days of eliminations, Wed-Thur-Fri, with the final championship matches held on Saturday.
I had a bye the first day, the second day I fought twice, winning the first match by a close decision in the afternoon. Later in the evening, I fought a great amateur fighter.
I say this not because he was the only boxer to stop me in the amateurs, but because his 173 bout career validated it.
I was down twice in the opening round and today they'd have stopped it.
I hung in, and actually had a fair second round, but in the third I caught a punch high on the forehead that did not hurt me, but it caught me off-balance and I reeled backwards.
It looked like he'd knocked me across the ring, and I was trying to keep my feet under me. As I say, I was not at all hurt but it looked as if I was, I guess. The ref called it.

Caleb Long went on to win the Nationals. Armando Muniz told me before the fight that this guy was good, and that I was "in deep." That was an understatement.
I was only knocked down twice as an amateur, and both knockdowns took place in that opening round.
I finished on my feet, unhurt at the end, but he really rang my bell in round one.

I asked Mando whatever happened to Caleb Long. The former welter contender told me that Long had been discharged from the Army a few months after the tournament.
He said he'd heard that he was involved with an armed robbery and had been shot and killed. I need to investigate and see if what Muniz had heard was correct?

I can't speak for all boxers, but I never forgot a guy who hurt me. If I fought them a second time, they never hurt me again.
A solid punch gets your attention, to say the least, and you take it seriously. It will make you fight better, at least more aware.
Of course, if you are a dog it will make you quit. I may have had a few fleas, but I never quit.
Caleb Long hit me so hard that night, I can still feel it more than four decades later.

In the heavyweight division, my buddy Kit Boursse' was also eliminated in his second fight. The guy who beat him lost to Earnie Shavers.
Walter Moore? Well Walter seems to have come down with a stomach problem.
When he discovered he'd be fighting Jim Elder in the opening round of the eliminations, he came down with a stomach ailment, and pulled out.

Elder was cocky, a kind of soft bellied white fighter with good basic skills and an inflated ego. He walked thru everybody right up to the final match, the championship bout.
He was actually intimidating most of his competition. They were scared, you could see it in a couple.

The guy who looked most scared was the big, hard punching kid from Cincinnati, Earnie Shavers.
When they met in the center of the ring, you could see Elder smirk at his wide-eyed opponent.

The bells rings and Shavers runs right across the ring and begins to throw bombs with both hands. One clips Elder on the chin and he reels back into the ropes.
He must have taken a dozen solid shots, a couple as he fell to the canvas. Elder struggled to push himself up but he couldn't. He was counted out.
The biggest upset of the tournament.

That was the final match of the tournament. The Champions were crowned, and the Fighter of the Tournament was announced . . . Armando Muniz of the U.S. Army!
That was no suprise, Mando was surely the man that year.

The year was 1969 . . . a few months later a man walked on the moon for the first time, Rocky Marciano was killed in a plane crash, Viet Nam was going hot & heavy, Ruben Olivares flattened Lionel Rose to win the bantam title, and a guy named Charles Manson orchestrated two bloody mass murders in Southern California.
It was quite a year.


-Rick Farris

Trivia . . .

The night Armando Muniz won his second consecutive Nat'l AAU title in San Diego, Jose "Mantequilla" Napoles knocked out Curtis Cokes to win the welter title in L.A.
The two would eventually get to know one another very well.

Rick 'ol pal
You want to clear out a room at a party? Start talking about Mantequilla Napoles and the Hollywood Flames. People will think you're nuts. :(

Depends on who you invite to the party.
What if the party consisted of Frank, Connie, You & Maria, Randy & Jeri, Monica, Pug, Scartissue, Ed Hernandez, Mando Muniz, Chuck Johnston, El Gato & Barb and the "usual suspects"?
I think Mantequilla and the Flames just might fit?
And just for the record, people already think I'm nuts.

[kikibalt]

Its the early early '50s, I'm cruising in my black four door '38 Chevy, lower to the ground, twin pipes, full moons, etc, etc., with a babe (Before Connie) next to me listening to Hunter Hancock playing The Hollywood Flames, after the Flames he puts Johnny Ace on the turn table. Ah! such memories!....

[Rick Farris]

Its the early early '50s, I'm cruising in my black four door '38 Chevy, lower to the ground, twin pipes, full moons, etc, etc., with a babe (Before Connie) next to me listening to Hunter Hancock playing The Hollywood Flames, after the Flames he puts Johnny Ace on the turn table. Ah! such memories!....

Full moons . . . I remember those as a kid. Great car, Frank.

[dagosd2000]

.


Rick 'ol pal
You want to clear out a room at a party? Start talking about Mantequilla Napoles and the Hollywood Flames. People will think you're nuts. :([/quote]


Depends on who you invite to the party.
What if the party consisted of Frank, Connie, You & Maria, Randy & Jeri, Monica, Pug, Scartissue, Ed Hernandez, Mando Muniz, Chuck Johnston, El Gato & Barb and the "usual suspects"?
I think Mantequilla and the Flames just might fit?
And just for the record, people already think I'm nuts. [/quote]

Rick
I'm with you on this one. But look at it this way. Consider ourselves lucky. Most people still have a lot comin' at them later on.

[dagosd2000]

Its the early early '50s, I'm cruising in my black four door '38 Chevy, lower to the ground, twin pipes, full moons, etc, etc., with a babe (Before Connie) next to me listening to Hunter Hancock playing The Hollywood Flames, after the Flames he puts Johnny Ace on the turn table. Ah! such memories!....

Full moons . . . I remember those as a kid. Great car, Frank.

My 57 Bel Air had baby moons. And was pink. I tried to pattern myself after Sugar Ray ,but I couldn't afford a Cadillac.

[kikibalt]

The Hollywood Flames

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aiN9qKrYhg

"One Night With A Fool"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXLb849HAfg

"Peggy"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hvbt201OJ0

"I Know"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFFm7SySjHU

"There Is Something On Your Mind"

Did you know that James Brown got his start with The Hollywood Flame?

Frank
You should put together a book on The Blues.

I don't know about writing a book on the Blues, I will say this, I grew up on the Blues, Race music, R & B. In the early '50s you had white radio stations that would not play black music at all and then you had Hunter Hancock, a white man that would not play white artist's music, that the way it was back then. I remember when Little Willie John had a big hit with "Fever", so the white power that be had Peggy Lee record "Fever" so the the white stations could play "Fever".....

[kikibalt]

Its the early early '50s, I'm cruising in my black four door '38 Chevy, lower to the ground, twin pipes, full moons, etc, etc., with a babe (Before Connie) next to me listening to Hunter Hancock playing The Hollywood Flames, after the Flames he puts Johnny Ace on the turn table. Ah! such memories!....

Full moons . . . I remember those as a kid. Great car, Frank.

Thanks, Rick, it was my first car, paid $50 bucks for it, $5 a week,....
Bought it when I had just turned 15 years old, my dad helped me with money to fix it up, body work/paint, pipes, tires, etc etc, so that it was ready for me when I turned 16 and was able to drive it legally....

[Rick Farris]

Its the early early '50s, I'm cruising in my black four door '38 Chevy, lower to the ground, twin pipes, full moons, etc, etc., with a babe (Before Connie) next to me listening to Hunter Hancock playing The Hollywood Flames, after the Flames he puts Johnny Ace on the turn table. Ah! such memories!....

Full moons . . . I remember those as a kid. Great car, Frank.

Thanks, Rick, it was my first car, paid $50 bucks for it, $5 a week,....
Bought it when I had just turned 15 years old, my dad helped me with money to fix it up, body work/paint, pipes, tires, etc etc, so that it was ready for me when I turned 16 and was able to drive it legally....

You had a great dad, Frank. The car, the three fights between Williams & Bolanos, the Teran-Cadilli fight.
Those are special memories. How great to have a car like that already to go when you get your license.
How many times did you sneak out and drive it before you had your license?

[kikibalt]

Its the early early '50s, I'm cruising in my black four door '38 Chevy, lower to the ground, twin pipes, full moons, etc, etc., with a babe (Before Connie) next to me listening to Hunter Hancock playing The Hollywood Flames, after the Flames he puts Johnny Ace on the turn table. Ah! such memories!....

Full moons . . . I remember those as a kid. Great car, Frank.

Thanks, Rick, it was my first car, paid $50 bucks for it, $5 a week,....
Bought it when I had just turned 15 years old, my dad helped me with money to fix it up, body work/paint, pipes, tires, etc etc, so that it was ready for me when I turned 16 and was able to drive it legally....


You had a great dad, Frank. The car, the three fights between Williams & Bolanos, the Teran-Cadilli fight.
Those are special memories. How great to have a car like that already to go when you get your license.
How many times did you sneak out and drive it before you had your license?

A few times, Rick, that my dad never found out about, my mom did, but didn't say anything to pops.....

The fights and pops?. Well I was the only boy in the family at the time, so my dad gave me what he could. I was 14 when my only brother, Mando, was born, didn't get to know Mando until he came back from 'Nam.....

[kikibalt]

Raul Macias & Chameron Songkitrat with Russ Wolden, Chairmean of the Hanna Boys Center
March 4, 1955, San Francisco, California