Ken Norton vs. Robie 'Big Roby' Harris

[Bobbin & Weavin]

Friday Night - October 16, 1970

Coliseum - San Diego, California

Trying to get some information on this bout.

Robie 'Big Ruby' Harris was big 26 year-old - 6' 5" 230 lb. Heavyweight out of Los Angeles.

'Big Ruby' had quit boxing in 1965, after going 0-4-1 in his 'first' 5-Bouts.

But, he came back in September 1968, and had gone 14-1-0 {13 KO's} in his 2-Year Run up to
his highly-anticipated bout with San Diego Sensation - Kenny Norton 18-1-0 {16 KO's}.

Hi Duce,
Interesting inquiry about Roby, but i'm not sure where you're getting your information about his record, if you check his record here in BoxRec there was no 14-1-0 run right before the Norton fight, maybe buildup for the fight? By the time this fight occurred Roby was living and fighting out of San Francisco for manager Phil Rancatore, training at Newman and Herman's Gym and supporting his family working as a tree trimmer in Pacifica and he actually went by Roby not Ruby, being pronounced like a boxing Robe.
Roby was part African American and part American Indian and had a shaved head with long sideburns and a goatee and when he came into the ring he wore a stocking cap and when he disrobed he pulled off the stocking cap and exposed his clean shaven head... he was a mammoth of a man and the crowd loved it. I was under the impression that he actually stands 6-6 but whats an inch between friends. I was an amateur boxer training at Newman's part of the time and became friendly with Roby and his very good friend, ranked middleweight Nate Collins. Collins was also managed at the time by Phil Rancatore. After their boxing careers both Roby and Nate when into the building trades in SF as glaziers.
I still see Nate at some Northern California Veterans Boxers Association functions and he says that he talks to Roby from time to time, he is retired and lives in Redding California. That's what i know about Big Roby, though i didn't address your request for information about his bout with Ken Norton.
Bobbin & Weavin

[Bobbin & Weavin]

Thanks for the follow up Mr. Bobbin & Weavin,,,,,,,,,

The fight report I have from the Newspaper Article stated that Robie 'Big Roby' Harris had a record
of 14-4-1 {13 KO's} but that was released from the Matchmaker out of the Coliseum in San Diego.

Obviously a fabrication or 'massaging' of the truth.

States that the 1st-Round was good action, and both fighters were 'cracked' on the chin near the end
of the Round.

Anyway, Kenny postponed his next scheduled bout, due to a swollen jaw - and then later {January 1971}
headed to New York {The Concord in The Catskills} to help with Joe Frazier prepare for the March 1971
F.O.T.C. with a fellow named Muhammad Ali.

Ya, Kenny went on to quite a nice career. Roby was extremely athletic, you could see it in the gym, he could "stick n move" with the best of them and for a guy his size it looked pretty impressive. He boxed a lot of rounds with George Foreman when Foreman was training in SF and would look good, talk around the gym was that nobody could believe he wasn't more successful and it may have been partially due to being brought along too fast. He had a couple good wins over Joe "King" Roman and Joey Obrillo and then a friend and I traveled down with Roby to see him fight Jose Luis Garcia, a Norton conquerer, at the Olympic and that was a disaster and then again we went down to see him fight Jock O'Halloran in SD which was billed as the fight of the giants, both being huge men; that didn't go so well for Roby either. All in all Roby was a great guy, a good family man and well liked. I have some good snap shots and an 8 X 10 glossy of him that I would post but I don't know how.

[Bobbin & Weavin]

Mr. Bobbin & Weavin,

I see that 'Big Roby' was idle from July 1965 thru March 1969,

Is it possible that he had a few 'smoker' or 'not logged bouts during that period.

Newspaper Article {from the Coliseum} does state the Robie Harris was 14-4-1 {13 KO's},
and a hard-hitting 'massive sized' Los Angeles Heavyweight.

The article called him 'Big Ruby'.

Sure it's very possible that he participated in some smokers or even in fights in some small clubs that went unrecorded, in fact I hope it did. I googled Roby and found a Roby Harris whom I think might be his son and have reached out to him in an email. Maybe we can learn some more about him; when I was training in the same gym as Roby and we were friends he was always called Roby as I described it. I was a teenager and loved being around the pros and had they told me Roby's record was 100-1 I would have believed them. I lived and died with their wins and losses, my dad took me aside after Nate Collins lost to Emile Griffith and told me I was taking the loss worse than Nate. Roby and Nate were so nice to us, (my brother and I) Roby gave me a pair of trunks that had shrunk and I wore them for all of my fights and still have them. I just haven't spoken to him in many years but am hoping his son can enlighten us to some of these questions.

[Rods]

The first time I saw Roby Harris was on Armed Forces TV when I was stationed in the Philippines. He was fighting Joe "King" Roman on Boxing from the Olympic and won a 10 round decision. I guess what stuck with me was his nickname which was embroidered on his robe that said "The Mystery Man". When I returned stateside I was able to attend the Jack O'Halloran/Roby Harris that had been billed as a battle of the giants. Before the fight when the fighters were in the ring Jack was dancing around the ring and "accidently" bumped into Harris a couple of times. Jack sure looked the part of a bad dude back then and had a very loud cheering section at the Coliseum in San Diego. Jack won in the 5th round.