Alf McEvoy
Ringmaster at the Liverpool Stadium for over 30 years and a former boxing booth fighter. In an article published in the Liverpool Echo in July 1973 it was said that in a city which abounds with fight characters there can be few, if any, who have seen more of boxing in the city and met more fight personalities than Alf McEvoy.
Alf was the backstage guy who saw that the ring and all its necessary fittings were in order for the then regular Thursday night shows. Until the Boxing Board of Control inspectors took over the job he worked the scales at the weigh in, helped organise the roster of Referees and saw that the gloves were ready and fitted correctly.
He said of one promoter
"I couldn't stand the sight of working men, regular fans, being told there were no cheap seats left and being talked into buying tickets they couldn't really afford when in fact very few of the lower priced tickets were ever made available"
“I had great pleasure in telling him that because of his mean trick about 150 fans had burst down a door and got in free. I don’t normally condone that sort of thing but this time I wasn’t bothered and never went back there to work”.
Alf who started work at the Liverpool abattoir aged 14 and didn’t retire until he was 77. It was at the abattoir that he had one of his ring outings with a match against a fellow worker. Such was the interest, and the side bets, that Alf had to go down to the local police station in Dale Street and promise they wouldn’t kill each other.Alf won in 8 rounds.
His early boxing experience took place in the early boxing booths, very popular in those days, with people such as Nat Williams. However the war came along and Alf, in 1914, joined the 5th Kings Regiment. He did some boxing at Canterberry before leaving for France where one evening an officer offered to relieve him if he took part in an army boxing show. Alf said “ I told him that to get out of the trench he would box Jack Johnson if necessary”. He then set of on a 20 kilometre walk back to the barracks went straight into the ring and won the six rounder on points.
Alf received a hand wound and returned to Britain . On his return to the war front he was again wounded by the blast from a bomb which he had thrown and then taken prisoner and ended up down a coal mine for the Germans after a short spell in a hospital.
At the end of the war he realised his fight days were at an end and turned to coaching and his opinions and ability were valued by both the amateurs and professionals alike. His first coaching job was at Liverpool University and under his tuition they gained six championships of Great Britain and Ireland. At various times he was also coach to the Liverpool Institute, Caldy Grammer School and the Liverpool Boarding College in Sefton Park. He also coached John Moores the Everton Football Club Chairman who also was later a steward of the boxing Board of Control.
Young John, as he was then known, was a first class boxer and not only became Public Schools champion of Great Britain but also captained the Eton School boxing team.
A term which rankled with Alf was “Mugs Alley”, conceived because of the many young hopefuls who would gather in that old part of the Stadium waiting for a late substitution chance.He preferred to call them stand-by-boxers.
When Joe Louis went to Liverpool, as World heavyweight champion, to give exhibitions for the troops Alf recalled a big civic reception where people had difficulty in getting more than a yes or no out of the champion.
However Alf had met with Joe in the stadium dressing room and asked him if he would like to meet somebody who had trained with Charlie Blackman – while Charlie had been training to meet Joe Gans. Louis jumped at the chance and was introduced to that old Liverpool favourite Ike Bradley.The pair chattered away freely and Alf believed that Ike had more conversation with Joe than anyone else during his visit.