Bill McConnell trainer of Jimmy Carruthers

[raydoug]

William (Bill) McConnell (1906-1970), boxing-trainer, was born on 18 August 1906 at Paddington, Sydney, son of native-born parents William Daniel McConnell, dealer, and his wife Ruby St Clair, née Hall. After minimal education, Bill married his childhood sweetheart Millicent Miller (d.1959) on 28 June 1923 at St Francis's Catholic Church, Haymarket; he was aged 16 and she was a year older. They had three children by the time he was 20 and lived in a single room. He was employed in a brass foundry and she had worked as a chocolate-packer.
In 1926 McConnell entered a boxing tournament solely to make money. Stocky and tough, he fought as a flyweight and won through to the final by competing seven times over a total of forty-four rounds. He lost the fifteen-round final, but the purse of £40 enabled him to buy some furniture and move into a rented house. McConnell fought professionally at Leichhardt Stadium and advanced to main events until he was matched with the future lightweight champion (1931) Bobby Delaney who outweighed him by a stone. Knocked out in the fifth round, McConnell was so badly beaten that he was unable to work for several weeks. He retired from fighting and turned to training.
His gymnasium—which he opened at Newtown in 1930 and moved to Abercrombie Street, Chippendale, about 1934—became the 'Stillman's' of Sydney, where young hopefuls went in search of glory, old stagers battled to keep their careers afloat, overseas fighters trained, and the boxing fraternity gathered. Over forty years McConnell trained numerous Australian and State champions. He achieved his greatest success with the southpaw Jimmy Carruthers whom he took to the world bantamweight title in 1952. Carruthers defended the title three times, earning substantial purses and ushering in a brief period of prosperity for McConnell.
Leading American fighters such as Freddie Dawson and Archie Moore regarded McConnell's skills highly. Unlike many others in his role, he seems to have cared for and protected the boxers in his charge. During the late 1940s he was president of the Boxers', Managers' and Trainers' Guild. In 1950 a number of articles under McConnell's name, crafted from his notes by boxing journalist Ray Mitchell, appeared in the Australian Ring Digest: in these pieces the trainer forcefully expressed his views on honest promotion, fair refereeing and the image of boxing. After Carruthers' premature retirement in 1954, McConnell's fortunes waned. He grew disenchanted with the conduct of boxing and suffered a severe loss when his gymnasium was destroyed by fire in 1955. He opened another gym on a different site at Chippendale, turned his attention to training amateur fighters, and took a job as a cleaner to make ends meet.
Known as 'Silent Bill', an ironic reference to his loquaciousness, McConnell provided lively copy for sporting journalists. He and his rival, fellow trainer Ernest McQuillan, occasionally came to blows, but McQuillan organized a boxing show to raise money for McConnell who suffered a heart attack in 1968 and was in financial distress. On 10 September that year, while in St Vincent's Hospital, McConnell married an invalid pensioner Gloria Joyce Sproule. Survived by his wife, and by the two sons and two daughters of his first marriage, he died of myocardial infarction on 21 January 1970 in St Vincent's and was buried in Botany cemetery. Carruthers and many other fighters whom McConnell had trained attended the funeral.

[bollocks]

William (Bill) McConnell (1906-1970), boxing-trainer, was born on 18 August 1906 at Paddington, Sydney, son of native-born parents William Daniel McConnell, dealer, and his wife Ruby St Clair, née Hall. After minimal education, Bill married his childhood sweetheart Millicent Miller (d.1959) on 28 June 1923 at St Francis's Catholic Church, Haymarket; he was aged 16 and she was a year older. They had three children by the time he was 20 and lived in a single room. He was employed in a brass foundry and she had worked as a chocolate-packer.
In 1926 McConnell entered a boxing tournament solely to make money. Stocky and tough, he fought as a flyweight and won through to the final by competing seven times over a total of forty-four rounds. He lost the fifteen-round final, but the purse of £40 enabled him to buy some furniture and move into a rented house. McConnell fought professionally at Leichhardt Stadium and advanced to main events until he was matched with the future lightweight champion (1931) Bobby Delaney who outweighed him by a stone. Knocked out in the fifth round, McConnell was so badly beaten that he was unable to work for several weeks. He retired from fighting and turned to training.
His gymnasium—which he opened at Newtown in 1930 and moved to Abercrombie Street, Chippendale, about 1934—became the 'Stillman's' of Sydney, where young hopefuls went in search of glory, old stagers battled to keep their careers afloat, overseas fighters trained, and the boxing fraternity gathered. Over forty years McConnell trained numerous Australian and State champions. He achieved his greatest success with the southpaw Jimmy Carruthers whom he took to the world bantamweight title in 1952. Carruthers defended the title three times, earning substantial purses and ushering in a brief period of prosperity for McConnell.
Leading American fighters such as Freddie Dawson and Archie Moore regarded McConnell's skills highly. Unlike many others in his role, he seems to have cared for and protected the boxers in his charge. During the late 1940s he was president of the Boxers', Managers' and Trainers' Guild. In 1950 a number of articles under McConnell's name, crafted from his notes by boxing journalist Ray Mitchell, appeared in the Australian Ring Digest: in these pieces the trainer forcefully expressed his views on honest promotion, fair refereeing and the image of boxing. After Carruthers' premature retirement in 1954, McConnell's fortunes waned. He grew disenchanted with the conduct of boxing and suffered a severe loss when his gymnasium was destroyed by fire in 1955. He opened another gym on a different site at Chippendale, turned his attention to training amateur fighters, and took a job as a cleaner to make ends meet.
Known as 'Silent Bill', an ironic reference to his loquaciousness, McConnell provided lively copy for sporting journalists. He and his rival, fellow trainer Ernest McQuillan, occasionally came to blows, but McQuillan organized a boxing show to raise money for McConnell who suffered a heart attack in 1968 and was in financial distress. On 10 September that year, while in St Vincent's Hospital, McConnell married an invalid pensioner Gloria Joyce Sproule. Survived by his wife, and by the two sons and two daughters of his first marriage, he died of myocardial infarction on 21 January 1970 in St Vincent's and was buried in Botany cemetery. Carruthers and many other fighters whom McConnell had trained attended the funeral.

Nice writeup, they made 'em tough in those days because they simply had to be. Jimmy Carruthers doesn't get too much of a mention these days but he must have been pretty damn good to be champion when there were only 8 world champions

[Beltane]

This scratchy old video just how good Jimmy was in his two victories over Vic Toweel, especially in fight 1.

In their first fight, in which Jimmy was the underdog, he threw more than 100 punches to Towell's 1. It was all overby 2:19 in round 1 and is described as one of the most sustained and explosive displays of punching ever.

The second fight lasted 10 rounds before Towell was stopped.

[bollocks]

Haven't seen the footage before thanks. Geez the refs in those days waited until a fighter was almost decapitated before stepping in but I suppose it was a different time

Vic Toweel migrated to Aus after retiring and I remember a nephew of his being a fighter in the eartly 80's. I think he was also named Vic

Carruthers may have been the first to retire undefeated before staging an ill advised comeback some years later. He ran a pub that wasn't going so well so the comeback was to help the business stay afloat

[Tinnie]

Not just Carruthers.... Ellen Bennett, Bobby Sinn, Trevor King... all top notch guys in a good era of FWs and bantams for us.

Jimmy came back to Australia and defended his title against Pappy Gault, afterwards it was found he had a 30ft tapeworm in his intestine that he had contracted on his trip in South Africa

[bollocks]

Not just Carruthers.... Ellen Bennett, Bobby Sinn, Trevor King... all top notch guys in a good era of FWs and bantams for us.

Jimmy came back to Australia and defended his title against Pappy Gault, afterwards it was found he had a 30ft tapeworm in his intestine that he had contracted on his trip in South Africa

Then there was the open air defence where it poured down rain so the fighters took their boots off. The ring lights burst leaving broken glass on the ring apron

[Tinnie]

Not just Carruthers.... Ellen Bennett, Bobby Sinn, Trevor King... all top notch guys in a good era of FWs and bantams for us.

Jimmy came back to Australia and defended his title against Pappy Gault, afterwards it was found he had a 30ft tapeworm in his intestine that he had contracted on his trip in South Africa

Then there was the open air defence where it poured down rain so the fighters took their boots off. The ring lights burst leaving broken glass on the ring apron

Along with immense crowd, that fight was attended by the king and Queen of Thailand. That fight was a massive event for the Thais.

Jimmy had a pretty eventful career.

Just googling it.... didn't realise there was footage of this fight.... dont think it was even in the 'That's Boxing' documentary...

[bollocks]

Haven't seen that before, thanks

Can you Imagine that stuff happening today? (not)

[Tinnie]

Carruthers vs Sinn

Guess more than o realised had been released in recent years...