BoxRec

As a fan of oldtimers and also with a background in visual arts, while looking at the old films photographs, I often want to know the colors of the boxing trunks. From the era pre-1940 it seems like there is a lot of black or very dark blue, a surprising amount of purple, and of course Irish green; I guess pre-television there was no need for the fighters wearing contrasting, or black or white trunks, for the announcers to identify who was who, which adds to my confusion.

Some colors can be detected from newspaper descriptions or rare radio/film introductions, and old Ring Magazine covers which while some can be trusted, others I'm sure are an artist's concept to make a more colorful cover. But I have not run into the any detailed descriptions of the colors of the bouts listed below and was wondering if any of the experts here might know what they were.

Any information or tips where to look would be greatly appreciated. Most interested right now in:

Jack Dempsey (vs Tunney I; I know vs Tunney II was black w/red trim, others white.)
Harry Wills (vs Firpo, or any others)
Battling Siki (a shiny dark silk vs Kid Norfolk)
Harry Greb (Walker, Tunney, Flowers, etc.; looks like black sometimes - have read usually green?)
Mickey Walker (vs Greb, or others)
Kid Norfolk (vs anybody)
Tiger Flowers

And any others from this era you might know and would like to add would be great. Thanks.

youre optimistic - the info you want will, for the most part, only exist in written records. jolly good luck on a tough task

For the most part from the early 60's and before, they wore black or white. I don't think their was much color. I once heard Gene Fullmer speak at a banquet and he told the story of how he beat Ray Robinson once so the next time he boxed him a few months later and he was the champ, he decided he wanted to wear white trunks because he knew that Robinson liked to wear white trunks and he didn't really care what color he wore. The champ got to decide what color he wore. So when he got in the ring 2nd he looked over and Robinson and he had on white trunks also. So he called the ref over and said "he has white trunks on and I got white trunks on, how are they going to tell us apart?" bada bing!

Bob Fitzsimmons wore pink trunks in his fight versus George Gardner.

JMac wrote:For the most part from the early 60's and before, they wore black or white. I don't think their was much color. I once heard Gene Fullmer speak at a banquet and he told the story of how he beat Ray Robinson once so the next time he boxed him a few months later and he was the champ, he decided he wanted to wear white trunks because he knew that Robinson liked to wear white trunks and he didn't really care what color he wore. The champ got to decide what color he wore. So when he got in the ring 2nd he looked over and Robinson and he had on white trunks also. So he called the ref over and said "he has white trunks on and I got white trunks on, how are they going to tell us apart?" bada bing!

I always found it entertaining how they would describe fighters by their trunks almost trying to avoid saying the black fighter or the white fighter which would've been much easier

I remember Ken Norton purposely broke that taboo on a particular broadcast he was color commentator on after the blow by blow guy would say the colors of the trunks, he would immediately say "the black fighter" and "the white fighter".

Thanks raylawpc. I've also read a lot of "flesh colored tights", which could be pink, both Sullivan and McCaffrey against each other for instance.

The didn't wear just black or white prior to the 60s. Thats an unconscious illusion made because the film is almost all in black and white from that time back. They have worn costumes of all colors, always

There is colour film of Joe Louis in a film made during WWII and he's wearing purple trunks.

ben geoghegan wrote:The didn't wear just black or white prior to the 60s. Thats an unconscious illusion made because the film is almost all in black and white from that time back. They have worn costumes of all colors, always

I didn't pay attention to boxing until the 70's. So what happened before that, i'm just going by what Fullmer said. I guess it made for a good strory.

Reading newspaper reports of the time can help. Tunney's trunks included purple in the first Dempsey fight, but I don't know what colour Dempsey was wearing. Clearly not his usual white, almost looks like a shiny gold, green or light blue from the black & white footage.

According to a newspaper report Bill Brennan wore green against Dempsey in their 1920 fight.

Paintings of the time depict Firpo in purple against Dempsey and Willard in Black when he lost his title. I suspect they are probably correct. A colour programme shows Carpentier in white with a grey stripe which seems to match the black & white footage of the fight against Dempsey. However art not always reliable because Tunney is shown in white in the famous painting of their second fight (which is right) but Dempsey is shown in sky blue (which is wrong).

Billy Miske's trunks look the same shade as Dempsey's in their title fight so safe to assume they are white.

Footage with sound sometimes assists when the fighters are introduced, from this I've gleaned that Joe Louis wore black with red trim in many of his early fights. He wore purple later on I believe.

At some point the NYBC chose the colours for the fighters, either blue & purple or black & red but I don't know how long that lasted.

It seems old time fighters tended to stick with 'their' colour longer than modern fighters.

Does anyone know what colour Tommy Gibbons wore in his fights against Dempsey & Tunney?

Or what colour Jack Sharkey wore in any of his fights?

Or worn by Dempsey in the Sharkey fight?

Or worn by the fighters in Tunney v Heeney?

Or Max Schmeling in his fights?

I don't care what anybody says, but, I like those shorts more than today's fighting shorts.

Maybe boxrec should make an information of the boxing color trunks of the fighters while checking the records. I see lots of information there. The website should also share if possible the color trunks of each fighter.

Would it be a difficult task? Maybe yes. Maybe not.

I read somewhere that pre-television the champion typically wore purple trunks, while the challenger typically wore black with red trim. Then TV came along and the champion wore white with black trim while the challenger wore black with white.

John L. Sullivan use to wear Emerald Green tights for his exhibitions so he may have also worn them in his actual fights.

J-C wrote:There is colour film of Joe Louis in a film made during WWII and he's wearing purple trunks.

I have read several times that Louis usually wore purple.

Joe Louis wore purple satin trunks with purple trim.
He also had a purple robe.
Im not sure at one point he started wearing purple tho.
Maybe when he became champion.

Jack Johnson wore Blue trunks with the American flag entertwined
and Jim J. Jeffries either wore a Crimson red trunks or a Purple with the American flag entertwined
when the two fought in Reno.

I think Dempsey was wearing a light blue in first Tunney fight.

Personally I preferred the look of "trunks" in the late 19th and early 20th century, where it was more like knee length pants. I wish that option was still available today.

I always loved the look of velvet trunks but they were just too hot and heavy to wear.

what are th earliest known colour photographs of known boxers ?
also the earliest colour film of a boxing match ?
( I'm guessing somewhere around 1939)

HomicideHenry wrote: ↑10 Aug 2021, 14:11 Personally I preferred the look of "trunks" in the late 19th and early 20th century, where it was more like knee length pants. I wish that option was still available today.

those were basically tights, you cant still get them today, like the battling ballerina here is wearing

-1939- actual colour test footage.

All trunks in those old days were either black or white :) Joe Frazier jade green yellow vs Ali in 1971 may have been the first non solid trunk colorway. Joe was very creative with his trunks.

Louis wore purple often -- the color of royalty.

delisa wrote: ↑14 Aug 2021, 15:32 Louis wore purple often -- the color of royalty.

Glad to see you.