BoxRec

My grandfather, Ben Gilinsky, was a boxer from Portland, Oregon in 1915-1916 fighting under the name Ben Gillen. He had 3 fights that are recorded: 11-14-1916 with Carl Martin, 6-20-1916 with Silent Rexter and 11-16-1915 with Ping Bode (quit in this fight--- broken thumb). Lost all three;Lightweight division.

I never met him (nor has anyone else in the family), but what I do know, he certainly was an interesting character. I'm doing an extensive study on him for a family reunion next summer, and would like to include this part of his life. He also, according to family lore, had a stable of fighters in Medford or Eugene area. His son, Tom, was reputed to be a western area Golden Gloves champion, about 1930-40 time frame.

Does anyone out there have any documents, background informaion, pictures, etc., that you could share with me? Or do you know where I could find some?

Thank you far your help.

Wilson Gilinsky

There are many fighters with just a handful of fights around the world since boxing's beginnings. I would find it very doubtful that much, if any, could be found on him. All you can really say about him is that he was much like a club-fighter fighting other club-fighters---a possible more intriguing story for your family reunion would be about his son, that he followed his father's footsteps and achieved far greater success.

But then again, BoxRec and other boxing record sites are not entirely accurate either. I am sure that he could of had more fights, but they could have been lost throughout the years. But based on his opponents (that are known), and what they did in their careers, they seemed, as like him, to have never really achieved that great of success outside of the Pacific Northwest region.

His son, however, I have found nothing on the BoxRec database. Maybe if you could give more information as to where he lived/fought out of? But then again, you said he fought as an amateur, he may well have never had a professional bout or whatever bouts he had are 'lost' or he fought under a different alias than his father used.

IrishRufusMurphy wrote: I would find it very doubtful that much, if any, could be found on him.

You'd be amazed how much info there is even on the most obscure of fighters, whether they're from the 1910s, 30s or 50s. That not everything can be found at Boxrec is not because of a lack of data, it's because it's impossible to add everything at once. For fighters in the Pacific Northwest, I'd suggest you contact editors Ric or Matt.