Dick Hoppe

Name: Dick Hoppe
Alias: KidYoung Hoppe
Birth Name: Richard Whistler Hopking
Hometown: Glendale, California, USA
Birthplace: Pueblo, Colorado, USA
Died: 1954-12-12 (Age:53)
Height: 169cm
Pro Boxer: Record

Dick Hoppe was a fighter active in California from 1920 to 1929, facing an impressive number of lightweights, junior welterweights and welterweights who had interesting boxing careers. (He started as flyweight "Young Hoppe" in 1920. Some newspapers also reported him as "Kid Hoppe." It is believed that he is not the 1920s San Francisco bantamweight Battling Hoppe.) During a good portion of his career, Hoppe's hometown was listed as Glendale, California.

Using the Ancestry.com search engine, with the first name of "Richard," who was born during a period from 1898 to 1908 and lived in Glendale during 1930, one Richard W. Hopking, a 27-year-old salesman and a native of Colorado, was living in Glendale during 1930. According to the California Death Index (1940-1997), one Richard Whistler Hopking was born in Colorado on October 13, 1901, and died in Orange County, California, on December 12, 1954.

Richard Hopking was living with his step-father, mother and brother in El Centro during 1920. As noted above, Hopking lived in Glendale during 1930. Thus it is probable that Dick Hoppe and Young Willie Hoppe were "one-and-the-same."

According to a news item in the April 23, 1932 edition of the Bakersfield Californian on the Newspaper.com website, both R. W. Hopking, known in boxing circles as "Dick Hoppe," and J. N. Bozeman, had won jury verdicts in a damage suit against J. H. and Roy Golightly. In the suit, Hopking and Bozeman claimed that on November 18, 1930 they had sustained serious injuries when their car collided with the Golightly truck in an accident that took place two miles south of the Grapevine. (This was a very dangerous section of California State Highway 99 at the time, located south of Bakersfield. A later version of the Grapevine is located on Interstate 5 in the same area at the present time.) Hopking and Bozeman had asked for $36,300 in damages. But, after deliberating for an hour, the jury awarded $5000 to Hopking and $1,000 to Bozeman.

According to the California Voter Registrations 1900-1930 database on the Ancestry.com website, one Richard W. Hoppe was living on 1238 North Harper Avenue in Crescent Precinct 2 of Los Angeles County during 1928. He was listed as being a "prf bxr."

There is an entry for Richard Hopking in the 1920 U.S. Census. According to the entry, he lived outside of El Centro while being a manager on a ranch. (At the time, much of the farming land in California was being used for raising livestock, especially cattle.)

According to the U.S. Veterans Gravesites, ca. 1775-2006 database on the Ancestry.com website, one Richard W. Hopking was buried in the Ft. Rosencrans National Cemetery, which is located in San Diego, California. He had been born on October 13, 1901, and died on December 12, 1954. Enlisting in the U.S. Army on October 31, 1917, he rose to the rank of PFC and apparently was discharged on February 20, 1919.

According to a UP news item with a Glendale, California dateline in the December 16, 1954 edition of the San Mateo Times, Dick Hoppe's funeral services were scheduled to take place on December 16, 1954. He died in his sleep at his home in Santa Ana, California on Sunday (December 12, 1954) at the age of 52.

Dick Hoppe never suffered a knockout loss during his long boxing career.

See also, BoxRec Forum 'Dick Hoppe' Topic: [1]