Lee Croft

Name: Lee Croft
Hometown: Tacoma, Washington, USA
Pro Boxer: Record

Division: Heavyweight
Trainers: Bobby Titland (aka Bobby Raymond); Fred Bruny
Manager: Sidney Croft

• Reported as being a red-head, Lee Croft was the former 1908 Pacific Coast and British Columbia Amateur Heavyweight Champion. Tacoma Daily News (TDN), Jan. 19, 1910. (Croft's record-to-date can be found in that edition.) He was never defeated in the ring and once fought to a draw against Australian champion and "Great White Hope" Jack Lester. See the Nov. 19, 1914 TDN. (The April 24, 1908 TDN reported that he amateur status was being questioned; and that his father was named Edmund--of 609 South I Street, Tacoma. The Sept. 9, 1908, edition confirmed that he had been the former Pacific Coast Amateur Heavyweight Champion, and was to have his professional debut in England.)
• The January 25, 1910 TDN reported that his brother Sidney was also his manager.
• His parents owned a ranch in southern Oregon by 1910. (Feb. 14, 1910 TDN)
• He spent time prospecting with his brothers in the Yukon and, in 1910, he visited with his parents in London, England, from where he sent frequent dispatches to the TDN, commenting on boxing over there.
• By the mid-1940s, he was the owner of the Croft Hotel at 1519 Pacific Avenue in Tacoma, Washington, and had become the Pierce County (Washington) Sheriff. He died in 1951 at age 69.
• His son, Bliss Croft, became a professional boxer of some note, and fought as "Lee Croft," too.
• The above photograph of Croft is from the Jan. 17, 1910 TDN.