Jackie Harwood

Name: Jackie Harwood
Hometown: Bolton, Lancashire, United Kingdom
Died: 2005-01-00 (Age:60)
Pro Boxer: Record
Amateur Boxer: Record

Obituary

THE family of a Bolton boxing champion who turned down the chance to join sporting legend Mohammed Ali in America is appealing to local fans for memorabilia.

Jackie Harwood, as he was known in the ring, died recently from a heart attack, aged 60.

But his family have few reminders of Jack's glory days in the ring as much was lost when his mother died.

Wife Jean said: "If anyone has any memorabilia of Jack and his boxing days we would love to see it. We are all desperate for something from that time."

Jackie started boxing at the age of seven, choosing the sport instead of swimming at which he also excelled.

Young Jackie trained at the old Lads Club premises in Bark Street in the early 1950s and had many amateur fights, representing the Lads Club and attracting plenty of local support along the way.

After reaching the finals of the Amateur Boxing Association (ABA) at the age of 16, he turned professional and trained at the Marchant brothers' gym in Salford.

Jackie made most of his boxing appearances at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, in Blackpool and in London, first as a welterweight and then later as a middleweight.

He had fierce bouts with many well-known boxers of the time - Nat Jacobs, George Aldridge, Tommy Baldwin, Jim Swords and Johnny Cooke among them.

And in the 1960s, he out-pointed Johnny Cooke in the professional middleweight final to take the national title.

Then in 1965, Jackie - by now in his 20s and married to Jean - caught the eye of Angelo Dundee, Ali's famous trainer. He wanted the British fighter to leave his home and go to live in sunny Arizona to spar with the famous champion and, as Jean recalled, "introduce him to the American public."

But Jackie was a home-bird. As he told the Bolton Evening News at the time: "It's cold in England, but it is home."

Jean said: "I wanted Jack to go and take advantage of the opportunity, but he really didn't want to leave me and his family."

Jackie retired from boxing when he was just 25, and returned to his work as a plumber.

But the public never forgot their hero of the ring, and when he and Jean were out socially for years after, people would approach him.

Jean said: "They would shake his hand and say how much they had enjoyed watching him box.

"It even happened when we were on holiday in Corfu!"

For the last 13 years of his life, Jack suffered from Alzheimer's Disease but died suddenly just after Christmas.

At his funeral at Overdale last week, the chapel was packed.

Many of the mourners were fans of the former fighter