Percy Price

Name: Percy Price
Birth Name: Percy Joseph Price Jr.
Hometown: Jacksonville, North Carolina, USA
Birthplace: Salem, New Jersey, USA
Died: 1989-01-12 (Age:52)
Amateur Boxer: Record

Percy Joseph Price, Jr. (born May 19, 1937 in Salem, NJ) was a Marine and an amateur heavyweight boxer who represented the U.S. at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Italy.

Price entered the U.S. Marine Corps in 1955 and joined the Marine boxing team. At the 1960 olympic trials in San Francisco, Price defeated Harold Espy to make the U.S. Olympic team as the heavyweight representative. He won one Olympic match, then lost in the quarterfinals to Josef Nemec. It was later claimed that he beat Cassius clay in the trials, but this did not happen, they did however box an exhibition fight at fort Dix prior to leaving for Rome.

Price is the last U.S. Olympic heavyweight representative not to turn professional. He remained in the Marines as a career military man, but continued to box. He won three All-Marine Championships, two Interservice Championships, and one Conseil International du Sport Militaire (CISM) Championship.

Price served two tours in Vietnam as a staff sergeant. He retired from the Marines in 1976 and settled in Jacksonville, NC, where he had been stationed at Camp Lejeune. Price died on January 12, 1989.

• 1960 Olympic Results
  • Defeated Ronald Taylor (Australia) KO 2
  • Lost to Josef Nemec (Czechoslovakia) 1-4