DonGee
06-06-2005, 10:46 AM
Fellows:
I don't know if my messages got through to you on the proper thread, so I'm sorta repeating at least one of them, just in case.
Frank:
It would take the proverbial month of Sundays to give you even a little information on each of the many boxers you mentioned. All I can tell you is that I knew most of them personally, matched many of them personally, and I still believe that some of them were among the very best developed during my time in the game.
Several were schooled from a very early age by guys like Johnny Forbes (Teran, Northrup, Velarde, Bobby Woods); by Al Barnes (Paulie Armstead) and by Sal Baca-Hugle Hutson (Al Cruz). Bob de la Fuente and Louie Jauregui developed a classy Hank Aceves from the time he was about 9 years old. Bob was the father of Orlando who went on to box as many mains or more than Hank Aceves.
Little Hank, when I first saw him at the old Teamsters' Gym on 7th and Stanford, looked like a pocket edition of Enrique Bolanos, with many of the same moves.
I booked Dave Gallardo into a double main event show at Mexicali, where he boxed Baby Franco while Rudy Cruz boxed Bobby Brewer, who was Canto Robleto's protege. I think that was back in the early 1950s.
Many of those kids you mentioned were kept from really hitting the top when the two managers' associations began a war that resulted in boycotts at several of the leading boxing venues in the state, especially in southern California. My Legion bosses decided to stick with the original managers' group, while a spin-off group tied in with the International Boxing Club (the James Norris outfit).
That's when all hell broke loose and the fans started to stay away from some of the arenas. I began to develop my own talent and barely survived at the Legion, although the bigger, more powerful Olympic Aud. drew large gates only when they went with special shows without television. The first such strike came about in 1948, the second and most damaging happened in the early 1950s.
Baby Ike, I recall, was a pupil of class act Georgie Latka. I imported Jose Luis Cotero and his big brother Armando along with Bobby Romo, Oscar Torres and Ramon Tiscareno, and turned them over to Manuel Dros. They all came to my home from El Paso, Tx., where Manuel picked them up the same day. Of the lot, Jose Luis was the real star, drawing something like $95,000 in an outdoor show put on by the Legion, after I had resigned and recommended my assistant Jackie Leonard for the matchmaker's job.
I'll try to give you more infor later, depending on how my head feels, Mr. B.
regards
hap navarro
I don't know if my messages got through to you on the proper thread, so I'm sorta repeating at least one of them, just in case.
Frank:
It would take the proverbial month of Sundays to give you even a little information on each of the many boxers you mentioned. All I can tell you is that I knew most of them personally, matched many of them personally, and I still believe that some of them were among the very best developed during my time in the game.
Several were schooled from a very early age by guys like Johnny Forbes (Teran, Northrup, Velarde, Bobby Woods); by Al Barnes (Paulie Armstead) and by Sal Baca-Hugle Hutson (Al Cruz). Bob de la Fuente and Louie Jauregui developed a classy Hank Aceves from the time he was about 9 years old. Bob was the father of Orlando who went on to box as many mains or more than Hank Aceves.
Little Hank, when I first saw him at the old Teamsters' Gym on 7th and Stanford, looked like a pocket edition of Enrique Bolanos, with many of the same moves.
I booked Dave Gallardo into a double main event show at Mexicali, where he boxed Baby Franco while Rudy Cruz boxed Bobby Brewer, who was Canto Robleto's protege. I think that was back in the early 1950s.
Many of those kids you mentioned were kept from really hitting the top when the two managers' associations began a war that resulted in boycotts at several of the leading boxing venues in the state, especially in southern California. My Legion bosses decided to stick with the original managers' group, while a spin-off group tied in with the International Boxing Club (the James Norris outfit).
That's when all hell broke loose and the fans started to stay away from some of the arenas. I began to develop my own talent and barely survived at the Legion, although the bigger, more powerful Olympic Aud. drew large gates only when they went with special shows without television. The first such strike came about in 1948, the second and most damaging happened in the early 1950s.
Baby Ike, I recall, was a pupil of class act Georgie Latka. I imported Jose Luis Cotero and his big brother Armando along with Bobby Romo, Oscar Torres and Ramon Tiscareno, and turned them over to Manuel Dros. They all came to my home from El Paso, Tx., where Manuel picked them up the same day. Of the lot, Jose Luis was the real star, drawing something like $95,000 in an outdoor show put on by the Legion, after I had resigned and recommended my assistant Jackie Leonard for the matchmaker's job.
I'll try to give you more infor later, depending on how my head feels, Mr. B.
regards
hap navarro