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10/14/2005 Archived Entry: "KNOTT STREET BOXING CLUB ENTERS OREGON SPORTS HALL OF FAME"
KNOTT STREET BOXING CLUB ENTERS OREGON SPORTS HALL OF FAME
By Katherine Dunn
Photos by Sarah Welty
The Oregon Sports Hall of Fame inductees for 2005 were honored on Tuesday, Oct. 11 with a gala banquet and presentation at the Multnomah Athletic Club in downtown Portland. Some remarkable athletes were inducted that night. The two great Oregon Olympic decathletes, Dan O’Brien and Dave Johnson were honored. The amazing gymnast Chari Knight, and the Yankee baseball star Scott Brosius joined the entire 1966 Linfield College baseball team as new members.
But from our perspective, the night, as well as half of the big, lush banquet hall, belonged to the Knott Street Boxing Club. It could have been a cheerfully elegant fashion show starring fifty odd years of Northwest boxing luminaries, their families and friends. The occasional jam for photographs and autographs didn’t interrupt the friendly reunion of former boxers who had returned from California, Texas, Oklahoma, Atlanta, and elsewhere to share with their teammates the honor of being inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame.
The Club as a whole was named for its outstanding contribution to sports in the state over its long history. This category is small in the Hall of Fame, and the Knott Street Club joins NIKE, The Pendleton Roundup Rodeo, and the Multnomah Athletic Club as members.
The Knott Street Club began in 1951 in the basement of the Knott Street Community Center (Now known as the Matt Dishman Community Center) in Portland’s busy African American neighborhood. For its first fifty years, the boxing club was part of the city Parks and Recreation Department. There were more than a dozen other amateur boxing clubs in the city at the time, but Knott Street soon outstripped the rest.
In the words of A. Halim Rahsaan, a former Knott St. boxer, “The team was a collection of champions.” The first of the Knott St. heros was Tommy Thomas who became the National AAU 139 lb Champ in 1956. From the 1950’s to the early 1970’s, Knott Street boxers won 40 individual golden Glove titles. But what Rahsaan calls “The Golden Era of Knott Street boxing” began in 1959 when the city hired Chuck Lincoln, a former Knott St. boxer, to coach the team. Lincoln, was a Golden Glove champion who turned pro as an outstanding welterweight. Rahsaan says, “In order for Chuck to get boxing matches, he had to fight middleweights and light heavyweights because welterweights refused to fight him.”
Chuck’s brother Amos “Big Train” Lincoln went on to become a world heavyweight contender. Chuck retired undefeated and turned to coaching. Between 1961 and 1972 Chuck Lincoln trained 9 of the club’s 10 national Champions.
Interviewed during the ceremony, Rahsaan described Chuck Lincoln picking up the team early every morning to go running, and then waiting for them in the gym each evening to continue training.
In 1961, the Knott Street Team took the Team Championship at the National AAU Tournament with two gold medals and three silvers, as well as the Outstanding Boxer award.
Jody Harris, who silvered at 139 lbs in 1961, joined the U.S. Olympic Team for the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, along with his fellow Knott Street team mate, Louis Johnson at 119 lbs.
The 1968 Knott Street team took three National AAU gold medals: Michael Colbert (Now known as Adofo Akil) at 147 lbs, Johnny Howard at 156 lbs (Howard also won national titles in 1961, 1963 and 1966) and Bill Cross (Now known as A. Halim Rahsaan) at 165 lbs. Ray Lampkin was the Pacific Northwest 125 lb champ that year but personal reasons kept him from participating at the national tournament.
Knott Street boxers routinely won state and regional championships, took home Outstanding Boxer awards, and represented the United States in international competition. After Lincoln left in the early 1970’s, his successor coaches have often been his students and the students of his students. The Knott Street Club continued to produce smartly trained boxers, and national champions.
In 2000, the city discontinued support for the last of its boxing programs, but the Knott Street Club continues in it’s traditional gym home, thanks to the efforts of volunteer coaches, some of them students of Lincoln’s students.
Among the many Knott Street boxers who went on to successful pro careers are:
--Ray Lampkin, who became the #1 ranked lightweight in the world and is best known for his gallent fight for Roberto Duran’s world title in Panama in 1975.
--Pete Gonzales, who was ranked #5 in the world at featherweight.
--Michael Colbert (now known as Adofo Akil) who was a top ten ranked middleweight through most of the 1970’s.
--Thad Spenser, who reached the #1 ranking in the heavyweight division in 1967.
--Stephen Forbes, the IBF 130 lb World Champion in 2000 and 2001.
Perhaps as remarkable as the Knott Street achievements in the ring, are the post-boxing lives of many of these boxers. A. Halim Rahsaan has been a college administrator and a counselor for many years. Jody Harris coached the U.S. Air Force boxing team for 28 years before his recent retirement. Michael Colbert, a master electrician, became a certified public accountant. Ray Lampkin runs his own construction firm. Others are teachers, coaches, restaurateurs, printers, hair salon impresarios, government administrators, and much more.
Just a few of the many Knott Street Boxing Team members present for the team induction to the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame were; Tommy Thomas, who was the National AAU 139 lb champ in 1956. A. Halim Rahsaan, Adofo Akil, Ray Lampkin, Thad Spencer, and Jody Harris.
