[Previous entry: "'The Eliminator' Final Press Conference Video Uploaded!"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Sultan Ibragimov sends his condolences"]
03/23/2006 Archived Entry: "LEGENDARY KNOTT STREET BOXING TEAMS HONORED FOR BRINGING "PRIDE TO PORTLAND.""
LEGENDARY KNOTT STREET BOXING TEAMS HONORED FOR BRINGING "PRIDE TO PORTLAND."
WHEN: 9 a.m. Friday, March 31stWHERE: Matt Dishman Community Center, 77 N.E. Knott, Portland, OregonWHAT: Mayor Tom Potter and Commissioner Dan Saltzman to Honor Knott Street Boxing Teams.WHO: A. Halim Rahsaan (the former Bill Cross), Ray Lampkin, Chuck Lincoln, Herman Brown, Adolfo Akil (the former Michael Colbert), Family of Johnny Howard, Wade Smith(PRESS RELEASE)Some of Portland's proudest sports history comes to life 9 a.m. Friday,March 31st at the Matt Dishman Community Center as Mayor Potter and ParksCommissioner Dan Saltzman honor the famed Knott Street Boxing Team.
In its glory years during the 1950s, 60's and early 70s, the Knott Street Gym - the site where Dishman is now - was the training home to ten Amateur Athletic Union champions. Those champs and other Knott Street boxers Were finally inducted to the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame last October.
"When you consider our accomplishments, we're certainly the most successfulamateur team in the history of Oregon sports," says 1964 national AAUchampion A. Halim Rahsaan, the former Bill Cross. "We should have been in the Hall of Fame a long time ago."
A framed proclamation by Mayor Potter will be unveiled, recognizing theteam's "commitment to fostering community relations, youth outreach andracial equality at a time when discrimination was still widely accepted andpropagated in the United States."
There isn't another amateur boxing club in the country that has produced ten national champions. Knott Street's A.A.U. gold medal winners included :Tommy Thomas (1956), Pete Gonzales (1961), Johnny Howard (1961, 1963, 1966)Wade Smith (1962, 1963) and Michael Colbert (1968, 1972).
Jody Harris and Louis Johnson competed in the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Nine of the ten boxers were trained and coached by Chuck Lincoln, a formerGolden Glove champion who later fought professionally as a welterweight,middleweight and light heavyweight.
###
