University of Virginia Library

Twenty-four years have elapsed since I left the University, '25. It has been 28 years (1921)
since the first boxing team was organized at Charlottesville. It is still a source of considerable
pleasure and pride, to me, that I was a member of that first team. I am also happy to have been Captain
of two of Virginia's successful teams in the early 'twenties, and the University's representative
on the American Olympic Boxing Team, to Paris, France during 1924.

The late President Alderman and his wife called on me in France at the Olympic Team camp,
a quarter of a century ago. I will never forget his kindly remarks to me at that time. He told me
boxing had earned a fine place in the hearts of Virginia men, and that I had contributed greatly to
bring dignity to a sport that had long been held in disfavor. He told me Virginia was grateful to
me for my effort in helping to make the sport respectable and a credit to Virginia's sporting activities.
He said he was delighted with the way the sport helped to develop the minds and bodies of Virginia
men, and that boxing was a credit to The University. "I know Virginia boxers," Dr. Alderman
told me, "and yourself in particular, will derive enormous benefit from your athletic activity in this
sport later in life, as well as now. You have my sincerest wishes for your success in both." This
was a long time ago. But it is a quote I shall never forget!

It comes as a distinct shock to me that your Board is now considering terminating boxing as
a sport at The University. Boxing for nearly several decades has given a great deal to The University.
The excellent results have had high visibility, both in sporting prestige and in substantial earnings
of the teams, down the years.

At this distance from my own undergraduate days, the thing to consider is the effect on the
participants, and nothing else. I certainly do not propose to hold myself up as a shining example of
the benefits of the sport of boxing, or its ultimate effects. However, it has been my good fortune
to know many fine men who have boxed during their college days. I do not recall one who had suffered
because he had once boxed. On the contrary, countless scores succeeded, where otherwise they would
possibly have been mental and physical weaklings had they not had the advantages of boxing.

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Col. Edward Eagan, former Assistant U. S. Attorney, New York City, and now Boxing Commissioner
for the State of New York, boxed his way through Yale, won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford,
where he also boxed, and was a member of three Olympic Teams. The very Canadian from McGill University
who defeated me in the '24 Olympics is now a highly respected physician.

I could type out a list of twenty outstanding men in nearly all the professions (attorneys,
engineers, architects, doctors, statesmen, artists, and any number of writers) who gave able account
of themselves in the amateur boxing ring when they were collegians. With rare exception, none carry
more than a dented proboscis, a prominent cheek-bone, or perhaps a cartileged knuckle, or two. All
of them have brought sturdy bodies, clean minds because of the necessity for health living, enormous
amounts of stamina, and undefeatable determination to their nature lives, because of the peculiar nature
of the sport of boxing in which they engaged while youths!

It is remarkable to observe boxing at Virginia. For it transcends the usual fisticuffs
found in other amateur-inter-collegiate circles: TEAM-PLAY! While boxing is a sport of individual
against individual, Virginia for nearly three decades has instilled an esprit de corps in its demonstrations
of the manly art of self-defense. Team-play is a marvelous thing to behold. Virginia
teams, in my memory, have always been more closely knit than many another sport one could examine.

After many years of newspaper and magazine activity, I recall many interviews for articles
on the subject of sports and the after-effects. I would like to report to you Gentlemen some of my
findings regarding boxing. Perhaps you have heard the expression: `punch-drunk', more frequently
encountered in professional rather than amateur circles. These are the subjects who are said to have
`taken too many' on the chin, or around the optics. They are usually found to be slightly more than
somewhat `off-the-beam.' THEY WERE IN THAT CONDITION BEFORE THEY EVER STEPPED INTO A BOXING RING!
This can be verified. The injuries received during any given period among a group of amateur boxers
is negligible, and completely off-set by the advantages of keen physical and mental condition, not to
mention the numerous invaluable lessons learned in combat, and team-play, the boys obtain in boxing.

I sincerely trust, Gentlemen, that you will give the Student Body, and the Alumni an opportunity
to express themselves before you take any action directed toward eliminating boxing as a sport
at Virginia. It might be helpful to have the opinions of the Presidents of other universities, where
boxing prevails, as well as the Superintendents of the United States Naval and Military Academies.
It would be interesting to know what they think boxing does for the young men at those institutions.