Fight For Charity Event Program Fight For Charity 2019 | Page 10

HISTORY OF
A M AT E U R B OX I N G
IN MANITOBA
BY MARK COLLINS
Amateur boxing has a long
A
history in Manitoba dating
back to bouts in the One
Big Union Athletic Club in
the aftermath of the First
World War.
A notable heavyweight
in the late 1920s and
1930s was Steve Trojack.
Although he played football
as a teenager, Trojack was
introduced to boxing after he watched
Winnipeg’s top professional fighters
train at an open-air ring near Stafford
Street and Grant Avenue. Trojack
joined the One Big Union Athletic Club
and, in 1929, began a boxing career
that spanned five decades. Due to a
broken hand, he quit boxing in 1936 but
continued to be actively involved in the
sport as a boxing coach and officiated
over 100 bouts in all categories. Trojack
was appointed to the Manitoba Boxing
and Wrestling Commission and later
inducted into the Canadian Boxing Hall
of Fame in 1979.
With the return of Second World
War veterans, as well as an influx of
Europeans with a boxing background,
the sport became popular in the late
1940s and early 1950s. Gordie Mackie
and the Madison Club in St. Boniface
were prominent at this time. As well, Bob
Siegel and Mickey Shane were part of
the Crescent Boxing Club and Bill Runner
ran the 400 Club. Steve Trojack also ran a
boxing club at St. Paul’s College and Len
Sanlin kept the sport alive in Brandon.
Some boxers of that
era who gained national
recognition included
Jim (Baby) Saunders,
who fought in the 1952
Olympics, and Ed Zastre,
winner of the Jack Dempsey
White Hope Heavyweight
Tournament. A few more
prominent names from this
time are Billy Pinkus, Eddie
Haddad, Pete Kawulia, Paul Chyzy,
Peter Piper, Mike Pestrak, Charlie Pyle,
Flailing Frankie White, Len Johnson and
Ray Bohemier.
In 1967, Winnipeg hosted the Pan
Am Games, the boxing venue was sold
out and Manitobans were once again
introduced to international amateur
boxing. Prior to the 1960s, all amateur
sport in Canada was under the control
of the Athletic Union of Canada (AUC).
Shortly after the Pan Am Games,
various sports, including track and field
and hockey, began breaking away from
the AUC and forming their own sports
associations.
In 1968, the Canadian Amateur
Boxing Association (CABA) was formed
in Montreal. The Manitoba Amateur
Boxing Association (MABA) was formed
that same year with Dr. William Parker,
chief pathologist of the province of
Manitoba, as its first president.
In Montreal, Manitoba
representatives showed a keen interest
in revising the amateur boxing rules
and were asked to rewrite the rules for
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