Boxing 1942

[Turbine]

This is the 1942 Boxing Team on their way to a boxing tournament.

1941 "National Collegiate Heavyweight Champ" Louie Campbell is the Boxer in middle back window.

Donald Harper "National Collegiate bantamweight Champ" is the person directly behind the driver.

The driver; Boxing coach and football coach George "Gee" Mitchell

Overall that year Louisiana finshed second in the nation.

[Cajun97]

I love these old photos, keep them coming.

[NewsCopy]

Tough SLI boxers once called 'scourge of U.S. pugilistic circles

In the years just prior to World War II, Southwestern Louisiana Institute, led by folks such as LOUIE CAMPBELL and CARLO LISTI, fielded one of the best boxing teams in the nation.

Campbell was national Intercollegiate Heavyweight Champion in 1941, and folks who saw him fight say that, had he not been hurt in the service during the war, he would have been a certain contender for the World Heavyweight Title.

During those pre-war years, according to one newspaper report, the Bulldogs "were the scourge of the nation's pugilistic circles."

But there was little money in the SLI budget for athletics in the years right after the war, and that meant the demise of the vaunted boxing team. Boxing was reduced to a club sport on the campus, and even then had trouble scheduling other schools.

Jackie LeBlanc sent an undated newspaper clipping that appears to be from the campus paper, The Vermilion, sometime during 1946 or 1947. It postulates that part of the scheduling problem stemmed from the fact that, "Some big schools were afraid to gamble with all their power and prestige against the ever-scrapping SLI boys."

Campbell returned to campus to coach the boxing club, and reported that "even though the team is strictly a student affair, the advice, aid, and cooperation from the athletic department, administration, and faculty, has been an immense help."

The Veterans Club became the primary sponsor of the boxing team and did manage to line up matches with McNeese and LSU and the team apparently fought at least one intramural exhibition match on the SLI campus.

Members of the team included JOHN ESPER MARINEAUX, RALPH JOE RICE, BRUCE JOSEPH NAQUIN, FREDDIE ANTHONY MADERE, ROLAND JOSEPH BOURGUE, and MILTON A. PASTON, all fighting at 127 pounds. In the 135-pound class were RAY B. SOILEAU, JAMES R. NEEF, JOHN HARRY HEBERT, REYNALD (Red) PAUL FONTENOT, and ELWISH RAY FONTENOT.

GARY ABRAM WIMBERLY, EMILE J. LEBLANC, LOUIS ERNEST LANDRY, PHILIP PAUL FALZON, RODNEY TRAHAN, ELWYN LYLER CRANFORD, and LOUIS J. LEBLANC fought at 145 pounds. In the 155-pound class were ALBERT DALY, VICTOR KILCHRIST, FRANCIS V. LANDRY, and RONALD J. GOSSEN.

MURLE McCLELLAND and GEORGE J. JOHN fought at 175 pounds and RUSSELL ANTHONY PROVOST and HENRY E. BAUL Jr. were in the heavyweight division.

Original link to newspaper article

Daily Advertiser
Posted on August 25, 2002