In the early years of the 1900s boxing was becoming a very popular sport. It’s interesting to watch the old black and white movies of the professional fights around the tum of the century.
It became so popular that just about every town with a population of 10,000 or more had a gym strictly for boxing. There was money to be made if you were good at throwing a punch. These guys became known as prize fighters.
Wellsir, I will never forget as a young boy around eight listening to “Joe Lewis, Heavy Weight Champion of the World,” win another fight on our family Philco Radio.
One of my heroes was a guy named Smalley, who lived next door in a garage apartment with his wife and baby daughter named Donna. He had been a prizefighter up until WWII and now was working at one of our carbon-black plants. He had pictures on his wall posing in his fancy shoes, trunks and robe. By the time I got to high school in 1953 Pampa already had a workout facility and arena for the actual event with seating for spectators.
Many of our young men were involved in what was called the “Golden Gloves Boxing Club.” There were several of these boxing clubs in the Texas Panhandle. Our radio station, KPDN, owned by Warren Hasse, called the Pampa Fights on the radio. Our guys could hold their own in the boxing ring! Some of our standouts were Bobby Wilhelm, Ed Dudley, Bob Prigmore, Johnny Claunch, Jerry Bruce, J.N. Wright and Earl Cooper.
Their workout gym was located on South Cuyler just past the railroad tracks and across from “The Rocket,” a popular, country-western honky-tonk. The fights were in another building called the Sportatorium.
It was located on Ting Street, right across from the Santa Fe railroad station going east and west.
In working on this story, I have talked to a few people that actually attended these fights to cheer one of their friends on to victory. Johnny Claunch went all the way to Chicago in the late 1950s and was not beaten until the finals!
Bob Prigmore continued boxing while playing football for the Baylor Bears. In the late 1950s he won the State Heavyweight Championship!
By early 1960s, the boxing sport had lost the interest of the public due to mob involvement and other corruption such as “payoffs” or “taking a dive.”
Boxing is now back but does not have the popularity it once had ... and Now You Know!
