College Boxing Greats Have Gone

It has often been said that you can't keep a good man down. Although this statement has its merits, it is manifestly false when applied to Harvard boxing since 1923.

In that year, intercollegiate boxing officially came to an end at the College to be revived only once for two years during the war. And with only one exception there has been no big title-holder from Harvard since the '30s. "It's not that the boys aren't as good as they used to be, they just have had no initiative since the end of intercollegiate competition," Henry Lamar, present trainer of College pugilists, says.

The only good man at the University who was not kept down by the general lack of initiative pervading the IAB's boxing room is Professor John Bullitt of the English department, who once traded punches instead of teaching English.

Bullitt was a freshman when intercollegiate boxing disappeared, but he want outside the College to get competition. As one of Lamar's proteges, he won the 135-pound championship of the Junior New England A.A.U.'s, the New England Open, and the New England Golden Gloves during his college years. "You should have seen Johnny's left hook in those days,' Lamar comments. "You couldn't stand up to it."

But back in the days of the thirties when the Crimson boxing team was defeating most everybody around, Harvard sprouted many intercollegiate champs. There was Brad Simmons, heavyweight of the 1935 team, who had the reputation of never letting his man get beyond the first round. Then there was Bill Smith, who fought in three classes and preferred beating heavyweights, although he weighed only 165 pounds.

Little Larry Crampton used to beat up everything that ever came across the mats against him. Weighing 125 pounds he won the Eastern Intercollegiate Championship in his division his senior year, after leaving a perfect record at Harvard in the annals of boxing history.

Championship Team

Those men were the "punch" of the team in 1935 that defeated the University of Virginia. Virginia in those years was the Notre Dame of the college boxing world. That was also the year Lamar coached the Crimson to the Eastern championship and a perfect season.

Lamar was no mean boxer when he came to the College as official coach of the newly established boxing team in 1931. Coming from the University of Virginia, he twice won the heavyweight title of the National A.A.U.'s.

For a short time in the twenties he fought as a pro around the Boston area, winning 40 fights and losing only one. Lamar is now Massachusetts State Boxing Commissioner.

"It'd be nice if intercollegiate boxing could come back to Harvard. Fewer people get hurt in boxing than in almost any other sport. It was only illegalized when colleges began to import subsidized amateur champions, who would batter the average college boxer to pieces," Lamar stated. "In the ordinary padded glove fight no one gets hurt."

There is also one very peculiar fact about boxers in general, they never seem to gain much weight in later life. "Maybe that's because we're just not as big as football players," says Bullitt, who has his boxing days.