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Right now, we’re in the midst of the latest edition of the Chicago Golden Gloves tournament.
It includes 470-some male and female boxers in three-round bouts taking place at the Cicero Stadium.
Our city is one of 30 Golden Gloves national outposts, most of them holding similar tournaments. The winners from these will be featured in the national championship that will take place over three days in May at Harrah’s Casino in Chester, Pennsylvania.
This is the 100th year of this venerable event in Chicago. Here are some stories not only to note that anniversary but to celebrate the longest-running and largest non-national amateur boxing event in America.
Become a Tribune subscriber: it’s just $12 for a 1-year digital subscription. Follow us on Instagram: @vintagetribune. And, catch me Monday mornings on WLS-AM’s “The Steve Cochran Show” for a look at “This week in Chicago history.”
Thanks for reading!
— Kori Rumore, visual reporter
Chicago history | More newsletters | Puzzles & Games | Today’s eNewspaper edition
Have you ever watched two men or two women battle one another in a boxing ring?
The real thing has long been a fixture in this city. Read more here.
This is the 100th year of the event in Chicago and is the longest-running and largest non-national amateur boxing event in America. See more photos.
Greene will be turning 84 years old in a couple of months but the names from his past come to him with clarity, his memory as fit as he is, looking maybe 20 years younger than the calendar indicates.
Of all the names he recalls, there are two most notable: Cassius Clay and Muhammad Ali. Read more here.
The soon-to-be 88-year-old Dr. Glenn Bynum quietly assesses each fighter as men of varying ages, ethnicities and weight classes line up single file in their underwear for the stressful final weigh-in.
The longest-running and largest non-national amateur boxing event in America, the tournament is celebrating 100 years in Chicago, one of 30 cities holding similar tournaments. For 55 of those years, Bynum has served as a familiar face ringside. Read more here.
Abraham Lincoln Marovitz was a lawyer, a judge, a U.S. Marine, a friend of the famous and a boxer. Though he never won a championship, he boxed many times as an amateur. More than once, he told Tribune columnist Rick Kogan that “boxing helped to make me the man I am.”
This is true of many people who benefited mightily from the Golden Gloves competitive experience, the rigors of training and the sense of self-worth imparted by the fires of competition. Read more here.
Vintage Chicago Tribune
Weekly
The Vintage Tribune newsletter is a deep dive into the Chicago Tribune’s archives featuring photos and stories about the people, places and events that shape the city’s past, present and future.
Have you heard of “The Golden Gloves Story” from 1950?
There’s a tale behind that obscure title, one that illustrates how the Chicago Tribune used to operate and what they promoted, relentlessly. Longtime Tribune sports editor Arch Ward was a key figure behind the creation of both the Golden Gloves and the Major League Baseball All-Star game. And in the late ‘40s, a plan was hatched to shoot a feature film, fictional but soberly respectful of the real-life Golden Gloves tournament and its belief in good, clean combat. Read more here.
The lights are low and centered on the boxing ring at Cicero Stadium.
After the eighth bout, Ross, 29, steps down from the stands and heads to the locker room to get his hands taped up. His head bobs back and forth to house music playing from his Apple AirPods as he dresses and warms up with stretches and jump rope.
Ross has the unwavering support of his family and an advantage over many in his super heavyweight division. The boxer out of Matador Boxing Club in South Deering has two previous Golden Gloves titles from Chicago and won the national tournament last year. Read more here.
Join our Chicagoland history Facebook group and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicago’s past.
Have an idea for Vintage Chicago Tribune? Share it with Ron Grossman and Marianne Mather at rgrossman@chicagotribune.com and mmather@chicagotribune.com.
