Just three weeks ago I wrote an obituary for Bn on Ron Cooper, Olympian at the 1948 Games. Ron was one of the two survivors from this band and, I am very sorry that the second, Tommy Proffitt from Manchester, survived Ron only a few days.

He died on March 23, at the age of 97. It is difficult to believe that two boxers, from only eight teams, live so long, and because there are no survivors from the band from 1952, a real link to the history of boxing went forever.

Alex Daley wrote a great tribute to Tommy for this column in 2015 and I do not want to duplicate it, but as a tribute to Tommy and Ron and the whole team I would like to take a closer look at the 1948 Olympic Games.

The previous Olympic Games took place in Berlin in 1936 and they were extremely broken by the politicization of the event by the Nazi party, with the American sprinter Jesse Owens and some of his teammates, had to bear racial exploit at all times. In 1940, the Games were originally planned for Tokyo, but when Japan attacked China to initiate a brutal war, they were postponed to Helsinki. The outbreak of World War II stopped.

The Games in 1944 were temporarily planned in London, so when the room returned to the world in 1945, the capital was elected a hurried event only three years later. At that time, Great Britain suffered a lot because of the effects of war, the economy was broken, the population had to endure food, and London himself tried to recover from Blitz. Games became known as a hell game because they were conducted on a string.

Eight boxers decided to represent Great Britain Ron and Tommy (in lightweight and Bantam), Henry Carpenter (Fly), Peter Brander (Feather) and Max Shacklady, Johnny Wright, Don Scott and Jack Gardner from Welter to hefty. At first glance it looked like a pretty good team, and two silver medals were returned.

All eight were won by the ABA championship at Wembley on May 5, 1948, so there was no controversy about choosing the team. Tommy remembered that the shorts in which he competed were made by his sisters from the material that they recovered from their family curtains. Ron said the same and part of his set was purchased with clothing coupons.

Boxing took place at Empire Pool, Wembley, a week after swimming and diving parties, when the pool covers, so that the box took place over it. This place is still nearby, currently known as the Ovo Arena, and its boxing history is legendary, especially in the 1960s and 1970s.

Carpenter was eliminated for the first time with a request from the hands of Belgian Alex Bollaert, and the event was finally won by the Great Pascual Perez. Proffitt and Brander also lost the opening competitions, and Proffitt lost to Mexico in the category, which included Vic Toweel and Jimmy Carruthers. Brander’s defeat was a great nervousness, and the boxer was released very similar to the medal.

Cooper was eliminated in his second competition, just like Shackklady and Gardner, but Johnny Wright and Don Scott did extremely well to reach their finals. Wright won the title of GB Sea Cadet only a year earlier, and in the age of 19 he came out of nowhere. Scott was more experienced and as a military police officer his silver medal was a fantastic achievement. Neither Brander nor Shacklada changed their professionalism, and among others only Gardner won the British title as a professional, but they were a great team.

Between the wars, when British boxing was the most strenuous -working, there were plenty of entrepreneurial promoters who want to earn a few pounds, putting professional tournaments, and with regular live entertainment opportunities is extremely confined for a working man, boxing has become something of a basic one, with tens of thousands of people regularly participating in weekly tournaments in all different places in this country.

At that time, there were no recreational centers or nightclubs or hotels outside the city, which could be used to formulate the program, like today, so the promoter had to make the best operate of what was available. Usually, three types of places were used for this purpose that would be unusual boxing backgrounds in 2023. Records of the fight against the century, show that they often appear in swimming baths, drilling rooms and ice rinks.

In my article I mentioned last week that boxing events at the Olympic Games in 1948 were staged at the Empire Pool, Wembley pool, and it is basic to forget that so many great competitions from the 1970s with Finnegan, Minter, Stacey and Magri also took place directly over the pool. When the box underwent a mini revival in the slow seventies and many other public programs were issued, some of these places returned to operate.

Gala baths in West Bromwich were used five times with Tony Sibson, Pat Cowdell and Johnny Owen All Boxing. I remember well when I went to Baths Hall in Darlington in November 1977 to see my aged partner REG LONG won the Northern Area title, strenuous in the 10-round war with Ralph Green. Both of these places, like many others, were demolished in the 1980s.

The iconic Hall York, in Bethnal Green, originally served as a bathhouse, and in years after the Second World War, most public boxing rooms in London doubled as swimming baths, Manor Place, Walworth, Paddington, Leyton and West Ham is typical examples. Plumstead baths were often used, and the accompanying photo shows that the Dipperary Denis Haugh boxer will start a competition with a private Smith of the Royal West Kents in 1911, and you can see how the ring was created uncertainly.

The second photograph presents Mike Sweeney and Danny Cripps, who boxed about 80 times, and you see how they give their hands at the end of the Westover Ice ice rink in Bournemouth in 1914. Freddie Mills had many of his early competitions in this place, which eventually closed in 1991.

The ice rinks were very popular during the Edwardian period, when the skater in the rooms underwent a huge boom. Fad soon ended, and Great Britain stayed with many huge, empty ice rinks that were perfect for boxing. The most eminent of them was Streatham, in southern London and fortunately, after complete renewal, it is still there. Place open to boxing on January 17, 1950, when the promoter of Stan Baker took care of the residence there. The state staged regular concerts in the 1950s, and when he closed his door for the last time in 1961, he presented several known names, including Terry Downes, Dave Charnley, Terry Spinks, Johnny Caldwell and Sammy McCarthy.

Drilling rooms appeared mainly as a result of the First Burska War in 1880, when it was found that many army recruits were not for military service. To improve matters, juvenile boys were encouraged to join the territorial army, and the drilling rooms were the place where they met every week. Hundreds of them were opened throughout Great Britain, and when the boxing started at the beginning of the 20th century, they perfectly matched as the places where the sports developed. I can’t say when the last program took place in one of these places, but in the 1920s and the 1930s their operate was fertile.

In this column I can’t ignore Ken Buchanan’s recent death. Earlier I said that I think Ken was the best purist that the United Kingdom has produced since the war. In his recent obituary, he was paid enough justice, so I would like to focus one of many good wins he had on his way to the boxing ladder.

I was always attracted to a competition in which one older and more experienced hero, a bit tender, but still with lots to offer, is tailored to the developing warrior with a real promise in an equal fight. A good example would be Dave Boy Green and John H Stacey in March 1977, when Banger Chatteris was simply too good for the former world champion from Bethnal Green. Another good example is the match between Buchanan, then only 22, and Maurice Cullen, a British master of lightweight, who creates the fourth defense, which took place at the English -American sports club in Mayfair in London in London in February 1968.

Maurice Cullen was another natural boxer and one of the best men who left the north -east, a region with a affluent boxing history. A few years ago I was at the exposure of his statue in his family shotton and it was clear, from the number of people who turned out to be on this occasion how tenderly remembered and respected. Cullen won the belt in the third defense when he defeated Terry Edwards in the novel ST James Hall in Newcastle and defended him for the fourth time, victory over Vic Andreetti in the same place in 1967. Lewis Ritson won the same belt in the same city, just a few years.

When two men were matched, Buchanan won all his 23 competitions, and his last win was over Spike McCormack during the full 12 rounds in the last eliminator at the National Sporting Club and could not be more ready in class against Cullen. Maurice was eight years older than Buchanan and was since the slow 1950s, when as a adolescent mine he became a professional after an amateur career in which he only won the North-East Championship. However, he came from the fight with his brother Terry and father Micha, preceding him as professionals.

In his last competition, Maurice fought at Madison Square Garden in Modern York, where he displaced Puerto-Rycan, Mike Cruz in 10 rounds and, like Buchanan, was more than ready to fight. In your preview, Bn The fan was more experienced Cullen, stating that “in a duel of left hands we have to get a master.” Most observers felt the same, expecting that the duel would pass fifteen and would be a master -class class. Bukmachi had Buchanan as a weaker 3/1.

Ken had other ideas. He had to survive an early storm when Cullen dictated the behavior with his Ramrod, but then released one of his most explosive performances. At the end of the fourth he dressed Cullen, just behind the bell, a combination. In the case of the sixth face, Cullen was marked, and Ken found his coverage when Cullen shattered on canvas on two more occasions with huge right -handed occasions. Cullen fought bravely in the next rounds, but then he was baked twice in the ninth round, and then eventually knocked out in eleven with another combination of the left. Cullen gave everything and did not give up his title without a real fight, but adolescent Buchanan was a revelation, and this fight represented his first huge step on the way to superstards. What great fighters were these two men and how much they miss them through their communities.