In today’s ultra-sensitive academic environment where fretting about hurt feelings and poor self-esteem have become paramount concerns at all levels of education, the very idea of fighting of any sort is anathema. It’s a distinct and flat-out no-no.
That wasn’t the case in the 1940s and 1950s — even into the 1960s. Far from it. In those decades, both during and after World War II, boxing was a necessary adjunct to physical education classes for teen boys and was considered relatively routine at a number of local high schools.
The sweet science was especially valued at Sequoia High School in Redwood City. There, the men who taught PE and coached competitive athletics encouraged their male charges to learn the basics of boxing. Some of those instructors had seen wartime duty in the armed forces.
Combined with the school’s rigorous PE regimen, the self-defense component resembled army basic training in some very real ways.
A Sequoia highlight, as it was at other schools that featured boxing for boys, was Fight Night. It was an evening of boxing crafted according to weight classes in an attempt to maintain some semblance of fairness in the ring.
For the most part, these amateur bouts were raw, unsophisticated and, yes, relatively violent. That’s the nature of the unforgiving sport. Crowds in the gymnasium were large and enthusiastic. Blood was spilled.
In the end, boxing in high schools became out-of-favor. Not a surprise. Society was moving away from even a hint of a school-sanctioned beat down. Controlled physical confrontations were frowned upon. Peace and Love were new watchwords. Fighting was out. Flower power was in.
As an adjunct to the Sequoia boxing program, several former students went on to significant success later in the ring, among them Ray Lunny III and Archie Milton.
Lunny had a productive career as a professional boxer in the 1970s; Milton remained an amateur and became a collegiate boxing champion at what was then San Jose State College, barely missing out on a spot on the U.S. Olympic Team in 1960.
Student boxing won’t be back on a local high school campus with any regularity (if at all). Those days are history. Ancient history.
DIFFERENT DUCKS: GUTFELD, GRIFFIN: Another son of San Mateo has risen to what amounts to the top (or very near the top) of America’s crowded TV talk-show lineup.
Greg Gutfeld, at the age of 58, has scratched and clawed his way to his high conservative cable perch via the right-leaning Fox network. He has made an outspoken career out of jabbing hard at the other (liberal) side of the political and cultural landscape.
He isn’t subtle or gentle. In fact, he’s pretty much the antithesis of another, earlier and more prominent San Mateo talker, the late Merv Griffin.
Both Gutfeld and Griffin were born in San Mateo. The latter is a San Mateo High School and College of San Mateo alum; the former is a Serra High School graduate. The comparisons end there.
Gutfeld traffics in snark and innuendo on a regular basis while attempting to project a wry comedic persona (which doesn’t always work). Griffin, during his decades of entertaining the masses in a variety of ways, did none of those things. He was polite, convivial ease personified.
But we live in a much different nation and media landscape today. It’s a divisive, unpleasant and often downright nasty place. Griffin would not fit in well now. Gutfeld is right at home. Hence his ratings.
DELIRIUM TREMENS IS NO JOKE: What’s in a name? Maybe more than we bargained for. Take the case of that robust Belgian beer, Delirium Tremens.
That moniker sounds like a rather flippant reference to a serious alcohol-related problem. The medical condition of the same name (AKA DTs) is no laughing matter at all.
It’s a potentially fatal effect of severe alcohol withdrawal, marked by fever, shaking, visions and confusion, among other results of a decision to go dry.
These disturbing symptoms can last for days, even weeks in some very difficult cases. Recall Dennis Hopper’s alcoholic character in the film “Hoosiers” as a sad, apt example. Ouch. Double ouch.
(7) comments
Mr. Horgan, thanks for another informative column. I hadn’t realized boxing was ever a thing in high school – too bad because I think my time in high school and even now is a good time for kids to settle their scores in a ring instead of out on the playground, or in the streets where MMA rules, or worse, are considered fair game.
As for Merv Griffin, depending on who you talk to, or who you read, Mr. Griffin wasn’t as polite, or convivial ease personified away from the TV cameras.
As for the Belgian beer, chances are that even with that name, they may soon do more business than Bud Light, or they might, if they up their production…
What was the purpose of this column? Waxing nostalgically about boys beating other boys in the good old days? Comparing a nice guy who came out of San Mateo with a not nice guy? And an explanation of what delirium tremons are? Are we missing some common thread? Or is rambling considered writing now?
It's commentary... just skip over it.
HFAB, comparing Merv Griffin (the not so nice guy) to Greg Gutfeld (the nice guy) may not be to your liking but it does show San Mateo turns out a gamut of successful people. BTW, without reading targeted stories, where else would you get a definition of the DT’s? Most lefties probably think it’s in reference to our great President Donald Trump. Of course bringing up Donald Trump does cause the same DT symptoms in these same lefties, so maybe they’re not that far off...
I've always felt that the "sport" of boxing is one of the most barbaric forms of athletic endeavors...the sole purpose of which is to inflict as much bodily harm on your opponent, even to the point of rendering them unconscious. The fact that people actually pay in many cases to watch this gruesome spectacle has always puzzled me. So pleased to see that boxing has been removed from most school's athletic programs...as it should be.
Not with proper head-gear. Great sport.
Most, if not all professional boxers do not wear head-gears. One of the reasons cited is that doing so, would impact viewership, hence less sponsorship monies. Why would it impact viewership? Figure it out. A pathetic sport.
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