Good old Boxers

[Rodney Mills]

Brenda. ( With Ref to your post on Shackleton )

Many thanks for a thoroughly informative and interesting post. Alas I know how you feel with your name, When I was about twelve, there was a Brit. boxer named Freddie Mills, Light Heavyweight champion of the world from 1948-1950. Kids would ask me if I was related to him. I always fessed up and told them no, I figured if I lied and said yes, he was my uncle, they'd want to fight me so they could brag they, won, drew or lost to Freddie Mills's nephew. My fighting skills were lousy anyway. I joined a boxing club for kids while living at Chingford, I didn't last long, the coach/trainer told me I had the wrong sort of nose, too pointy, and even with a boxing head guard on it would get flattened, plus I had the wrong build. I was the second tallest boy in any school I went to and skinny, the closest I came to muscles was opening them and serving them on the half shell.

I did have fun with my first name, though I hated it as a kid. About thirty years ago there was a show on tv that my kids liked and there was a young African American boy called Rodney Allen Ripley, all of sudden loads of kids were getting named Rodney. One black neighbor found out my name was Rodney and said she loved the name and had named her baby Rodney after Rodney Allen Ripley. I told her no, all three of us Rodney's were named after a British Admiral, named Rodney and it wasn't a first name it was his family name. And his victory over the French fleet was Britain's greatest victory of the American war of independence. and mothers started naming their sons Rodney as a first name. So, tell your son, he's named after a great Englishman. That went over like a lead balloon.

Cheers, Rodney

[Doc Vernon]

One of the great Boxers of that time indeed was Freddie Mills!
Freddie Mills - Wikipedia

He stood out there with the best in those days , i followed Boxing in a Big way in my earlier days and once had Visions , but Alas!
Best Fight i had was with Jan Cilliers when Boxing for Harmony Gold Mines, and although lost to Jan ( He was later to become a Pro) it was one good Bout!
Cheers

Apologies for the off track post !

[Bill Morrison]

With apologies to John A. for going off thread. #11 Doc I couldn't punch my way out of a paper bag but loved to watch boxing away back. The fight between Brian London and Dick Richardson must top all.
Bill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCr519cSQvw

[happy daze john in oz]

One of the greatest British boxes was our 'Henry' as they called him, Henry Cooper

Henrys hammer was the killer punch on many occasions and he was the only boxer to put M. Ali, still C. Clay at the time, on the canvas and would have won the world heavyweitht championship had it not been for the bell.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

My brother in law's brother had the finest boxing gym in the UK, Gareth Bevan was a Welsh champion, he has passed away now but his profile is still on Google. I trained in a different gym as a lad, wasn't all that good so gave it away.
Des

[Bill Morrison]

Just recalling some of the boxers of the fifties and sixties. The Welshman Dai Dower, Randolph Turpin, Hogan "Kid" Bassey and Terry Downs. Would listen to the fights on the radio and they were shown on the Pathe News in the cinema. Watching it was very different from the radio commentary.
Bill

[Doc Vernon]

Indeed Bill Listening on the Radio was the way then and i enjoyed it all the same . Some really good Bouts were Broadcasted in those days!
Brings back some fond memories of Vicky Toweel, he was one good Fighter!
Here are a list of his Bouts , i really liked him.

• Vic Toweel boxer • (boxerlist.com)
Here is one Bout that i will always remember

Vic Toweel W 15 Manuel Ortiz, Part 1 - YouTube

Vic Toweel W 15 Manuel Ortiz, Part 2 - YouTube

SA boxing champ Vic Toweel dies in Sydney - The Mail & Guardian (mg.co.za)

A very sad loss , it brought Tears to my Eyes on the day!

Meantime a Tragedy for the other Toweel also a good Boxer but this ended his Dreams , so so sad for all concerned! Always Remember this !

Today SA sports history: March 19

1956 — Willie Toweel fights friend Hubert Essakow in their ill-fated contest at the Johannesburg city hall. Toweel comes in heavier than his opponent after losing his SA featherweight title on the scales. Essakow, who had fought at lightweight shortly before, needed to reduce weight. It was a tough bout but Toweel won when he knocked out Essakow in the 11th round. Essakow lost consciousness and died in hospital three days later. Toweel suffered a breakdown as a result, and was haunted by his friend’s death for the rest of his life.

[John Arton]

Regards #2 Freddie Mills
Didn't he did in his car in strange circumstances, some say it was suicide, others murder. The Beatles song " I read the news today" has a line in it that supposedly refers to his death.
Rgds
J.A.

[Graham Shaw]

Regards #2 Freddie Mills
Didn't he did in his car in strange circumstances, some say it was suicide, others murder. The Beatles song " I read the news today" has a line in it that supposedly refers to his death.
Rgds
J.A.

Hmm....Well,I am one of those who do not subscribe to that lyric theory(about blowing his mind out in a car), with a gun,therefore suicide,)but John Lennon once explained the lyrics:-

according the the Wiki page here, Lennon did, in fact, mean the phrase to mean there was a car crash. Maybe the car was moving, the driver didn't notice that the lights had changed (to red), and he crashed into something, killing himself. There is also speculation that the lyrics refer to drug use.

"According to Lennon, the inspiration for the first two verses was the death of Tara Browne, the 21-year-old heir to the Guinness fortune who had crashed his Lotus Elan (...) Browne had been a friend of Lennon and McCartney. Lennon's verses were adapted from a story in the 17 January 1967 edition of the Daily Mail, which reported the coroner's verdict into Browne's death.

"I didn't copy the accident," Lennon said. "Tara didn't blow his mind out, but it was in my mind when I was writing that verse. The details of the accident in the song—not noticing traffic lights and a crowd forming at the scene—were similarly part of the fiction."


I think that is the most likely explanation .but then again we are talking about John Lennon (RIP), and t'other Beatles, aren't we and as we all lived through that Beatles era,we knew what they sort of got up to !.'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was supposed to be about LSD wasn't it?..." ♫ ..with tangerine trees and ,marmalade skies... and newspaper taxis appearing on the shore waiting to take you away-y-y..." ♫ well,really!Smoking.gifROFL.gif

[Graham Payne]

John #8

Was Freddie Mills mixed up with unsavoury people around the Soho district of London.
Not sure myself, maybe just newspaper talk.