Minnesota Boxing News: Minnesota Boxing Hall of Fame

THE MINNESOTA BOXING HALL OF FAME
By Jesse Kelley
June 13th, 2010

Historically, Minnesota has been blessed with some of the most talented men to ever lace on a pair of gloves. Fighters from the early glory days such as Mike and Tommy Gibbons, and Billy Miske helped pave the way for standouts like Duane Bobick and more recently Will Grigsby. There is no doubt that Minnesota is at the top of the list for big time fighters going all the way back to boxing's beginnings.
Despite these fighters, and the rest of the past greats, Minnesota as a whole has never officially had a place to honor these men...until now.
One of Minnesota boxing's best kept secrets has been quietly in the works for close to a year now. And today, the Official Minnesota Boxing Hall of Fame steps out of those shadows in hopes of bringing some of Minnesota boxing's past legends along with it.
"It has been a long time coming" said MNBHOF board member and well known boxing figure Denny Nelson. "I have been around boxing for a long time and it will be great to finally see these guys receive the honor that they worked so hard for."
Minnesotaboxing.com also had the pleasure of discussing the newly formed non-profit organization with president Jake Wegner and vice president Jeff Flanagan. The two went into great detail in discussing the reasoning behind the MNBHOF, the induction process, the board members, and the yearly induction banquet, which takes place this October and Mancini's Char House and Lounge in Saint Paul.

I know you are speaking on behalf of the rest of the board that makes up the decision makers of the MNBHOF. Can you briefly tell us who is part of the team?
(Jeff Flanagan): Our board is made up of a diversified group starting with our founder and president Jake Wegner. Jake is a nationally known boxing historian and a fan who's determination and commitment are unsurpassed. Jake has personally interviewed and researched past and present fighters, managers, trainers and anyone else that has been involved with Minnesota boxing. Jake has always been one to deal with the facts and not just hear say and often times would spend hours on end going through old newspapers, books,and other historians to do his research to try to get things right.
"Mr. Fair" Denny Nelson is a nationally known referee and former standout Minnesota boxer (Denny refereed and judged thousands of fights. He is also a former Upper Midwest Golden Glove Champion and even had a brief pro career as well.) His integrity and total commitment to making this a well respected honor are of very high importance, he wants it right.
Don Evans is a former boxing commissioner and currently still inspects the fighter gloves before a fight. Don grew up going to the gyms where his dad trained fighters so hes seen a lot (His father was the manager and trainer of former contender, Georgie Price years ago). Don knows Minnesota boxing well and most of the fighters personally. Having started the Clark's sub shops years ago he brings a keen business sense to the hall.
Wayne Bebeau has been around the game a long time as a manager and financier of several fighters and currently manages Minnesota heavyweight Joey Abell (Back when Tommy Brunette had Matt Vanda, Wayne was the backer). Wayne is a smart businessman and wants this hall to honor some of Minnesota's best.
Jim Carlin has since moved out of state but remains a member of our board due to his wealth of information he brings to the table. Jim has been involved with many big name fighters and charities across the world. Jim is a Honor member of the World boxing Hall Of Fame and continues to be associated with fighters. Jim is very familiar as to what a Hall of fame should look like and is determined to help make it happen.
Jake Wegner adds; Jim is the only guy I know who regularly gets invited to the birthday parties of guys like Ken Norton, Jake LaMotta, Sugar Ray Leonard, Leon Spinks, Earnie Shavers, and Earnie Terrell. Jim would also give you the shirt off his back. We need selfless guys like him who love this sport on our board.
(Jake Wegner): Jim Wells. I love Jim. Anyone who ever followed boxing in the past 35 years in the Twin Cities knows exactly who Jim Wells is. As a popular writer for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and their main boxing writer, and a former Golden Glover, Jim knows the fight game well. He's colorful, knows a lot of people in the media (which is never a bad thing for a non-profit group to have) and really knows his boxing. He has great ideas and communicates them well with the Board and I'm really glad he accepted the invitation to be on it.
(Jake Wegner): Jeff Flanagan is the Vice President of the MNBHOF. He is the son of World Boxing Hall of Fame featherweight, Glen Flanagan, and the nephew of Hall of Famer, Del Flanagan. He is also a former Golden Glover from back in the 70's and also currently on the Board for the World Boxing Hall of Fame. He won't admit it, but he is also quite a historian too. He is the owner of a pretty successful car dealership in Burnsville Motors, and I like his business acumen and his boxing savvy and his ability to get things done.
(Jeff Flanagan): I have been a boxing fan as long as I can remember. My one and only interest in mind is to help honor some of Minnesota's best and make them proud to be inducted. Growing up in a boxing family and having others share their memories of my family reminds me of how proud one can be. Boxers box because its in their heart, most would fight for free just for the chance to prove who's the best. Minnesota has had many greats over the years that deserve recognition.

Can you discuss the reasoning behind starting the MNBHOF, what I feel is such an important addition to Minnesota boxing, both past, present and future?
(Jake Wegner): The reasoning is that we have all of these retired and sometimes deceased boxing greats from our state that have never really been honored for what they gave to us fans. And that goes for the former promoters, managers, trainers, reporters, ect. They all gave us their time and the best of them, and what that turns into is memories-memories that don't go away. Other states are now starting their own Hall of Fames, and we should too. Many Presidents of these state hall of fames tell me that they are shocked that given the amount of talent Minnesota has produced, that we don't already have one. So what kind of recognition do these past greats from Minnesota get once they hang up the gloves? Rarely any. And some of them literally gave a piece of themselves in order to entertain us. I'll give you a few examples. Duane Bobick vs. Scott LeDoux. I was too young to be at either of these two fights, but the people that did attend them are still talking about them today, more than 30 years after they happened. They gave us memories. On a smaller scale, the people who attended Brian Brunette's big rivalry fight against Gary Holmgren still talk about that fight too. That fight sold out at 2,000 people at the old Prom Center, and people still talk about it. Not all of our past fighters, were quite the caliber of fighter to make it into the World Boxing Hall of Fame or the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Some were, but obviously not all. Does that mean that they weren't really good? Absolutely not. A lot of them were very, very, good. But just being a good fighter from Minnesota will not necessarily mean that you will be getting into the MNBHOF either. We are not loose in our criteria. On the contrary, we still have standards that fighters need to have shown during their careers. Just because boxing is a tough sport and maybe you once put on the gloves, doesn't guarantee you will get into the MNBHOF. If we did that, it would cheapen the Hall. Getting into the MNBHOF should be a big honor. When a fighter hangs up his gloves, he will want to get the call a few years later, that he has been selected to be enshrined in the Hall. And it should be that way. We have a lot of immortals from our state, and who wouldn't want their names next to those? It's an organization that I expect to be around indefinitely and probably outlive all of us currently on the Board.

Has Minnesota ever had a Minnesota Boxing Hall of Fame in the past or is this the first of its kind?
(Jake Wegner): I have been asked this before. Yes and No. Not officially. In the 1950's, Emmett Weller had tried to start one but it never really got going. His son, Don, gave us a sheet of paper that he found with the people names on it that his dad thought should be in it back then. But no one is clear on if there ever was a board, voting, ect. We don't know for sure. A few people tried to start one about the same time we did, but I don't think those are even around anymore. These were 1 and 2 person groups with no Boards and no rules. I think when they heard that we were getting it going that they were happy to see it happen and dropped it. Our only issue with them in the beginning, and this is several months ago, was that they were trying to call themselves by our name, and we are the official Minnesota Boxing Hall of Fame. You can't have two organizations running around calling themselves the same thing. It's confusing to the fans and people who might get inducted. Basically our lawyer told us that if another group wants to form and honor people for this or that, then that is their business. But if they call themselves or represent themselves out to be the Minnesota Boxing Hall of Fame, then that's a problem of misrepresentation, not only to us, but to the fighters themselves.

Can you talk about the future inductee process as far as how many of MN's past fighters are inducted each year and what kinds of criteria will go into the selections. I guess some of the technical stuff.
(Jake Wegner): A little bit. It's a long answer. First off, the number of people that get in each year will not always be the same. This year we are going to go with 11, but subsequent years you may see just 7 or maybe 5. But this number includes our Expanded Category as well. You see, in the interest of the sport and all generations, we modeled what the International Boxing Hall of Fame did by having categories such as "Pioneer", "Old-Timer", and "Modern". But we also have an Expanded category which includes: Managers/Trainers; Promoters/Matchmakers; Administrators/Doctors; Referees/Judges/Timekeepers; Writers/Historians/Photographers; and Announcers/Broadcasters. As far as criteria, this subject occupies a large part of our by-laws, but I can tell you that a fighter needs to have been retired a certain amount of years, have headlined in a certain amount of Main Events, had a certain amount of pro fights, ect. There are hundreds of eligible boxers, and just making it onto the ballot that gets voted on is no easy task, and it should be that way. Like I said, getting inducted should be an honor.

The MNBHOF has announced that they will be holding a yearly banquet to honor MN boxing's past greats. From what I understand, past and present fighters, trainers, managers and fight fans alike are all welcome to attend. Can you talk more about the yearly induction banquet and more details on that?
(Jake Wegner): Sure. We are running the Induction Banquet on October 12th this year at Mancini's Char House on 7th Street in St. Paul. Mancini's is a classy long-time staple in Twin Cities dining and they are known for backing sports. They have their own Mancini's Hall of Fame, which of course, is entirely separate from what we are doing, but we thought it was a good location. The Mancini family has been great to work with too. We're also excited that Summit Brewing has agreed to be our official beer sponsor. This Banquet is open to everyone and any serious boxing fan will want to be there. We see this as an event that all those in the Minnesota boxing world will want to be at each and every year. We should be getting our votes back soon and will be announcing the Class of 2010 shortly thereafter. From there, we want to give the family of the inductees a few weeks to RSVP, and then we will open the ticket sales to the general public. It's really going to be a lot of fun. A big room full of boxing people, all talking and celebrating boxing. We expect it to fully sell-out. The major newspapers will be covering it too. So this is not one of those boxing events that if you think you'll wait until the very last minute to decide to go that you can. I just don't know if there will be any tickets left at that point, so I am saying it now, this will be a cool event to be at, and if you and some friends want to come, please plan for it now and get your tickets when they go on sale. Come and help us celebrate the careers of these past greats. They deserve our support. You can keep up-to-date on ticket availability on our website at www.mnbhof.org

Anything else you can add?
(Jeff Flanagan) : I would like to say that the Minnesota Hall Of Fame will do a great job honoring our past and current boxers that excelled in the ring be proud of what they accomplished and a chance again to have their family's, friends and fans a chance to relive the glory that they so bravely shared when they went in the ring. Our board is very proud of the work that is being put in to this and want to have something others in the sport will feel truly honored to be a part of.