1.7 Million to Choose From

After giving some thought to the number of participants in this year's Golden Gloves, here's a little bit of what I came up with. I checked the Indiana Census numbers from 2008 and there are about 1.7 million people between the ages of 24 to 44 in Indiana. That should be roughly the number of those eligible to compete between 14 and 34 as well. Lake and Porter counties compete in Chicago so we'll eliminate them and go with the nice round number of 1.5 million. So if we do the math, 160 divided by 1.5 million, we get .01066%. Roughly one hundredth of a percent. Not all that great a number. So why is that?

When I was sparring back in the '70's, boxing had been on an upswing. This was partially due to the '68 Olympics plus it seemed as if everyone was doing some sort of physical activity - running, bicycling - I ran the first Hub Run with my boxing coach, a 10-1/2 miler in 1976. I don't know the actual numbers but the Chicago Golden Gloves, where my club competed, was much bigger then than now. The prelim's were held at St. Andrew's gym and the finals were at the International Amphitheater. It was a big venue and the crowds were big. Now all the fights, including the finals, are held at St. Andrews. I'm not sure of the capacity at St. Andrews but it's less than the Tyndall Armory where the Indiana tournament is held and the finals in Indy are usually a sell out. So Indiana actually looks to be doing a little better than Chicago but neither of them are doing what they once were.

So here's my take on the whole thing. There are a lot of things for young people to do. They can sit on the couch, watch television, be a "friend" on Facebook or text message their friends. None of these things can be done with boxing gloves on, unfortunately. You can't even pick up the remote, let alone push those little buttons on your phone with boxing gloves on. Young men no longer feel the need to "prove themselves" as they once did. There is no right of passage to becoming a man. Many of them do not have a father living in the house with them so they aren't exposed to the good natured rough-housing that once was standard father/son fare. Likewise, they aren't exposed to boxing as they once were. Most televised boxing matches are on a pay for view or premium channel and Mom isn't going to be sitting around on Saturday night spending quality time on the couch with little Johnny watching the fights.

Boxing is a sport that basically asks people to get punched in the head. It's a contact sport that has a history of being associated with corruption, cauliflower ears, guys walking around on their heels after taking too many punches to the head and the rare but unfortunate death. Not an easy thing to sell to kids who are big, lazy sissies to begin with.

Amateur boxing is relatively safe as long as the people running the gym keep an eye on their people. Headgear and big gloves are a definite for sparring and it must be emphasized that sparring is not clubbing each other for all you're worth every time you get into the ring. Good sparring partners are tough to come by, but even then, you're going to get hit. It is possible to fight for a long time with no long term damage but the coach must protect the fighter and the fighter must protect himself.

The Indiana Golden Gloves doesn't do much to promote the contest. There isn't much that comes up if you do an internet search. Most of the officials are older men and women, which may present another problem in the upcoming years. The Indianapolis Star and the Lafayette Journal Courier do a nice job of covering the event on a week by week basis but probably not enough to generate interest in young men and women to actually participate, especially since most young people don't read a newspaper. Most boxing clubs are run on a shoestring, so they don't have much of a promotional budget. Our local paper is always looking for news items to fill in some space, so they're always there for us. For the most part, however, amateur boxing is suffering from a lack of good exposure, among other things.

So what does all this mean? Not sure. Whatever the solution, clubs like ours are going to have to be part of it. Amateur boxing is a tremendous sport and I'd like to see it grow. I'm sure I'll have more to say on the subject in the future. I welcome your ideas and comments as well.