Legacies resurrect Springfield Boxing Club
Springfield Boxing Club fundraiser 2-5 p.m., April 23 American Legion Post 32 1120 Sangamon Ave.
For more information, visit bit.ly/spfldboxing
Although he’s only 16, Kevin Mac of Springfield has the discipline of a much older man. All the members of the Springfield Boxing Club do. They wake up early, eat healthy, run and train almost every day. The penalty for slacking off is too great – not just a sound beating, but a public one, at that.
Mac is training for his first official boxing match next month, but he isn’t nervous.
“I feel confident,” he said. “I’m putting in all the hard work.”
He’s one of about two dozen young people training with the Springfield Boxing Club, which is being resurrected after about a decade of dormancy by coaches who credit the club with making them who they are today.
“We really just want to give back in the same way the community gave to us,” said coach Darrell Hall, who grew up in the Springfield Boxing Club. He says the club taught him self-respect and self-discipline.
Boxing used to be a major sport in Springfield, with several boxing clubs that spawned state and national champions. From 1932 until around the year 2000, Springfield hosted Golden Gloves competitions that drew fighters from around Illinois. Local interest in boxing began to wane in the ’90s, and the Springfield Boxing Club was one of the casualties.
Last year, however, Jack Cunningham of Springfield and a handful of other SBC alums rented space in a brick building at 1926 S. 13th Street and began training their own children and other kids from the surrounding neighborhood.
Cunningham followed his father, Jack Cunningham Sr., into boxing. The elder Cunningham, now deceased, was a local Golden Gloves champion who boxed during the late ’40s and early ’50s. He ran the Springfield Boxing Club from the late ’60s until the mid-’90s. The younger Cunningham is one of five coaches working to revive the tradition.
Cunningham says the coaches wanted to bring back the club because it helped each of them grow personally, and it has the potential to help youth still today. Boxing, he says, is about competing primarily against one’s self.
“When you lose, it teaches you that life is full of ups and downs,” he said. “Just because he beat you, don’t stand there and call him names. Go over there and shake his hand and congratulate him. Then you go back to the gym and work harder to win next time.”
Cunningham says the club is open to all young people, regardless of gender or age. Currently, the youngest member is eight years old.
Coach Ray Worthy got into boxing as a young man because of his older brother, Bennie Lenoyd Worthy, a professional boxer who started his career in the Springfield Boxing Club.
“He was always gone on the weekend and he’d come back talking about all the fun he had,” Ray Worthy said of his brother. “We decided we’d better go down there and see what all the fun was about.”
Worthy said boxing kept him out of trouble and taught him discipline.
“It gives you a sense of self-respect,” he said. “It makes you want to do something with yourself. You learn how to respect other people, and you learn that things that are hard for you have to be earned. Just because you lose doesn’t mean you’re a loser.”
A few members of the Springfield Boxing Club are preparing to fight at the Sangamo Club Fight Night on May 7. The membersonly, black-tie-optional event features a fullsize boxing ring in the Sangamo Club dining room, with all the trappings of a match at a Las Vegas casino.
Ernie Harris, 17, is scheduled to fight for the first time on May 7. His father, Tony Harris, is one of the coaches in the Springfield Boxing Club and graduated from the program himself. The younger Harris says he likes the competition and rigor of boxing.
“It gets me tired so I don’t have enough energy to go out and do anything stupid,” he said with a laugh.
He’s more excited than nervous about his first fight.
“There’s a pretty fine line between cockiness and confidence,” he said. “You’ve got to just convince yourself that you’re going to go out there and win.”
Contact Patrick Yeagle at pyeagle@illinoistimes.com.
