History

HISTORY OF THE SOMERVILLE BOXING CLUB 1979 – PRESENT

The Somerville Boxing club started as a small operation out of a room in the Somerville Fire station located on Cross & Broadway, in the winter of 1979. The boxing training was done by a few local Somerville residents. This club was nothing formal, just a small area set up in one of the rooms of the station. Although this only lasted about 8 months, it proved to be quite influential on the youth of the city. During that 8 months period, the club had several local problem kids from the area, boxing in the program. These kids learned the skills of boxing, as well as respect for the game, and went on to box in the Golden Gloves, and did quite well. However all good things come to an end, and so did the Somerville boxing program, whereby we could no longer have use of the space provided by the fire Dept. due to safety ordinances.

During the fall of 1979, four former Golden Glove champions, and one good attorney; Johnny Coily, Bobby Covino, Gabe Marie, Gene McCarthy, and Attorney James Sullivan put their heads together and decided to set up a formal non-profit organization called the Somerville Boxing Club. This club started with absolutely no cash funds. It was then decided that we would raffle off a TV. The raffle was successful, and put $3000 in our account as seed money. Shortly thereafter we were approached by a local police officer and friend, who informed us of a warehouse building we could get for $500 a month... This building (86 Joy St, Somerville Ma) was in tough shape, and needed a lot of cleaning ,painting , and of course re-modeling to fit the needs of a boxing gym. However the program was so popular, local people were all willing to help us. At that time the city of Somerville was running a vocational program of carpentry for special needs students in the City. (First time offenders) The program was supervised by two senior carpenters.

We decided to write to the city and asked for the use of these students to help build our gym... We got accepted for their services, as long as we provided the material for the Gym. By the end of the year, we were established as a full Non-profit organization under code sec 501©3.

Since 1979 to the present (26 yrs), the Somerville Boxing Club has maintained this non-profit status, and has helped provide thousands upon thousands of youth from our city and all the local surrounding cities with an outlet and alternative to a better way of life. We have worked with kids of every ethnic, race, religion and sex, kids from rich, middle class, and poor families. The staff of the Somerville Boxing club has in many ways, became surrogate parents, mentors, teachers, big brothers, and disciplinarians to those in need. The Somerville boxing club has taught these members: To say “NO”, to give and receive respect to and from one another, to help one and other when the going gets tough, To know what teamwork is, and finally to know its not the destination, but the journey to the destination that counts. All of this has been provided by the staff of the Somerville Boxing club. And to add, this service has been entirely voluntary. Not one member of the staff was ever paid for their services. I might add that the pay was the satisfaction of making a difference to the lives of many children in this and surrounding cities.

Our club survives on funds made from benefits, boxing shows, donations, and local grants.

We know boxing isn’t for everybody, but something everybody should at least try. It should be understood that we use boxing as a tool, to teach all of the above and not as mandatory direction to the career of professional boxing. The odds of ending up with a World Champ, is 1 in 10,000, however we did manage to beat those odds, with one of our members (John Ruiz). We tell our members that by going through our program; the worst that could happen is that they end up knowing how to keep themselves physically fit, and in the best condition of their lives.