Pleased to Punch

It could well be that the only thing at Harvard older than the boxing club is its coach, Tommy Rawson. The club was founded more than a century ago and can boast having schooled Teddy Roosevelt '04 in the sweet science. Rawson, born in 1908, can boast of many more interesting things.

Coach Rawson took the 1929 National Junior Championship at the 135lb. class, fighting under the lights of the newly opened Chicago Stadium. He has over 80 professional boxing victories to his name and coached the Burmese Olympic boxing team at the Munich Games of 1972. He is likely the only person on the planet who initially began boxing because he had broken his nose playing both football and baseball and was looking for a less damaging alternative. Five years ago, Tommy became the only person ever to knock in two holes-in-one in the same round of golf at Winchester Country Club. Today, one day before his 85th birthday, Governor William F. Weld '66 will honor Tommy at the Statehouse for eighteen years of service on the Massachusetts State Boxing Commission.

And then there is the Rocky thing. Tommy's resemblance to Mickey, Rocky Balboa's aging mentor, is uncanny. Club member James Fields '95 describes Coach Rawson as "Mickey from the Rocky movies," while Tim Codrington '95 calls his mentor "the epitome of the Rocky coach." Perhaps it's appropriate that Rawson looks like Rocky's coach. After all, according to club president Steve Brann '95, Tommy trained a Rocky for a year--real-life boxing legend Rocky Marciano.

This year, Rawson's boxing club has about 90 pugilists. The club meets five days a week at the MAC, but members are free to come to as many or as few work-outs as they can make. Tommy circulates through-out the room during workouts, offering pointers to those struggling with their technique. When they are not getting instruction from Coach Rawson, club members do push-ups and situps. They jump rope, shadow box, and hit the speed bag. They also sweat. A lot. Members like Katie Feoick '96-- who joined the club in part because she was looking for an activity which would keep her fit--have not been disappointed.

This year, about 15 women belong to the club. One of these women, club officer Elizabeth Price '95, says that while she detects "no hostility" from male boxers, she does notice that men tend to listen only skeptically when she offers them advice on fighting technique. Nonetheless, Price stresses that the club is "open to any-one starting out, man or woman."

After training with the club for at least two months, members have the option to spar with each other. Before sparring, members must don so much protective gear that "you could fall down a flight of stairs and not hurt yourself too bad," Codrington says. Coach Rawson is careful to match up only fighters of similar size and skill, and closely regulates bouts. And while sparring can get intense, it never gets out of hand. Brann notes that the club does not train its members "to be aggressive and hurt people." This view is echoed by Codrington, who says that "the whole concept of boxing as a bloody, knock 'em down sport goes away when you first try to throw a good punch."

But Coach offers more than just instruction in how to land a devastating left hook. Tommy is a living, breathing, talking, boxing encyclopedia. And when he stands in his boxing shorts, recounting the gory details of how he was "robbed" in a 1936 Madison Square Garden bout at the gloves of Joe Ferranti, it's hard not to get excited.