ALBERTON – The surprising guest speaker was Helen Carroll, daughter of Cyril Carroll, one of South Africa’s most successful and highly respected boxing trainers of all times.
She shared gripping stories of her dad’s career with the appreciative audience, as recorded by Ron Jackson.
About Vic Toweel the story was: “Few knew boxers the way Cyril Carroll did during the early part of World War II, when there were only amateurs to train, he pointed to an energetic 12-year-old in his Germiston gymnasium and said the kid would be a world champion one day. He was right. The lad was Vic Toweel, who won the professional world bantamweight title in Johannesburg on May 31, 1950 by defeating Mexican-American Manual Oritz with points over 15 rounds.”
Another one was about the adorable Johnny Wood: “He trained and managed another ‘kid’ who became a hero. Johnny Wood won the vacant SA middleweight title at the age of 20, when he stopped Alex Dekker in July 1965. Known as ‘The Iron Man’, Wood lost the title to Willie Ludick, regained it and lost it again to Ludick. He also fought in two epic bouts with Pierre Fourie in trying to regain the title in 1969. Carroll trained and treated Wood as if he were his son. When Jan Kies knocked him out in October 1970, Carroll declared: ‘Johnny is finished and so am I.’ Wood never fought again and Carroll stepped away from boxing, attending tournaments on only rare occasions.”
This first boxing night of the year was a night not to forget, and it augers well for more exciting evenings to come on the second Thursday of each month this year.
The next monthly event is scheduled for Thursday February 12 at 20:00 at Primrose Bowling Club.
