March 8, 2023 kicked off the 100th year of Chicago’s annual Golden Gloves Boxing Tournament. This event is the largest and longest-running regional boxing tournament in the United States, and March 8 was not only the first day of the tournament, but the kickoff of the preliminary rounds.
This event originally started in 1923, when over 400 working-class young men together in Chicago for a boxing tournament. One-hundred years later it is a five-week-long tournament, spanning both amateur boxers and professionals. The winners of the professional tournaments have the opportunity to duke it out in the Olympic qualifying matches. This match brings out Chicago’s best and strongest, and brings the city together in sport.
The first preliminary amateur rounds are matches for younger competitors. While men from all age ranges compete, the first few days are mostly for lightweight, younger men.
Chicago Youth Boxing Club’s Gabriel Navarro
One of the coaches from South Lawndale, Gabriel Navarro, who coaches at the Chicago Youth Boxing Club, came to the event to watch the competitors, even though the boys he coaches weren’t playing tonight.
“So we got, you know, kids from eight years old, all the way up to teachers that are 38 years old that are competing. I got a teacher competing in two weeks,” said Navarro. “So we have fighters from all ages.”
Navarro spoke about the culture of running a boxing club, and how it brings people from all neighborhoods together.
“There’s two Boxing Clubs, and we’re not rivals, we work closely together, because we both got the same ideas. You know, how we want our kids to go out and live life.” said Navarro, “So we always want to keep them close. We go ‘Hey North Lawndale is doing it,’ you know. We’re making a difference in the neighborhood. That’s what it’s all about. It’s all about making a difference.”
Finally, Navarro spoke about the culture of family amongst boxing clubs, as well as boxing in general.
“You know, I see them grow up. I see them more than my own son because I work the second shift after school. So I see the [boxing] kids more than my own family. It’s like a bunch of kids,” said Navarro. “We have about 100 kids that show up, you know. We usually have three sessions from three to five, five to seven, and seven or nine [at night]. So between these three sessions, we get about 60 to 80 kids every day.”
USA Boxing, Illinois Association’s Shaun Tallon
Shaun Tallon, 38, was very excited about the start of the 100th year of the Golden Gloves. Tallon, who is the President of the USA Boxing Illinois Association, was there to watch the amateur boxers kick off their time at the Golden Gloves, as he did not have any boxers in the event that day.
“So essentially I oversee Illinois, from Iowa to Indiana, Wisconsin to just south of Springfield,” said Tallon. “I oversee all the amateur boxing that happens in that area from officiating to young men punching each other in the face right now in the ring.”
Tallon started coaching in 2003, three years before he quit boxing himself. Through balancing both boxing, coaching, and a boxing-related injury he found coaching was truly his passion.
“I found my passion more in coaching. And, you know, getting those kids their first matches, their first wins. To me that was more pleasurable than winning,” said Tallon.
From boxers to family to coaches, there’s electricity in the air when this tournament comes. Tallon trains kids for years in the sport so that they can have a chance of winning the tournament. Winning the tournament, also, could mean a spot in the Olympics, so the fight is on for everybody.
“People don’t just show up to this tournament to box. Some of them [have] either been doing very strict training for the last six months just to prepare for this tournament. The open elite division are trying to qualify for the Olympics,” said Tallon.
So what’s it like being a coach to boxers who compete in a tournament like this? Tallon says it takes fighters to fight, in and out of the ring.
Experiencing the Event in Person
The event on March 9 was an exciting affair. The room darkened, only lit up by the spotlights on the ring, which stood in the center of Cicero Stadium. Sweat flew off the competitors as punches flew faster than the eye could follow. Young men ducking, hooking, and punching as the crowd in the stands cheered on. The sharp ring of the bell that we associate with a boxing match cut through the excitement surging through the onlookers. This night of the preliminaries was truly a night to remember.
Onlookers weren’t the only ones gripped with the excitement of the match. Friends and coaches of the fighters looked on with stern seriousness as they watched those who’d trained for years for this fight don the boxing helmets and enter the ring.
All in All
As the rounds went on and the crowd’s cheers got louder, it became clear that everybody in the room was there for the love of boxing. The love of the boxers, the families, the boxing clubs, and the culture surrounding what is one of Chicago’s favorite events.
The Golden Gloves take place at the Cicero Stadium, at the corner of Laramie Street and 19th Avenue.
Preliminaries were March 8, 9, 10, and 11. Quarter Finals are on March 16, 17, and 18. The semi-Finals will be on March 23, 24, and 25, and the Championships will be on April 13, 14, and 15.
Written by Caroline Buehler
Sources:
Interview: Gabriel Navarro, Coach at Chicago Youth Boxing Club, March 9, 2023
Interview: Shaun Tallon, President of the USA Boxing Illinois Association, March 9, 2023
Images Courtesy of TNS Staff
