My BC BOXING in the Eighties

My Boxing Journey in the Eighties: by Brian Zelley

The Victoria Jaycees Boxing Club

By 1979, the Victoria Athletics boxing club had lost it's

training facility, and only had a few boxers left.  By 

then the two main boxers for the club were Gary Robinson

and Cliff Ballendine.  Cliff's father Jim Ballendine wanted

to coach so the coaching for the VAA and their couple 

of boxers was left to Caird and Ballendine.  LOU BUJDOSO

was now working his own club called the Victoria

Jaycees Boxing Club.  Between 1979/80, I would not

serve on the board of the VAA, but would serve one more

year from September 1980 to September 1981 and then it

was over.  During 1979, I would attend the Jaycees club

and help with the training of boxers such as Kit Munro.

Also, professional boxer JERRY (Mack Truck) REDDICK

was trying to get a Victoria Boxing Commission, so I 

helped Jerry by going to the City Hall council meetings

with Jerry to work on this issue.  

However, after the 1980 Diamond Belt tournament, I would

get an okay from BERT LOWES, one of my former coaches

from the 1967/1968 boxing season who was the head of officials

in British Columbia and got the okay to become an official.

So aside from coaching at the Jaycees, I would begin my 

journey as a ring official.  In the initial year, I would just

judge  club shows on Vancouver Island, and did not bother

with attending tournaments in Vancouver, but that would all

change in 1983.

Bujdoso would quite coaching amateur boxing and turn to

promoting professional boxing cards.  So MIKE SARTORI

and PAUL DELUCA sr. would become coaches along with

me and several others.  

*By 1980, HOWARD CURLING would no longer be the 

Vancouver Island BCABA appointed commissioner, but

he would continue to be an official, and RICK BROUGH 

became the commissioner which proved to be a positive

move for Island boxing.  On the local level, Bob Perry and

myself were also officials, but over time others would try

their hand at judging including Dan Wright and Tom Turnbull.

i would continue to coach at the Victoria Jaycees boxing club
until 1985. The last boxing that I trained was RON OGDEN.
After seeing him box in a tournament in Burnaby, I told him
that I would coach him in preparation for the 1985 Diamond
Belt tournament that took place in Victoria.

A SIGNIFICANT HIGHLIGHT  - 1984

One of the highlights as an official was attending the 
Canadian Olympic boxing team's training facility in
Burnaby, BC and having a chance to referee one of the
sparring sessions which included Ontario boxer
JAMIE PAGENDAM 
(photo: Alan Brown, Vic Murdoch, Brian Zelley

at the 1984 Canadian Olympic boxing team 
training site at the Boxing BC Training Centre
in Burnaby, BC).