ELECTED MEMBERS
   
Last NameSportCountryYear Inducted
ISRAEL "CHARLEY" GOLDMAN

Sport: Boxing
Inducted: 1999
Country: United States
Born: December 22, 1887 in Warsaw, Poland
Died: November 11, 1968

Charley Goldman is most recognized as the trainer of five World champions. The most famous of them was undefeated Heavyweight Champion Rocky Marciano. Goldman was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992.

He also trained Middleweight champion Al McCoy, Lightweight titleholder Lou Ambers, Featherweight champion Joey Archibald, and Welterweight champ Marty Servo.

Lesser known is the fact that the 5'1", 105-pound Goldman was himself a boxer and bantamweight contender in a career that spanned 1904 to 1914. He became a professional boxer in New York State when prizefights were only legal under certain conditions—not often the conditions of his matches—which explains why Goldman is estimated to have fought more than 400 mostly unrecorded bouts. Of his 137 fights on record, he won 36 (20 by KO), losing 6. The other 94 were ruled either a no-decision or a draw.

A protégé of Bantamweight champion Terry McGovern, Goldman fought his first professional bout at age 16, in a Brooklyn saloon. The fight was designated a draw when police stopped the match after 42 rounds.

Goldman’s 10-round non-title fight against World Bantamweight titleholder Johnny Coulon in November 1912 ended in a no-decision. He fought rival Whitey Kitson 60 times. Once they fought twice on the same day; another time, 12 bouts in 12 nights.

One of the principal boxing teachers of the twentieth century, Charley was also one of its most colorful. With his signature black derby, horn-rimmed glasses, and big cigar, the gruff-faced, diminutive Goldman was a perfect fit for the offbeat New York boxing theater.

Goldman is quoted by the New York Times: “Training a promising kid is like putting a quarter in one pocket and taking a dollar out of the other.”


 
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