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Sports correspondent & historian with |
A love of history has been part of my life since I was in intermediate school in Wellington in the late 1950s.
I recall creating a school project about the nine Victoria Crosses awarded to New Zealand Servicemen during World War 2.
The research included riding my bike from Newtown to the Central Library in the Wellington CBD to look up and handwrite the VC winner’s information.
There were no printers or the internet in those days.
Life as an amateur sports historian is built upon research and sometimes playing detective.
As the lead Boxing New Zealand historian, I was forwarded an email with a photograph attached a few weeks ago.
The image was a photo of a boxer and his coach captured in the 1920’s or 1930’s.
The boxer was grabbing my attention, wearing the Jameson Belt alongside a dozen trophies on display.
The John Jameson Belt was presented to the (then) New Zealand Boxing Association in 1927 by John Jameson and Sons Ltd, Bow St Distillery, Dublin.
The belt is the big prize of each BNZ National Championships and is awarded to the most scientific senior male boxer.
Identification of the boxer started with the recognition that he was wearing a singlet with Auckland Boxing Association (ABA) stitched to the fabric, putting him as an ABA representative.
Attention turned to the BNZ Championship records, which showed that just three Auckland boxers won the title from 1927 to 1946.
Fellow BNZ historian, John Mitchell, picked up the challenge and embarked on finding images of the Jack O’Sullivan (1927) Harry Johns (1929) and Bobby Purdue (1930 & 1933), for comparison purposes.
An image from the National Library of New Zealand matched Harry Johns with the supplied photograph.
The best part of this story is that the woman who contacted our national sports headquarters wanted to donate a framed photograph she took twenty years ago instead of throwing it away.
My phone call to the ABA President quickly established that the ABA would love to have the Harry Johns photograph added to its galley of champions in its headquarters at Eden Terrace.
Last week, the precious historical photograph was handed over to the ABA for future stewardship.
While there was a happy ending to this tale - not the Jameson Belt trophy.
In 2022, the Jameson Belt went missing on a journey from Dunedin to Whanganui for the Covid-delayed 2021 Boxing New Zealand National Championships.
After months of inactivity, Boxing New Zealand confirmed that six boxes were collected from their secured storage in Dunedin. Still, only five boxes were recorded as arriving at the courier depot in Dunedin.
A Boxing New Zealand media release produced a storm of support, resulting in insurance finally being paid out on Jameson Belt.
Although no true substitute exists for the antique trophy, a replacement is being sought to preserve the history of amateur boxing in New Zealand.
The Harry Johns photograph takes us back to remind boxing fans that yesterday’s champions are still as relevant as today’s heroes.