In 1923 the name Golden Gloves was born, when a Chicago sports editor, Arch Ward, originated an amateur boxing tournament designed to help youth and to promote amateur competition.
It got off to an usual beginning and its pioneers probably did not envision how things would grow. A group of reformers had stopped an attempt by Illinois naval officials to hold a boxing show aboard the ship Commodore in 1923. In an editorial, the Chicago Tribune took the reformers to task and backed its stand by organizing a tournament to test the laws that had stood for nearly 20 years. They called it Golden Gloves, and the tournament’s sole award was a tiny golden glove, a symbol of championship.
It was the Chicago Golden Gloves, however, that became a nationwide amateur boxing program under franchises granted by the Tribune to other cities and states. A series of elimination tournaments to a national championship became the “Tournament of Champions.”
In 1936, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram was granted an exclusive use in Texas of the copyrighted name of Golden Gloves. It was not until 1937 that it promoted the first Golden Gloves tournament held officially in the State of Texas.
The Tournament has been repeated annually, with communities from the Panhandle to the Gulf, from the Mexican border to the Red River, staging tournaments and sending their winners to the Texas State Championships in Fort Worth each year.
Golden Gloves grew so rapidly that it became one of the most eagerly anticipated sports events in many communities. The Texas Championships now rank as one of the outstanding sports shows in the Southwest and has attracted as many as 42,563 (1981) for a six night tournament, averaging almost 7,100 per night at Will Rogers Coliseum, which seats 8,600 for boxing. Texas has earned an enviable reputation for sending first-class teams to the National Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions, a reputation that reflects credit on the regional centers that send their best boxers to the Texas Championships. The Golden Gloves program in Texas strives to give all sections of the state representation. The regional centers normally hold tournaments and send their champions to Fort Worth, but under certain conditions, where qualifying tournaments are not practical, regional centers may be allowed to select personnel for the teams entered in the Texas Championships.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram was the original sponsor for the Golden Gloves in Texas and is still the guiding light for the program, but for administrative purposes the Texas Golden Gloves Athletic Association, Inc., with headquarters in Fort Worth, is the official and legal franchise holder for the program. Regional tournament franchises are granted by the TGGAA.
Regional Tournaments are planned, promoted and directed without outside interference, within limits of the amateur code and in keeping with Golden Gloves’ high purposes and ideals. State headquarters furnish counsel to regional tournament sponsors and, upon request, assists in other ways.
The Golden Gloves may not be promoted by any individual or organization for personal profit. In all cases, the Golden Gloves must be in the hands of responsible organizations. All profits must go to a recognized, established charity, or a legitimate youth development program in the community. The Dallas franchise is nonprofit, which it distributes its profits to the boxing clubs who participate in the Tournament.
National Golden Glovers have included Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard. Texas Golden Gloves legends include James Olcutt Phillips, Tom Attra, Dick Menchaca, Jesse Valdez, James “Bubba” Busceme, Ronnie Shields, the Ayala brothers, the Curry brothers, the Benevides family, Donald Lee and Robert Byrd.
