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Item
Title
D55884-6
Date(s)
- 1951-01-23 (Creation)
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Lee Croft, left, and Harold Bird, right, strap on the boxing gloves as Honorary Referees for the Tacoma Athletic Commission's Golden Gloves Tournament, Feb. 8-9, at the College of Puget Sound Fieldhouse. The two long time buddies remained friends despite Bird's defeat of Croft in the 1950 Sheriff election. They had much in common, having both been professional boxers in their younger days. Croft, a promising young heavyweight in the early 1900's, was persuaded by his aristocratic family to trade in boxing for a grand tour of Europe, including English ancestral lands. His last professional bout was in 1910, although he maintained an interest in boxing and served as an official Board Member for the Tacoma Boys Club. He and Bird became friends in 1917, during WW I, when Bird was stationed here and boxed professionally as a light and welterweight. Bird eventually married a Tacoma girl and settled here. Croft became the proprietor of a local hotel and Bird became owner of Lumber Retail, a lumber and building supplies business, at 2301 South Tacoma Way before they branched off into civic duties. (TNT 1-28-1951, pg. B-10)
Boxing--Tacoma--1950-1960; Tacoma Athletic Commission (Tacoma); Croft, Lee; Bird, Harold;