3 Golden Gloves (1948-1950)

In 1923, a Chicago sports editor named Arch Ward formed an amateur boxing tournament called Golden Gloves. The tournament was designed to aid local youths and promote amateur competition. It was divided into weight divisions and winners of each division were awarded a small golden glove, hence the name. The first tournament was sponsored by the Chicago Tribune and held in 1923 in the Chicago Stadium. While it was both popular and successful it did not occur again until 1928 because boxing was made illegal in Illinois in 1924. After the legal issues were resolved, the tournament was revived. When the tournament was revived, both the Chicago Tribune and the New York Daily News were sponsors of amateur tournaments. In this early stage, participants were local boys, but it did not take long for interest to spread to outlying areas which in turn spurned newspapers in other cities to cooperate in the promotion of more, widespread local tournaments. The champions of local tournaments were brought annually, alternatively to New York and Chicago, to determine a national Golden Glove champion. Presently, one Tournament of Champions is held in an annually selected site where the tournaments are planned and directed by the Golden Gloves Charities. The current amateur event still contributes its profits to further the development of amateur boxing and encourage a positive lifestyle for the youth of today. The Herald-Leader Golden Gloves tournament was a charitable event sponsored by the Lexington Herald and Leader newspapers. The divisions of the tournament were by weight and at the time, race. This series contains 458, primarily 4 x 5 inch negatives including action shots of men boxing in the ring, portraits of individual boxers, trainers, and referees. There are also interior scenes of the Golden Gloves headquarters and people working behind the scenes. Some images include boxers training and conditioning for their fights, being weighed in, and fighters' undergoing other medical examinations, such as x-rays. These negatives remain in the original order created by staff of the Lexington Herald-Leader. The original LHL envelopes were labeled, arranged chronologically, and each envelope may have contained multiple negatives. Each negative or negative strip has been given a unique number under the series designation 3.