1960s Timeline

Jan. 22, 1962 - Heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson (right) stated today that he would meet Sonny Liston (left) in defense of his heavyweight championship. He said he was not permitted to give the date of the proposed bout. Patterson, in an interview with Howard Cosell, said that he thought Liston “morally” deserved a shot at the title. He added: “Sometimes, many of us get off to a bad start. Liston has paid for his crimes. I met him at a boxing writers’ dinner and I think h

Dec. 5, 1961 - In a savage brawl that produced nine knockdowns, Floyd Patterson retained his world heavyweight championship by knocking out Tom McNeeley last night in the fourth round. The number of knockdowns were heavily in Patterson’s favor. He had his 23-year-old rival on the canvas 8 times. He himself was down only once — for a fleeting instant in the fourth. Although Patterson, a resident of Scarsdale, N.Y., completely dominated his Arlington (Mass.) rival, McNeeley sur

Dec. 5, 1961 - In Philadelphia last night, heavyweight Sonny Liston knocked out Albert Westphal in the first round. A right-handed blow caught the 5-foot-7-inch German on the left temple. Down like a sandbag he fell, flat on his face. He lay there — and lay there and lay there. They could have counted 50 over him. When Westphal finally was revived, he was in no shape even to be helped to his corner. They brought the stool to the middle of the ring and he sat there, looking th

Nov. 30, 1961 - Dinner and a showing of the closed-circuit telecast of the Floyd Patterson-Tom McNeeley fight in Toronto and the Sonny Liston-Albert Westphal fight in Philadelphia will be given at New York’s Four Seasons Restaurant Monday night. The charge is $65. The dinner/fight program will be a benefit for the Wiltwyck School for Boys. Patterson (pictured left with Tom McNeeley) is a former Wiltwyck boy. The school is an interracial treatment center for troubled boys, 8 t

Nov. 29, 1961 - Cassius Clay stopped Willi Besmanoff in the seventh round tonight for his 10th consecutive victory since turning professional. After using Besmanoff as a punching bag through the first six rounds, Clay dropped the German-born heavyweight for an eight-count midway in the seventh. Besmanoff arose and took a right to the jaw that dropped him on his back. Referee Don Asbury stopped the fight. The 19-year-old Clay had Besmanoff, 29, bleeding from the mouth in the f

Nov. 21, 1961 - Floyd Patterson (left) and Sonny Liston (right) will meet in a title match next year if each wins his next bout, boxing promoter Tom Bolan said today. Patterson will defend his heavyweight crown against Tom McNeeley Dec. 4 at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Garden 45 minutes after Liston fights Germany’s Albert Westphal in Convention Hall, Philadelphia. Regarding the Westphal bout, Liston said today, “The fight won’t take over three rounds.” He seemed more concerned with

Oct. 23, 1961 - Archie Moore floored Pete Rademacher eight times and scored a sixth-round technical knockout tonight in their scheduled ten-round non-title fight at the Baltimore Coliseum. Referee Benny Goldstein stopped the bout at 2:10 of the sixth after the staggering Rademacher had been sent down for the last time with a right uppercut. Moore, in his 25th year of boxing, weighed 198 pounds for his first bout since he defended his limited version of the world light-heavywe

Oct. 17, 1961 - In London tonight, Eddie Machen of Portland, Ore., scored a technical knockout over Brian London when the former British heavyweight champion retired at the end of five rounds. The 29-year-old American won every round. Machen landed seven punches without reply in the third. He continued to counterpunch and use vicious left hooks in the fourth. Two left hooks from Machen raised bruises around London’s eyes, and the Briton returned to his corner with blood strea

Oct. 16, 1961 - Floyd Patterson (left) and Tom McNeeley (right) of Arlington, Mass., signed contracts today for a heavyweight title fight. They will meet in a 15-round bout Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens on Dec. 4. The fight will be televised to theatres in Canada and the U.S., but a 100-mile area around Toronto will be blacked out of the closed-circuit telecast. Patterson said he expected to fight at about 188 or 190 pounds. When he knocked out Ingemar Johannson in Miami Beach

Oct. 8, 1961 - Cassius Clay, an unbeaten heavyweight, stopped Alex Miteff of Argentina in the sixth round of a schedule ten-rounder last night. The victory was the ninth for Clay since he left the amateur ranks. The fast-moving Clay, after using Miteff as a punching bag through most of five rounds, sent him to the floor with a short, stiff right cross to the jaw in the sixth round. Miteff was up at the count of six, but was dazed and unable to continue. At one point in the fi

Oct. 1, 1961 - Benny (Kid) Paret of Cuba regained the world welterweight championship in Madison Square Garden last night by outpointing Emile Griffith. At the end of 15 hard-fought rounds, Paret gained a split decision from the 22-year-old Virgin Islander who had taken the title from him last April. Paret bled from the mouth from the fifth round on. After the thirteenth, both his eyes were swollen with a cut under his left eye bleeding. Griffith stayed unmarked but could not

Sept. 26, 1961 - Sugar Ray Robinson, floored by a left hook to the midsection near the end of the eighth round, hung on last night for a split decision over the Canadian middleweight champion, Wilf Greaves. Robinson, the 41-year-old former champion who is trying to start another comeback, looked sharp only in the middle rounds. In the eighth, Robinson unleashed a flurry of right uppercuts, left jabs, and right crosses. He outboxed and outpunched the slower, awkward Greaves wi

Sept. 16, 1961 - Emile Griffith, who defends his welterweight title against Benny (Kid) Paret at Madison Square Garden Sept. 30, is running out of sparring partners, and the fault is his. The 22-year-old Virgin Island fighter has become unpopular with spar-mates because of his vicious handling of them since he began training three weeks ago for the second defense of his title. Two of them, Walter Daniels and Frank Sallee, have walked out on him, vowing never to return. Daniel

Aug. 30, 1961 - Harold Johnson (left), the National Boxing Association's light-heavyweight champion, gained a split decision over Eddie Cotton last night and collected $20,000 for the job - the biggest take-home pay he's had in 14 years of fighting. It was a close battle. The ring announcer gave one judge's score as 147-145 for Johnson. Then he announced the other judge's score which was 148-144 for Cotton. "There goes my crown," Johnson said to his manager, Pat Olivieri. But

Aug. 17, 1961 - Irish Bob Murphy (pictured right with Danny Nardico in 1951), once a contender for the light heavyweight championship, was killed in an automobile accident in Boston today. The police said that Mr. Murphy's car had gone out of control and collided with a two-ton truck. He was 43 years old. The former fighter was born Edward Lee Conarty in Denver. He began fighting under the name Irish Bob Murphy and later changed his name legally to Robert M. Murphy. On Aug. 2

Aug. 16, 1961 - Harry William Balogh (pictured with Joe Louis in 1938), the boxing announcer, died today in New York's Beth Israel Hospital. He was 70 years old. Mr. Balogh was for a quarter century the unquestioned master of his craft who soared to dizzying heights of rhetorical fancy. It was he who adopted the tuxedo and stiff-front shirt as the boxing announcer's uniform. Mr. Balogh conducted a one-man campaign from the center of the prize ring against racial prejudice. He

Aug. 5, 1961 - Gene Fullmer took a terrific battering in the closing rounds, but had enough of an early lead to win a 15-round split decision over Florentino Fernandez at Utah's Municipal Stadium today. Fullmer retained the National Boxing Association middleweight title. Fernandez, a 9-5 short-ender staggered him in the 14th round with a right-left combination to the head. Then the converted southpaw from Havana switched to his old southpaw stance and blasted Fullmer with lef

Aug. 2, 1961 - Charles (Sonny) Liston was released on $500 bail today on a charge resulting from an incident in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park last June 12. The 26-year-old boxer, regarded as the strongest contender for Floyd Patterson's heavyweight title, had been arrested after a police chase in which one shot was fired. Liston and Isaac Cooper, also 26, were accused of forcing a woman motorist to the side of a road in the park. They then told the woman they were policemen.

July 23, 1961 - Cassius Clay, a relative newcomer to the professional boxing ranks, won a unanimous 10-round decision from Alonzo Johnson last night in Louisville's Freedom Hall before 6,000 fans. Clay, indifferent in the early rounds, went to work in the ninth and tenth and had his Pittsburgh opponent hanging on at the finish. The victory ran Clay's record to 8-0. During the first three rounds, Johnson, 26, carried the fight to his younger opponent and punched with both hand

July 21, 1961 - Cassius Clay, who figures he has to win every fight to reach his goal of heavyweight champion in two years, will meet his toughest opponent to date in a 10-rounder against Alonzo Johnson tomorrow night. Clay, a 19-year-old Olympic champion who left the amateur ranks less than a year ago, has won all seven of his fights as a pro, five by knockouts. Johnson, 26, who has a record of 19-7, came up with the usual pre-fight gimmick of a "secret weapon," holding some