The late George Kimball Enters the Boxing Hall of Fame with the Class of 2021

On Tuesday, Dec. 15, the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, New York, announced the inductees in the Class of 2021. Wladimir Klitschko, Floyd Mayweather and Andre Ward were named in the men’s Modern category. Laila Ali and Ann Wolfe were named in the women’s Modern category. Joining them on the rostrum at the induction ceremony will be Marian “Lady Tyger” Trimiar, named in the women’s Trailblazer category and Las Vegas neurologist Dr. Margaret Goodman in the Non-Participant category.

The 2021 class also includes six posthumous inductees: boxer Davey Moore, the first IBHOF inductee to have died in the ring, women’s trailblazer Jackie Tonawanda, cut man Freddie Brown, manager/trainer Jackie McCoy, journalist/author George Kimball, and TV executive Jay Larkin. Inductees were selected by members of the Boxing Writers Association of America and a panel of international boxing historians.

Klitschko, Ward, and Mayweather would not have been eligible under previous guidelines which specified that a boxer had to be retired for at least five years to be on the IBHOF ballot. That restriction was lowered to three years in 2019.

The voters may select as many as five boxers in the Modern category. Historically, only three retired boxers in this category entered the Hall each year and that proved to be true again in this voting cycle, notwithstanding the fact a boxer receiving 80% or higher of total votes cast would earn automatic enshrinement even if he did not finish in the Top Three.

What this informs us is that solid candidates like James Toney and Miguel Cotto did not get 80 percent of the total votes cast although we will have to accept this on faith as the IBHOF does not release voting totals.

Kimball

George Kimball, who died in 2011 at age 67 after a long battle with esophageal cancer, was one of the foremost boxing writers of his era during a 25-year run as a sportswriter for the Boston Herald. In retirement, Kimball wrote extensively for this web site and found time to author, co-author, and edit several books. Kimball’s masterwork is “Four Kings: Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, Duran, and the Last Great Era of Boxing,” published in 2008. The book was praised by reviewers of all stripes including those who were intimately acquainted with each of the four combatants and with the dealings that culminated in their famous fights.

Kimball’s name first appeared on the IBHOF ballot last year, along with TSS stalwart Bernard Fernandez and frequent TSS contributor Thomas Hauser. His plaque will now appear on Wall of Fame along with those of Fernandez and Hauser, embossing the legacy of this long-running web site.

Canastota

In common with other tourist attractions, this has been a very rough year for the non-profit International Boxing Hall of Fame. The Hall was closed by the pandemic for three-and-a-half months beginning in mid-March, visitor traffic was down drastically after the re-opening, and fund-raising events had to be postponed.

IBHOF Executive Director Edward Brophy recently wrote a letter appealing to fight fans to consider a donation to the Hall, a soft appeal as he addressed the letter to those “able to do so” during those perilous economic times. “To be honest,” wrote Brophy, “this is the most challenging time in the 31-year history of the Hall of Fame.”

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The 2021 Hall of Fame Induction Weekend is scheduled for June 10-13^th in Canastota. Because the 2020 Weekend was mothballed by the coronavirus, the 2021 event will be a doubleheader with the 2020 and 2021 inductees formally enshrined together. Boxers Bernard Hopkins, Juan Manuel Marquez, Shane Mosley, Christy Martin, and Lucia Rijker, promoters Lou DiBella and Kathy Duva and the aforementioned Fernandez and Hauser were the living inductees voted in last year.

Hall of Fame Induction Weekend is a 4-day jamboree. Many of the events, including the induction ceremony on Sunday, are free and require no ticket.

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