1952 CANADIAN OLYMPIC BOXING TEAM

WINNING IS ONLY HALF OF THE BATTLE:  By Brian Zelley


Decisions, decisions:  deciding who wlll on the outside far from the gate:
*Looking back sixty years from 2012 to 1952 is an interesting voyage.
One of the big events in the sports world that took place in Vancouver
was the selection of the CANADIAN  OLYMPIC BOXING TEAM,
The decisions were made in a back room following the completion
of the 1952 Canadian championships.  Three champions would be on 
the outside with no first pick including Jack Batula of Kimberley, 
Buddy Pearson of Vancouver and Bob Shires.


The six initial boxers selected:
*Len Walters, Clayton Kenny, Roy Keenan, 
Bob Malouf, Charles Chase and James Saunders.


Second thoughts and adding another:
*At the end of the process, boxer JACK BATULA was added
to the team.  But, for Pearson and Shires that were left in the 
cold and not given a second chance despite their victories in 
the tournament.


Bad breaks for some:
For BC boxers NORM JORGENSEN and DES ARCHER,
they tried but bad breaks got in the way. For the Burnaby
boxer that was trained by HARRY TWIST, his bout  with
ROY KEENAN ended with a bad cut that resulted with
an abbreviated end to the bout and Archer would also be
on the outside looking in.  For Vancouver's NORM JORGENSEN,
his bout against CLAYTON KENNY ended inside the distance,
but Norm would bounce back in future years to win a title.


== BOB SHIRES ==
*Based on his victory over the excellent GALE KERWIN,
some say that Bob Shires should have been a top choice,
but when committee members get behind closed doors
who can ever guess why some boxers are kept on the
outside looking in, and with nowhere to go.