The Teamsters Gym

 By kiki

My first time stepping through the doors of the Teamster Gym was around 1949 when a friend and I rode the bus and streetcar from the Simons Brickyard to watch boxers train. I immediately fell in love with that gym—and its people. 

The smell of sweat and Wintergreen Oil smelled like roses to me. The doorman was a cranky old guy, Joe Kelly, who, even though he only weighed about 110 pounds, would grab you and throw you out if you didn't pay the two-bit entrance fee.

The cast of characters that made up the Teamsters boxing family were elite fighters, trainers, and managers of the Los Angeles boxing golden era. Eddie Futch trained Don Jordan. Johnny Forbes trained Gil Cadilli, Frankie and Juan Luis Campos, Keeny Teran, Carlos, Al Chavez, etc. Louie Jauregui and Bob De La Fuentes managed Rudy Jordan, who became a well-known referee. Also under their wing was Hank Aceves, a top main eventer, and some top prelim fighters. Unfortunately, Louie and Bob had a falling out and went their separate ways with their fighters. Louie managed Butch and Dave Contreras and co-managed Mando Muniz to world title fights against the great Jose Napoles and Carlos Palomino. Bob went on to manage his sons, Ray and Orlando De La Fuentes. My apologies to the trainers and fighters that I unintentionally missed naming.

Hoyt Porter had mostly amateur fighters, with one or two pro fighters. So Hoyt was my first "professional" trainer. I fought a few amateur fights for him and then finished my amateur boxing career with Louie Jauregui; I never fought pro because I knew I was not a good fighter. 

Some of the prominent boxers of past eras who trained in that storied building were Lou Bernal, Fabela Chavez, Bernard and Maxie Docusen, Don Jordan, Lauro Salas, Rudy Jordan, Rudy Garcia, Gil Cadilli, Cisco Andrade, Hank Aceves, Dave, and Butch Contreras, Carlos and Al Chavez, and Keeny Teran—and the list goes on and on!

In the early '60s, after I had stopped boxing, I would still go to the Teamster on Saturday mornings just to work out and spar with the young guns. During those Saturday morning workouts in 1964, I introduced my two older boys, Frankie, and Tony, to the sport of boxing. The boys took to boxing the way ducks take to the water. They were soon winning multiple Junior Golden Gloves titles. My other son, Bobby, would later join the team; he also won several JGG titles. Frankie and Tony went on to have excellent professional careers. Bobby had six pro fights and called it a day, which was okay with me; I was never one to tell them, "you have to fight."

In the early 1950s, with the backing of the Teamster Union, Louie Jauregui and Johnny Flores started the Junior Golden Gloves. In 1965, I became the tournament director and was so for ten years. In those ten years, we had kids come through the program who had stellar boxing careers. Some became world champions, some top contenders, and, to be honest, some didn't win more than twenty-five percent of their fights—but to their credit, they fought on when the odds were against them.

Today that old building is still there, but the gym was closed years ago. So all that remains of the storied Teamsters Gym are the ghost of those great and, yes, some not-so-great fighters that trained there, fighters who I would like to think are still shadow boxing on the wooden floor of that old gym, with old Joe Kelly yelling at them, "you better not spit on the floor!"

                                                  Teamsters Boxers

Circa 1965: Far left, Tony Baltazar, third from left, Tony "Boo" Campa, fifth from left, Frankie Baltazar, the Teamsters honchos, far-right in the white Tee's, left Arturo Cordova and Richard Ruby