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Queens and Crowns

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James J. Corbett, the man who whipped heavyweight champ John L. Sullivan, retired from boxing in 1903 and spent the rest of his life in Queens. Today there is a street named after him in Bayside and a bronze plaque in front of the house he lived in. Corbett is the cornerstone of Queens' long and rich boxing tradition.

During the 1930s, Madison Square Garden ran its summer boxing cards at the Garden Bowl, an open-air arena in Long Island City. The heavyweight title changed hands three times in five years at the venue, with Jack Sharkey, Primo Carnera and James J. Braddock all being crowned in Queens. Shea Stadium hosted a pair of title fights in 1967. In August, Carlos Ortiz retained his lightweight title with a decision over Ismael Laguna before 18,160, and a month later Emile Griffith regained the middleweight crown by outpointing Nino Benvenuti.

Champions Paul (The Astoria Assassin) Berlanbach, Michael Bentt and Kevin (The Flushing Flash) Kelley came from Queens. So did tough main event fighters like George Kochan, Pat Scanlon, Jimmy Herring, Charlie Norkus, John Busso, Ralph (Tiger)Jones, Bobby Bartels, Jimmy Carollo, Tony DiBiase, Henny Walitsch, Jack Donovan, Bobby O'Brien, Lenny and Joe Mangiapane, Eddie Gregg, David Sears and Fred Liberatore.

The legacy of Queens boxing though, may be Sunnyside Garden. Neighborhood fight clubs thrived in the city between the two world wars. But as clubs like St. Nicholas Arena, the Coney Island Velodrome, Jamaica Arena and the Queensborough Arena began to fade away, Sunnyside Garden remained.

Built in 1926 as an indoor tennis facility, Sunnyside Garden was hosting fights on a regular basis by 1945. Champions Tony Canzoneri, Floyd Patterson, Vito Antuofermo and Eddie Mustafa Muhammad all boxed there at some point in their careers.

It was also the site of countless Golden Gloves battles and became a farm system for matchmakers at the Garden seeking to promote new talent. The building, located at 44-16 Queens Boulevard, closed briefly in 1973. It reopened in 1975 and ran boxing shows for two more years. Finally, a wrecking ball knocked out Sunnyside Garden for good in December of 1977. A fast-food restaurant resides on the grounds today.

-- Robert Cassidy Jr.

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