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 (L-R) – 奧斯汀鱒魚, 傑西·瓦爾德茲（Jesse Valdez）, Raphael Marquez and B.J. 花卉 |
科羅拉多斯普林斯, 膝部. (十月 5, 2018) — 1972 奧運銅牌得主 傑西·瓦爾德茲（Jesse Valdez）, who was an outstanding amateur boxer, never turned pro because he chose security for his family rather than take a risk and parlay his amateur pedigree into a prize fighting career.
Valdez first went to the local Boys’ Club when he was 11. The youngest of seven children in a low-income family, headed by his single mother, in which the kids all slept in one bedroom, girls in a bed, boys on the floor, sharing space with cockroaches.
“I started going to the club and I guess I did well because I started beating older and bigger guys,” Valdez remembered. One day a coach asked me if I was interested in learning how to box. 在 11, USA Boxing people were interested in me, not me the boxer, and they always gave me guidance. Because of my background, I knew I wouldn’t be going to college, and these people helped me and gave me guidance.
在 1964, 16-year-old Valdez upset Olympic bronze medalist Quincey Daniels at the National AAU Championship in the welterweight division, and later that year he qualitied for the U.S. Olympic Team as an alternate. Valdez captured a gold medal at the1967 National Golden Gloves in the light middleweight weight class and he added a bronze medal from the prestigious Pan-American Games.
“I wanted to be a better boxer and that (defeating Daniels) also helped me become a better person. I had never traveled outside of Texas before then. I went to the Regionals and Nationals and then I was asked if I wanted to go to East Africa. All I knew about Africa was Tarzan, Jane and Cheetah. In high school, I was offered college scholarships, but my grades were bad because I spent more time out than in school. I didn’t have a father figure.”
While he served in the U.S. 空軍, Valdez won a gold medal at the 1970 National AAU Championship as a light middleweight and two years later, he became the 1972 National Golden Gloves welterweight champion. A USA Olympic Team alternate for the second time in 1968, the third time was the charm for Valdez, who qualified for the 1972 中美. Olympic Boxing Team by defeating future world champion 埃迪·穆斯塔法·穆罕默德.
“My dream came true in 1964,” Valdez noted. “I was a USA Olympic Team alternate in 1964 and again in 1968. But in 1972, I wanted to win a gold medal, even though I ended up with bronze.”
Valdez became a household name in America because his Olympic fights in Munich, 德國, aired live on ABC Wide World of Sports, the award-winning Saturday afternoon show during the seventies, when legendary announcer 霍華德·科塞爾 took a shine to Valdez. 不幸, Jessie was eliminated in the semifinals by the eventual gold medalist, Emilio Correa, by way of a controversial decision, and Jesse settled for a bronze medal.
該 1972 奧運會, 然而, is sadly remembered for the deaths of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches taken hostage and murdered by a Palestinian terrorist group, Black September.
“The Olympic village was built in a circle,” Valdez explained. “There were athletes everywhere from all around the world. My roommate and I had a routine after eating. We walked to digest our food and that night we started to walk, when guards with guns and rifles wouldn’t let anybody go past them. We didn’t know why and didn’t speak German. We then asked our coaches what had happened, and they said people were shot that afternoon. 後, we saw what happened on television.
“I was team captain and all the captains from every sport were asked what the athletes wanted to do, continue (competing) or go home. We decided to go on because, if we had stopped, that’s what they (terrorists) wanted. The Olympics were halted one day for a memorial recognizing those who had died.”
TEAM USA vs. TEAM GERMANY, 華僑城. 6 & 12 in CHATTANOOGA
Team USA and Team Germany, two of the world’s top amateur boxing programs, will meet in Chattanooga, 田納西, for two separate duels taking place Saturday, 十月 6 和星期五, 十月. 12, at the Chattanooga Convention Center.
The duels will feature some of the top male and female elite boxers as they prepare for the lead up to the Olympics in 2020. The two events will take place alongside this year’s Eastern Elite Qualifier & Regional Open Championships, which is expected to have more than 650 拳擊手, aged 8-40, compete from Oct. 8-13.
After the 1972 奧運會, promoters lined-up to offer Valdez a pro contract, but he quickly turned down all offers having other options as well. He could have remained in the Air Force and been a coach. 代替, he accepted an offer from a Houston television station that wanted to benefit from hiring the Olympic bronze medalist returning home. Valdez became a reporter and the station’s ratings immediately went up, but other reporters became jealous and that became a problem for Jesse. 首先, he contemplated a return to the Air Force, but Valdez liked working in television and he became a photo journalist until he retired in 2005.
Why not take advantage of his fame as an Olympic bronze medalist and turn pro?
“當我 14 或 15 there were pros training at the gym I went to after school,” Valdez explained, “There was one professional boxer there I really liked and looked up to. He was a world champion, who will remain nameless, and I watched him work out. I’ll never forget, he asked me if he could borrow $1.00. I didn’t even have a nickel and that really opened my eyes. Here was a world champion asking me for money. It stuck in my mind. I took a job as a reporter because I really needed (medical) benefits.
“I try to go to clubs and help amateurs, but I don’t watch pro fights.”
美國拳擊校友會
創建於冠軍終身, 美國拳擊和校友之間的互利關係, –拳擊手, 官員, 教練和拳擊迷 — 校友會連冠軍的代, 鼓舞人心，回饋美國拳擊的未來拳擊冠軍, 進出環.
美國拳擊校友會是開放的人誰愛拳擊，並希望保持與業餘拳擊連接. 成員被授予各種特別活動由校友協會主辦的訪問, 包括其成名接待年度美國拳擊校友會館.
加入校友會, 只需在登記 alumni@usaboxing.org 為一個 $40.00 每年的會員費. 新成員將獲得T卹, 鑰匙扣和電子錢包.
現在 70, the Mexican-American from Houston has never regretted the decision he made nearly a half-century ago, 或, 當然, his experience at the 1972 奧運會. Jesse Valdez has become a valued speaker for the USA Boxing Alumni Association.
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