Boxing club looks for new home after a 33-year run
Dan Vassar sat by himself on the stage, silently watching young boxers climb in and out of the ring. If the longtime coach of the Spokane Eagles Boxing Club felt nostalgic, he kept it hidden.
The fact that he watched Saturday’s boxing card rather than worked the corner was a clue.
The Spokane Eagles Lodge has sponsored a boxing team and hosted amateur cards in its Aerie at 315 E. Francis for more than 33 years. Saturday’s nine-bout card, however, was the final event.
When the current season ends May 26, the Spokane Eagles Boxing Club will cease to exist.
The club, with 25 boxers ranging in age from preteen to adult and in weight class from 45 to 220 pounds, must find a new home – and along with it a new name – after 34 years in the Eagles’ basement.
“The Eagles are going to build a new facility and they won’t have room for us,” Vassar explained. “I’ll know next month if we have a new home.
“If that falls through, I’ll see about taking out a loan, buying a piece of property and building a place. We’ll keep going.”
Saturday’s crowd was small, due in part to the last-minute pullout of two teams scheduled to participate.
“I had nine bouts cancel Friday night,” Vassar said. “One team had some internal problems and pulled out, and the mother of the coach for the other team had a heart attack or something like that and he had to go to Arizona at the last minute.
“That’s frustrating.”
Not frustrating on the level of being potentially homeless, but frustrating nonetheless.
Vassar was an assistant coach when the program first started in the 1971-72 season under the late Tom Lefebvre.
Marion Hill has been the ring announcer from the beginning.
“When we held our first event here, my son was the first one in the ring,” Hill said. “It’s sad to see it all end.”
Anna Huggins, 21, was the one of the final two boxers through the ropes, accepting a trophy for being one of the outstanding boxers of the day in her first official bout.
“I thought I’d be nervous going into the match, but I wasn’t,” she said. “I was well-prepared. I had some great sparring partners here and they really got me ready to go.”
Huggins took up the sport in September.
“I came here because they have a great reputation,” she said. “I know they’ll continue somewhere. I’ll go where they go.”
Vassar became head coach in 1976.
Under Vassar the Spokane Eagles Boxing Club has earned a well-respected spot in the world of amateur boxing. In Vassar’s 29 years running the program, his boxers have won 18 national championships and numerous state Golden Gloves and Police Athletic League championships
Vassar is a level four coach, one of only a handful in the country qualified to work at the international level. He has coached the U.S. team internationally – something he will do next month when coaches are selected for tournaments in Canada, Puerto Rico and Hungary, where U.S. national team will compete.
Paul Keller, who has been with the program for 28 years, and Ray Kerwick, a 15-year veteran, both are rated level three – which qualifies them to coach at the national level. Vassar’s brother, Sherman, has passed the written test and needs only work a national event to be official rated level three.
Most boxing clubs have level one coaches.
Kerwick’s son, Mahlon, who had his first amateur match in the Eagles’ ring 15 years ago, is sad to see the Eagles’ era come to an end.
“I can’t remember how many times I fought here,” said Mahon, the veteran of 250 amateur fights, who now coaches alongside his father. “There’ve been some great fights here over the years.”
Kerwick boxed for the U.S. Army and twice won bronze medals at the national championships and represented the United States at the World Championships.
Vassar’s sons, Frankie and Dan, both won multiple national championships representing the Spokane Eagles. Dan Vassar, Jr., now coaches his own boxing team in Plummer, Idaho, and is a respected referee for amateur bouts – including Saturday’s final card.