Ex-Champions Plan String Of Boxing & Wrestling Gyms

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 62, 9 March 1949, Page 5

Ex-Champions Plan String Of Boxing & Wrestling Gyms

Yesterday the Beacon had a call from Bill Pasco. . Remember Bill? He held the Australasian heavyweight boxing title back in 1934, and he’s still keen on thq Noble Art.

But, more than that, he’s keen on seeing youngsters get a chance tq take an interest in healthy sports that will keep them fit and off the streets in the evenings. To do something practical about it, he and George Walker, ex British Empir'q wrestling champion, got together and started a gym at Devonport, Auckland. Then they hatched up the idea of expanding the scheme, and Mr Pasco is on his way to Wellington to try to get the Minister of Internal Mr Parry, interested in the idea of a ' chain of gymnasiums, with a steady flow' of visiting and resident instructors recruited from ex-boxers and wrestlers. There are plenty available, Mr Pasco says, and he should know. He is president of the Ex-Boxers’ Association of Auckland.

First, the two ex-champions hope to get Ministerial approval for a plan to run an exhibition tour throughout the Island, demonstrating tricks of the wrestling and boxirjg games where it is possible the gym idea might take on. George Walker should still be a draw anywhere,' and the idea is to put on a first-class demonstration of straight wrestling holds (applied on Mr Pasco) without any of the slapstick comedy that has done the game so much damage with the public of late. In the second part of the programme, Mr Walker will act as punching bag for his partner’s boxing demonstration. Sounds like a nice evening for them both, doesn’t it? In the course of his present journey, Mr Pasco is looking for likely spots to stage these demonstrations with a view 'to establishing gym clubs afterwards. There is every prospect that Whakatane will be one of the places chosen.