Wednesday, August 26, 2009

More From Rick Farris

By Rick Farris

Bob Bell was one of my first trainers.
He came to L.A. from Detroit in the 50's, where he had trained with Henry Hank.
Later he came to L.A. and fought for Johnny Flores.

Bob Bell was one of the best teachers I ever knew.
He was generous with his time and experience, like so many who worked with kids in L.A.'s Junior Golden Gloves program.
By day, Bob would work as an auto mechanic at a San Fernando Valley Dodge dealership. At night he helped with Flores' amateurs.
Bob was a cagey pro with a lot of tricks up his sleeve. He taught me a lot of things, good things, he was a man of charactor.


-Rick Farris



Johnny Flores, Julio Flores, Memo Soto, Ricky Farris & Duke Holloway
The Main Street Gym - 1965

3 comments:

brian said...

(While I don't remember hearing about Bob Bell around Detroit)..Henry Hank was like a Biblical figure.Hank vs. Chic Calderwood was the first fight I attended((Dec. 15,1961);I was 7.I think Calderwood later became 175 lb. Europeon champ and died in a car crash;I remember Hank busted him up.He was one of those fighters that was much more impressive than his record and had a reputation for an aversion to training..he was supposed to have (either)moonlighted as a fighter or a pimp.He split a couple of fights with Joey Giardello;Hank won the one in Detroit.Giardello won the rematch in Philadelphia,which was a Ring Magazine fight of the year,my uncle insists was a major robbery.One night,I was shmoozing about boxing with my uncle and the topic turns to Hank and my uncle gets a glazed look..and if you can picture a short bald headed Jewish guy in his seventies moving around the kitchen trying to imitate Hank stalking someone...that's the kind of impression Hank left..

Don Pierce said...

Hi Rick Farris, My name is Don Pierce I fought in the Jr Golden Gloves out of Sea side Gym
Long Beach ca, I cannot remember the name of the boxer I fought at the Olympic Auditorium in 1967 do remember about Jr Golden Glove champion fight at Olympic in 1966 or 67 the referee was Henry Armstrong. And big name professional fighters were there to support the young fighters name Jerry Quarry,Eddie Machen ,Earnest Big Train Lincoln,

Larry Soto said...

Wow!! Thank you for having this photo!! Memo Soto is my granduncle, I would spend the summer with my Grandfather Larry and many a day was spent at the Main Street Gym. We'd buy mangos out of the trunk of some guy's car in the parking lot next door to the gym and one time he made me eat tongue soup at the restaurant next door (i thought it was awful!). So many memories of that gym, they don't make them like that anymore.

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