Los Banos Rotary Club History
Praises Boxing As Builder Of Men

Decrying the fact that one out of every five young Americans called for military duty are unable to pass the required physical examination, DeWitt Portal, boxing coach at San Jose State College, speaking at the Rotary Club luncheon. Tuesday noon, praised amateur boxing as an extraordinary developer of physique and physical fitness, and said that boxing, alone among all sports, is one in which all men, tall and short, fat and thin, can participate.

As an example, Portal cited the athletic program in most colleges and high schools of the nation today, in which coaches of the various sports comb the countryside in search of the best potential talent, and devote their entire time to the specialized training of a chosen few, while the less capable are left to rot on the bench. In college boxing, by contrast, no student may participate who has previously boxed after reaching his 18th birthday. Boxing fundamentals and physical development are stressed in boxing for all participants rather than the specialization of a few, and inter-school teams are chosen, not by the coaches but by the boxers themselves.

Coldly frank, Portal pointed out that today the United States seems to be building up for a big killing war with Russia – a war in which someone is going to lose and in which a lot of men will be killed. Amateur boxing, he declared, will better prepare America's young men for the job that possibly lies ahead.
Portal decried today's educational system as placing too much emphasis on the development of "supermen" teams, with too little attention to the nine-out-of-ten fellows who "can't make the team."

The same practice, he bemoaned, is unfortunately true in an increasingly large number of high schools, where a school pennant or trophy seemingly is more to be desired than is the overall development of sound, healthy bodies.
The speaker was introduced by program chairman Wm. Woo.

November 24, 1950

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