Interview Dated 7-15-04

Walt Hailey

Walt Hailey first became interested in boxing in the 1940's, in his native New Orleans. He would listen to Carmen Basilio matches over the radio, and eventually boxed in a Catholic youth league before joining the Marines and boxing there. When he returned from military service Hailey boxed and a college team and even had a few pro bouts. Wit a degree in math he moved to Houston in 1965. He would work as a computer programmer for IBM on NASA projects for 30 years, continung to coach and referee youth soccer the entire time, much of it with a boys' home in League City. Hailey retired from IBM 10 years ago but today, at the age of 70, he's the president of the USA Amateur Boxing Association Gulf Coast Region. Hailey has held boxing clinics around the country and abroad. He's also a familiar face at professional bouts and at the Lee Canalito Boxing Gym, where he continues to train a small stable of four professional fighters.

HBScene--What is it about boxing that has kept you in it so long?

WH -- It's an individual sport. There's nobody out there to help you. You don't have a team surrounding you. It's an art.

HBScene -- Some satisfaction in watching a young boxer come along and seeing him progress in his skills....

WH -- Oh yeah. I've trained a number of boxers and I've had some of them who have come back with their sons and had me work with them and it's real satisfying. I've got Guadalupe Martinez, and Adrian Lopez, he just won the Texas Middleweight Championship and I trained him as an amateur. I've got Benjamin Flores he's a real good prospect, a featherweight, he's 6-0. As an amateur I couldn't get him into the Olympics because he's not a citizen but he beat the national champion of the United States and then he beat the national champion of Mexico. The only thing I could do with him is turn him pro, he's a real good prospect. It's still my hobby. I don't try to make any money from pro fights. If they ever make a bunch of money I might consider taking my share.

HBScene--Tell me about boxing in Houston over the years, how it's changed and progressed.

WM -- I think in amateur boxing attendance has fallen off quite a bit. We used to go to Sam Houston Coliseum to the Golden Gloves and there would be 3,000 or 4,000 people for Golden Gloves. A lot of the boxers came back year after year, Jesse Alvarez, Ronnie Shields, were outstanding boxers that people came to see. Just in this area we've got over 700 boxers registered, that's a 17-county area. We've got 52 boxing clubs but we don't have as many shows. The boxing rules has hurt us quite a bit I think as far as hurting the crowd appeal. People want to go see fights and they don't want to go see boxing matches. The scoring system in the amateurs is not as good as it should be. If you watched a boxing match 25 years ago, amateur, and you watched one today and you hadn't see one in 25 years you'd say "What are they doing up there?"

HBScene--You think there a little too overprotective of the boxers?

WH - For the spectator, yes, I do. As far as professional boxing I think probably TV has hurt the live audiences. You can turn on the TV and see a fight pretty near every night of the week if you want to.

HBScene -- There are some people that say boxing needs to be regulated on a national level because of all the different sanctioning bodies and all the talk about being a dirty sport and being fixed. What are your thoughts on that?

WH -- I think there should be a national regulation of boxing. It is for safety of the boxers. If you have a boxer who can box here and then go to another state and even though say he's been knocked out here. Licensing, as far as registering boxers on a national level they are doing that now. There's an ID card on a national level. I think that's good.
Years ago when I was really interested in following the pros real close they had eight weight divisions and I think I knew every one of the champions. Now they've got so many championships I don't even keep track of them any more. They're sort of meaningless. I don't really even have any idea who the champions are right now.

HBScene - You're 70 years old and you're in pretty good shape. You foresee yourself ever slowing down?

WH - I want to go out holding the handpads of God. I want to go out doing something like this. I'm going to keep doing this as long as I'm able to. Also, dealing with young people keeps you young. If you sit around and watch TV and just associate with say, people your own age then you start thinking in that frame. But if you deal with young people then, hey, to me, age is a number, that's all it is.