Soon there will be a Michigan Boxing Hall of Fame, and this hall is going to be a great one. In previous columns, I shared my jaundiced views of other halls, where politics often determine who goes in. Also, lots of deceased folks get inducted, and if they’ve been dead too long, their fans aren’t around, either, to buy dinner tickets. I was one of only three live inductees when, at 42, I became the youngest member of WSU’s Sports Hall in 1978 for beating Olympic sprint champions in the 1950s. Thus, when I was later asked to serve on selection committees for future WSU Halls, I chose live candidates, except for sprinters Buddy Coleman (dead before his time) and Leon Wingo (inducted the year after he died).

I helped induct 400-meter star Bob Wingo (who then was alive), my Detroit Track Club sprint relay teammates Billy Smith (alive then) and Pete Petross, and high jumpers Mark Smith, George Brown, and Johnny Kline. George and Johnny also starred in basketball.

I fought to change the rules for Mark, then an assistant WSU dean, because I didn’t think an NCAA high jump champion should have to wait until he retired to get in. The Detroit Track Old-Timers still tout 7-foot high jumper Eddie Wilcox and 96-year-old ex-jumper Al Silber, but WSU phased out track and won’t call attention to the sport by inducting more trackmen.

I hope the aged Silber gets in while he’s still living – but halls of fame, by their very nature, must induct the departed, and now I will help do this as a member of the committee for this eagerly-anticipated Boxing Hall of Fame. Former state boxing commissioner Stuart Kirschenbaum has asked me to serve. The group probably will vote first for legends Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Louis, Stanley Ketchel, and “Michigan Wildcat” Ad Wolgast, the lightweight champ of a century ago. However, it then will undoubtedly consider the very much alive Hilmer Kenty, Thomas Hearns, Milt McCrory, and the still-active James Toney. I hope to see unbeaten cruiserweight Jonathan Banks in some day, too. Mentors Emanuel Steward, Jackie Kallen, and the late Jack Blackburn and Eddie Futch should go in, along with referees Frank Garza and my late Detroit Varsity Club board-mate Tom Briscoe.

Some colorful contenders who thrilled many a Motown fight crowd may never get in. Four of my favorites are Lester Felton, Oba Carr, John “Scotty” Telford and my Denby schoolmate, Bob “Ducky” Dietz. My dad, who turned pro at 16 in 1918, was a welterweight version of Jack Dempsey in looks and style. And Ducky once hit me so hard sparring that he loosened teeth. Had he trained better and his leg hadn’t been mangled in a motorcycle mishap, he could have been light-heavyweight champion.

I’ll never forget watching a belatedly well-conditioned Ducky make a one-fight comeback in 1976 to raise money for his Cannon Boxing Team (which is gone because the Cannon Recreation Center is closed – Finney High wants it, but faces legal red tape). Ducky’s opponent, a promising Philadelphia fighter who outweighed him by 30 pounds, was clobbering him for the first two rounds. In the third, the 41-year-old, 168-pound Ducky caught the muscular young heavyweight with a straight right, and the kid was out cold before he hit the canvas.

Fighters get overlooked for halls of fame because they weren’t on pro teams or in schools. Now their sport will have its own Hall to commemorate Michigan’s magnificent boxing tradition.

Retired school executive John Telford comes from a family of fighting Scots. E-mail john.telford@detroitk12.org.