ANASTOTA, NY – DECEMBER 8, 2009 – The International Boxing Hall of Fame and Museum announced today the newest class of inductees to enter the Hall. Living inductees include light flyweight champion Jung-Koo Chang (South Korea), featherweight champion Danny “Little Red” Lopez (USA), manager Shelly Finkel (USA), referee / commissioner Larry Hazzard (USA), promoter Wilfried Sauerland (Germany), matchmaker Bruce Trampler (USA) and journalist Ed Schuyler (USA).
“We’re extremely excited about the Class of 2010 and very much looking forward to honoring the 21st class of inductees,” said Executive Director Edward Brophy. “All living inductees are anticipated to attend and participate in 2010 Hall of Fame Weekend festivities.”
The 21st Annual Hall of Fame Weekend is scheduled for June 10-13th in Canastota, NY. Over 20 events, including a golf tournament, banquet, parade and autograph card show, are planned. An impressive celebrity lineup of boxing greats of yesterday and today will attend this year’s Induction Weekend. The highlight of the weekend will be the Official Enshrinement Ceremony on the Hall of Fame Museum Grounds in Canastota, New York on Sunday, June 13th to welcome the newest members.
The Hall of Fame also released names of posthumous honorees: light heavyweight Lloyd Marshall in the Modern Category; featherweight champion Young Corbett II, lightweight champion Rocky Kansas and light heavyweight and heavyweight contender Billy Miske in the Old-Timer Category; broadcaster Howard Cosell in the Observer Category; and Paddington Tom Jones in the Pioneer Category. Inductees were voted in by members of the Boxing Writers Association and a panel of international boxing historians.
For more information on the events planned for the 2010 International Boxing Hall of Fame Weekend, please call the Hall of Fame at (315) 697-7095 or visit www.ibhof.com.
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COMMENTS UPON RECEIVING INDUCTION NEWS
“This is great! I’ve been to Canastota in the past for the Hall of Fame Weekend festivities and thought maybe some day I’d be elected and now I am. This feels great and makes me feel real special to be elected.”
– Danny Lopez
“I’m honored. I feel honored to be in the company of the greatest people in the sport.”
– Shelly Finkel
“I’m almost overcome by emotions, I’m telling you. Let me just say that in 1957 when I walked into a little gymnasium in Newark, New Jersey, I never dreamed that over a half-century later that my name would be on the Hall of Fame Wall with the great Sugar Ray Robinson and Joe Louis and all the great fighters who have graced the great sport of professional boxing. This is the crowning jewel of my career and I never dreamed this day would ever come. It is the greatest honor that could ever be bestowed upon me in the sport of boxing and for it I am truly grateful.”
– Larry Hazzard
“I’m absolutely thrilled. It doesn’t happen often, but this news sent shivers down my back. I’m very honored to be elected and to be the second German to be a member of the Hall after our idol Max Schmeling is something special for me personally and for all of our people.”
– Wilfried Sauerland
“I’m thrilled and honored to join so many of my heroes, friends, and associates in the pantheon of boxing. I owe my inclusion to everyone I work with at Top Rank, and all the people who helped me over the past four decades in the sport.”
– Bruce Trampler
“It is nice to know that I’m going to be in the Hall with so many of the fighters I covered, fighters who made the sport great – Leonard, Holmes, Ali, Duran. I’m quite pleased to be considered with fighters like that and writers I worked ringside with like Hugh McIlvanney. It is a great feeling that your work is being honored. Plus it is even nicer for me knowing I am going in as a wire service guy.”
– Ed Schuyler
