Frankie Angustain

 

Frankie Angustain 

Angustain and his family were some of the last to be forced out of Chavez Ravine to make way for Dodgers Stadium. Frankie had a brother, Mike, who was also a fighter.

The family of boxers Frankie and Mike Angustain been forcefully removed out of their home to make way for Dodgers Stadium

Olympic Auditorium.

The Olympic Auditorium...I am one of the dying breed that experience that Golden era of Los Angeles boxing.

My first time attending a boxing show at the Olympic Auditorium was in 1947. Some uncles of mine took me to see the rematch between Enrique Bolanos and John Thomas. They had fought earlier in the year. Their first fight which I also attended was at Wrigley Field which was won by Bolanos by 7 round KO. Bolanos also won the second fight by 4 round KO.

Within a couple of years the Olympic became my second home.

Among some of the fighters that I watch fight at the Olympic in those early years, beside Bolanos and Thomas were: Art “Golden Boy” Aragon, Jimmy Carter, Freddie Babe Herman, Keeny Teran, Carlos Chavez, Harold “Baby Face” Jones, Lauro Salas, Phil Kim, Eddie Chavez, Gil Cadilli and the Docusen brothers, Maxie and Bernard, and the list goes on and on.

In the mid-50s I was training my cousin Tony Adame at the Teamsters Gym when he was fighting in the juniors. In 1958 he fought in the finals of the Junior Golden Gloves which were held at the Olympic, he lost. That was the first time I worked a corner at the fame arena.

By the early 60s I started to get to know the management and was on a first name basis with some of them.

In the mid-60s the Olympic started holding public workouts on a Sunday a week or two before a big fight card. I would set-up 2 or 3 sparring matches between junior fighters to warm the crowd up before the big guns would take the stage. Give the fans free workouts, plus sell them beer and soon they would line-up to buy tickets. I would get free tickets for my doings. I did that for a number of years.

By the early 1970s I was firmly embedded with management. I became good friends with matchmaker Don Chargin. As hard as it was I got to know Aileen Eaton, not well though. I would take over for glove man Norm Lockwood when he had to be out of town with a fighter.

In 1976 my oldest son Frankie turned pro and became a favorite of the house. Tony turned pro in 1979 and he too became a house favorite.

Around 1980 after Aileen Eaton retired, Rogelio Robles became the promoter and I became the amateur matchmaker. Now I was working side by side with Don Chargin. The Olympic closed its doors for boxing around 1987. Some promoters tried to reopen it. Some held a show or two and then folded, including Oscar De La Hoyo

Efren "El Alacán" Torres vs Hiroyuki Ebihara

                                        Efren "El Alacán" Torres

In 1963 I went to the Olympic Auditorium to see the Efren "El Alacán" Torres vs Hiroyuki Ebihara fight. It was a great and very close fight in which Ebihara was given the nod by split decision. No sooner had the decision been announced by golden voiced, Jimmy Lennon Sr., when all hell broke loose, the fans started to riot. They began by ripping the seats of the floor and starting fires, than the chingosos (fist fights) started. I tried to stay clear of the action, but it was hard to do as just about everybody was throwing chingosos. As I was trying to stay out of the way one guy asked me who I thought won the fight, when I told him that I thought Ebihara had won he then punched me in the face and then he run like a deer. No way; I going to catch that guy, so I punched the nearest guy that was throwing chingosos and then I run like a deer!!

They fought again in 1965 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Ebihara won by TKO in seven rounds. That same night Jerry Quarry made his pro debut.

                                                     Hiroyuki Ebihara

Alberto Lopez and the Lady

True story, names have been changed to protect the reputation of the innocent.

                                           

Around 1979 as I was standing around at the Olympic Auditorium a guy walked up to me an introduce himself as Juan, Juan told me that he and his wife owned a beer bar about a mile from my house in La Puente. He invited me to his bar for a beer or two; I did visit his bar and had couple of beers with him and his wife, whom name is long forgotten.

One night I stopped at Juan’s Bar for a beer, as I was drinking my beer Juan told me he had some ringside tickets for the following Thursday at the Olympic, he asked me if I would like to go with him, said one of the Bejines bros was fighting, don’t remember which one now, I didn't need tickets to get into the fights but I accepted his invitation. Juan asked me to meet him on that Thursday at 6:30 PM at the bar.

On Thursday as I walked into the bar, which was empty except for one great looking lady who looked to be into her cups, or more like four sheets to the wind. After drinking a beer with Juan we were ready to roll, as we were walking out the door Juan asked me if we should take the lady with us, I asked him if he knew her, he said no, I told him it was okay with me either way. Juan invited her and she accepted, she almost felled of the stool trying to get off it. An omen of what was to come?

Juan wanted to drive his car which was a two seater black Corvette. We got on the road with the lady seating on my lap, by the time we got on the 60 Freeway I had this drunken lady kissing me all over the place.  As we are walking into the Olympic she is hanging on to me like I was her boyfriend or husband. I was trying to push her off to Juan, hell! Everybody in the boxing community knew me and my family back then, and I couldn’t afford to be seen with this lady or any other lady other than my wife, but Juan was having none of it “she’s yours” he told me.

We found our seats and the lady is seating between Juan and me, but she was still kissing me and hanging on to me, across the ring Olympic Boxing Club matchmaker, Don Chargin, is winking his eye at me. Seating right in front of us was, Alberto Lopez, boxing writer for the Spanish speaking newspaper, La Prense. As all three of us are having a beer and watching the fights we are shooting the bull with Lopez. Don’t remember much about the fights, but as the end of the card was drawing near Lopez invited us to La Fonda on Wilshire Blvd for a late dinner and drinks.

We got to La Fonda and were seated at a table. The lady was seated between Lopez and me. As we are having a drink and talking I seen some feet flying in the air, it was the lady, she had fallen backwards off her chair, as a few heads turned around to see what was happening Lopez and I picked her up and dusted her off and sat her down. A few minutes later she did her act again, we again picked her up; dusted her off and sat her down, at that point Juan and I stood up and told Lopez that we were leaving and that the lady was staying with him, he was doing a weak act of protesting as Juan and I were walking out.

I didn’t see Lopez again till 1996 when I ran into him at the Julio Cesar Chavez/Oscar De La Hoya closed circuit telecast at the Pomona Fair Grounds. I asked him about the lady, he said that the lady started making a scene after Juan and I left and that he asked her to please calm down and as she tried to sit down, felled backwards and was KO'd. He said he helped to sit her down again. Leaving her behind; he paid the bill and left. Said he also never knew what ever happened to her after that..…One week later her car was still parked in front of Juan’s Bar…I didn’t see much of Juan after that. Later the bar was closed down and I heard he and his wife had moved back to Texas.