In the 1940s, boxing was king in New Richland

GOLDEN MEMORIES — Above, items on display at the New Richland Area Historical Society. Below, Earl Parriott with his silver gloves award (Star Eagle photos by Rodney Hatle)

(Editor’s note: This is the first in a seven-part series about local, area, and state amateur and professional boxing.)

By RODNEY HATLE

Contributing Writer

At times there really is a rhyme and a reason. In this story of 68 years ago, the rhyme could be written:

Best in the state

At welterweight

In nineteen forty-eight.

And the reason is that Raul J. Donoso won the Upper Midwest Golden Gloves Welterweight Championship through dedication to his own skills. It was February in Minneapolis.

The trophy is inscribed: “U.M.G.G. Team Champion 1948 – Raul Donoso – Welterweight.”

That was his graduation year at New Richland High School.

Donoso had been boxing a few years, beginning at the Minnesota State Public School for Dependent and Neglected Children in Owatonna.

The 1886 “orphanage” was scheduled to close in 1945. Most who hadn’t been adopted were “placed” at about age 18. But now all ages had to be placed. Or find one.

“I was placed with a farmer who lived three miles east of New Richland,” he wrote on e-mail. “I started high school in the fall of 1944. In 1934 I had been taken to the State School. I may send some pictures.”

He did. Arriving cautiously, one by one, are scanned photos of his family. Among them is a Christmas card of 1987 with wife Gertrude, daughter Melody, and sons David and Raul Jr. A picture of daughter Laurelynn Grace, born the next year, was added.

Also arriving have been pictures with references to college graduations in Washington state and Paris as well as visits to other foreign countries, and mountain climbing in Nepal.

In the mix are photos at reunions with high school classmates and visits to Owatonna.

Very interesting is an enlargement of himself among the large number in about 1940. Young Raul is grinning while partly hidden between two schoolmates, front and back.

“At the height of its existence, the [State School] housed 500 children in 16 cottages,” according to the museum folder. “There were 10,635 of them between 1886 and 1945 ... orphaned, abused, or abandoned...”

He eventually moved to New Richland with the Rev. J.C. Walledom family, whose son John Jr. was a younger schoolmate. He would continue to work for farmers and have jobs in town.

So Raul began his freshman year at NRHS where he would eventually find more places such as on rosters for baseball as a left-handed pitcher, football in the backfield, and two basketball seasons as a reserve forward. Added to these were vocal music and a school publication, the Cardinal yearbook.

By coincidence, at nearly the same time as Donoso’s arrival, a former boxer also came to town and opened a shoe and leather repair shop in the rear business space of former Hotel New Richland. Gene Mobley remained in the location about four years.

Mobley let it be known that he would train boys for Golden Gloves competition. Interested ones came to old City Hall in the second level community meeting room, the largest in that 1896 public building. A punching bag and a speed bag were hanging for all to see. These were essential equipment with boxing gloves and a floor mat that served as an enclosed space for sparring.

Among those who could qualify at 16 or older for actual competition, Donoso was probably the only one with even a little experience. Mobley had group and separate training sessions with them. Each did independent “road work” to obtain endurance — leg strength and lung capacity.

One of Raul’s preferred running routes was on gravel roads northwest of town around the former hemp factory.

The route for Earl Parriott, who in 1946-47 would enter the program, was between the school and the Parriott farm west of New Richland. “I ran on gravel in the evenings, too,” he said.

Earl would graduate at NRHS in 1949. He was awarded a silver gloves token for second place in the January 1948 boxing tournament at Owatonna.

Mobley was said to be a former heavyweight and a sparring partner for professionals. It was clear that he knew how to maintain interest. Looking to the future, he right away scheduled sessions with the local Boy Scout Troop 90.

He must have appreciated the overall response because in a bold move he very soon scheduled “a boxing show.”

Its results are front page at the top on the April 4, 1946, New Richland Star as “Fistic Bouts Draw 500 Crowd at High School Gym.”

The boxing card lists six. It was put together quickly enough. There were eight Golden Gloves weights at that time: 112 flyweight, 118 bantam, 126 feather, 135 light, 147 welter, 160 middle, 170 light-heavyweight, and 175-plus for heavyweight. These were established in the 1920s when Golden Gloves began in the United States. Eventually the number of weight classes would increase to the current 12.

Women have had, since 1999, Golden Gloves boxing weights from 95 to 178-plus, along with programs at junior and intermediate levels.

Mobley had borrowed a raised boxing platform (ring), with the proper devices, from Albert Lea where a program had been underway. It was centered in the first (1927-55) NRHS gymnasium.

According to the 1946 Star report, “timekeepers were Finseth and Mertz” – Kenny and Bud (Walter), local Chamber of Commerce members. Mobley was referee. Judges were from Lake City.

Chairs were all around it on the floor and on the west side stage. Bleachers were crowded on the east. Three exhibitions, one from Albert Lea and two locals, preceded six three-round bouts.

The second main event was reported briefly:

“Donoso had his opponent [Haskins] guessing with his cagey left, and [the] decision went to the New Richland puncher.”

New Richland had three winners. Mobley was pleased.

Those who fought were Donoso, Dale Winegar, Rodney Zwiener, Richard Proehl, Ernest Knutson, and Marvin (Hans) Root who was a late entry “substituting for [Gene] Tollefson who was a victim of the measles” which had recently appeared in the community. Root was “just out of the Navy [and] entered the ring without previous workouts,” according to the Star. He and Zwiener, who would be an NRHS graduate that year, joined Donoso as winners.

With that 1946 night as a stimulus, the local program gained a few new participants. Among them would be Parriott. He would be in the bantamweight class at the January 1948 Seventh Annual District 17 Golden Gloves Tournament, according to the program on display at the State Public School Museum in Owatonna. With it is Donoso’s trophy in the sports area, and hundreds of everyday items and pictures representing all decades at the institution.

Winners at that tournament would enter state competition in Minneapolis the next month, February.

(To be continued.)