The Yakima Valley has been effectively represented on the earth of sports activities.
There was alpine skier Phil Mahre, New York Yankees pitcher and pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Sr., receiver Cooper Kupp with the Los Angeles Rams and MarJon Beauchamp with the Milwaukee Bucks.
And on the earth of boxing, Henry Woods practically received the world welterweight boxing title.
Woods was born Aug. 16, 1914, in Yakima, the son of John and Della Woods, who had been constitution members of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the place Della was organist.
His introduction to boxing got here from his grandfather, Jasper P. Evans, a Civil Struggle veteran who got here to the Valley searching for a brand new life. Woods later began coaching as a boxer on the Yakima YMCA.
“He was a real boxer,” his brother, John, mentioned in a 1990 interview with the Yakima Herald-Republic. “He had one of many hardest-punching left palms of any boxer. He was lightning fast afoot and had fast palms.
“He was only a good fighter.”
His first public struggle was in 1927 when, as a 12-year-old, he was one in every of 5 fighters in a battle royale at what’s now State Honest Park. In that struggle, Woods fought a bigger man to a draw.
Together with his mother and father’ permission, Woods began his boxing profession in 1929 beneath promoter Artwork Milbrandt. He additionally labored together with his uncle, Michael Porter.
He rapidly made his mark within the sport, profitable his first 66 skilled bouts.
In 1932, Woods grew to become the primary skilled light-weight boxing champion of Washington, beating Albie Davies by a choice in a 10-round match earlier than a sold-out crowd at The Capitol Theatre.
He moved to California and joined a gaggle of boxers that included the world’s light-weight champion, Henry Armstrong.
In California, Woods moved up into the welterweight division in 1935 to tackle Barney Ross for the world championship. Woods went the complete 12 rounds with the defending champ, solely to lose by a choice.
Some attributed the loss to Woods spraining his ankle early within the struggle; the ache slowed him down.
However the loss didn’t section him, his brother mentioned.
“To him, it was simply one thing that’ll occur within the ring,” John Woods mentioned.
Woods briefly stop boxing a 12 months later as a consequence of promotional issues and moved again to Yakima, the place he continued to work out on the YMCA and coach boys within the sport.
He returned professionally to the ring in 1937, profitable the state’s light-weight title.
His final struggle was in 1942, stepping in as a last-minute substitute in opposition to Juan Zurita, who beat the unprepared Woods in a 10-round resolution.
After retiring from skilled boxing, Woods labored as a shipbuilder in Tacoma, persevering with to work with boxing golf equipment there. In 1977, he returned to Yakima after his father’s loss of life to be together with his mom.
He died at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital of congestive coronary heart failure Jan. 30, 1990, and is buried together with his mother and father in Tahoma Cemetery, his tombstone recounting his state boxing championship.
It Occurred Here’s a weekly historical past column by Yakima Herald-Republic reporter Donald W. Meyers. Attain him at dmeyers@yakimaherald.com. Sources for this week’s column embrace “Early African People in Our Yakima Valley Historical past” compiled by Gilbert Chandler and Ester Huey, familysearch.org, findagrave.com and the archives of the Yakima Herald-Republic.