Manuel Velazquez (December 6, 1904 – January 1994) was an American anti-

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

activist who kept meticulous files on boxing-related deaths.

Early life

Manuel Velazquez was born in

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...

. When Velazquez was about 10 years old he and his family moved to

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. At 15 he dropped out of school and began work at a railroad roundhouse in

Oak Park, Illinois Oak Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, adjacent to Chicago. It is the 29th-most populous municipality in Illinois with a population of 54,583 as of the 2020 U.S. Census estimate. Oak Park was first settled in 1835 and later incorporated in ...

. At 19 he joined the

Illinois National Guard The Illinois National Guard comprises both Army National Guard and Air National Guard components of Illinois. As of 2013, the Illinois National Guard has approximately 13,200 members. The National Guard is the only United States military force emp ...

, Company F, 131st Infantry. He served from 1924-1925, then moved back to Tampa and worked on a trolley car.

Association with boxing

In Tampa, Velazquez befriended middleweight boxer Manuel Quintero and consequently spent significant time in the gym. In 1927 Velazquez moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and worked on a trolley on

Sixth Avenue Sixth Avenue – also known as Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers, p.24 – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown". It is commercial ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

and then as a conductor on the

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...

system. During his time in New York he befriended boxer and fellow Floridian Pete Nebo. Nebo retired at 27 and moved to

Key West, Florida Key West ( es, Cayo Hueso) is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Sigsbee Park, Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Isla ...

, where he was arrested in 1938 for assaulting a man who called him "punchy." The court determined that Nebo was mentally incompetent due to boxing injuries, and on September 1 he was involuntarily committed to Florida State Hospital at Chattahoochie. Velazquez subsequently began collecting data on boxing injuries, and as a result of what he learned he began to oppose the sport.

Later life

In 1938 he had to quit his subway job due to

multiple sclerosis Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...

. The disease forced him to use a cane starting in 1939. Still, he continued to work, finding employment in the Federal civil service in 1940. This job took him around the country, including stops in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

Arlington, Virginia Arlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the District of Columbia, of which it was once a part. The county is ...

and Fort Benjamin Harrison. After his retirement in 1959, Velazquez lived in government-subsidized housing in Tampa. Later he moved to

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, and finally to Greenville, Illinois where he died at the age of 89.

Legacy

Shortly before his death, Velazquez sent his files to Robert W. Smith, who, along with Andrew Guterman, had written an article called "Neurological Sequalae of Boxing," published in the journal Sports Medicine (4

987 Year 987 ( CMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * February 7 – Bardas Phokas (the Younger) and Bardas Skleros, two membe ...

194-210).Neurological Sequalae of Boxing
/ref> The collection passed to Joseph R. Svinth in the mid-1990s. Svinth maintains an ongoing project called "Death Under the Spotlight: The Manuel Velazquez Boxing Fatality Collection," which documents "Western" boxing deaths since 1741.

Footnotes

External links

* ttp://espndeportes.espn.go.com/news/story?id=366783&redir=true Articleon

Leavander Johnson Leavander Johnson (December 24, 1969 – September 22, 2005) was an American lightweight boxer from Atlantic City, New Jersey, who once held the International Boxing Federation version of the world title. He won the title on June 17, 2005, again ...

on ESPN Deportes (in Spanish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Velazquez, Manuel American activists Boxing people 1904 births 1994 deaths People from Greenville, Illinois People from Tampa, Florida Combat sports controversies