Gene was a legend in boxing and a true Utah sports hero who will be missed. But perhaps the biggest contribution made by Gene and his family is the tremendous time, effort and resources they shared with countless numbers of Utah's youth, allowing them to train, compete and learn many important life skills through boxing. – Utah Gov. Gary Herbert
SOUTH JORDAN — The man thought he was giving Gene Fullmer valuable advice when he told him not to give his autograph away for free.
But the former middleweight world champion from a hardscrabble mining town in Utah believed he was repaying a debt when he scrawled his name across whatever the long line of fans shoved in front of him.
“’You’re going to make your autograph worthless,’” DeLaun Fullmer said the man told his father during a visit to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in New York. “And Dad said, 'If it wasn’t for the fans, there wouldn’t be a sport. If it wasn’t for them, we’d be nothing.'”
With Gene Fullmer’s death at 83 the night of April 27, a special era of sportsmen came to a quiet conclusion. There is no doubt Gene, Jay and Don Fullmer excelled in the ring, but the fighting Fullmer brothers never saw boxing as something to be used by them.
Instead, the students of legendary coach Marv Jenson, viewed themselves as stewards of the sweet science. As each retired from fighting, they proved their passion for the sport by dedicating their lives to ensuring anyone who wanted to allow the sport to work its magic would have the opportunity.
"Gene was a legend in boxing and a true Utah sports hero who will be missed,” said Utah Gov. Gary Herbert after hearing of Fullmer’s death, which came just hours after his brother Jay was laid to rest in the same cemetery where Don was buried in 2012 and where Gene will be interred on Monday. “But perhaps the biggest contribution made by Gene and his family is the tremendous time, effort and resources they shared with countless numbers of Utah's youth, allowing them to train, compete and learn many important life skills through boxing.”
Gene seemed destined for the ring, even before he was born, as he was named after 1926 world heavyweight champ Gene Tunney. He and his father shared the first name of Lawrence, although neither of them ever used it. While Gene preferred to use his middle name, his father was known by a nickname that described him more than identified him — Tuff.
Native sons of a coarse mining town tucked in the southwest corner of the Salt Lake Valley, Tuff Fullmer’s ability to brawl was the stuff of legends. While some feats attributed to him couldn’t be corroborated by his family, his grandchildren did see him take on an unhappy fight fan at the age of 72 — and win.
Tuff Fullmer saw Jenson training boxers on the lawn of a recreation center in West Jordan and asked Gene if he’d like to give the sport a try.
“Everybody knows the story,” DeLaun said laughing. “He hurt his knee running track, and then he tried basketball and was going for a rebound when somebody jumped on his back and his head hit the floor, busting out both of his front teeth. …He joked that he needed to try a sport that wasn’t as tough as basketball or track, so he went to boxing.”
Jay and Don followed Gene into the sport, and even as old men, they cherished their time with Jenson, which was evident in the emotion that often overcame them as they shared stories of their coach. Among the trophies and memorabilia each man kept was the blue and white sweater given to those boxers disciplined enough to follow the coach’s strict rules.
Gene turned pro in 1951 and quickly earned a reputation for being a fighter who could sustain punches as well as he delivered them.
He went undefeated in his first 29 bouts, winning eight contests by knockout. On Jan. 2, 1957, he earned a shot at fighting the legendary Sugar Ray Robinson for the world middleweight championship in Madison Square Garden. An underdog, in large part because of his bullish style, he defeated Robinson in a unanimous 15-round decision. He granted Robinson a rematch four months later when Robinson knocked Fullmer out with what many boxing historians dubbed “the perfect punch.”
He regained the title of middleweight world champion in August 1959 when he defeated Carmen Basilio for the vacant title. He successfully defended that title seven times, including twice more against Robinson (one draw and one win), before losing the title to Dick Tiger in 1962 at Candlestick Park.
That loss to Tiger is the only time DeLaun Fullmer saw his father box professionally. After the fight ended, the 4-year-old ran to find his father in the labyrinth of hallways at the stadium.
“I went to the locker room, and I wanted to go in, but someone said, ‘That’s Fullmer’s kid. Don’t let him in,’” DeLaun recalled. “Then I heard my dad say, ‘Let him in. Let him find out what it’s like to be a fighter. Then he may not want to follow in my footsteps.’”
DeLaun said he hurried to his side, where he told his battered and bloodied father, “Let me fight him, Dad. I’ll beat him for you.”
While Gene Fullmer’s impressive career ended in another loss to Tiger a year later with a record of 55-6-3, Jay Fullmer, younger than Gene by five years, had already retired in 1960 because of an eye injury.
Jay Fullmer, who earned a 20-5-2 record in four years of professional boxing in the welterweight division, returned home and immediately started officiating and coaching. He taught students in his back yard and garage until the family of one of his students, Nick Butterfield, offered the use of an abandoned chicken coop.
Almost immediately after Gene Fullmer retired in 1963, he and his brothers joined with men like Harry Miller, Chick Paris, Angelo Curly and Jake Westbrook to establish the Rocky Mountain Golden Gloves franchise in Utah in 1964. Don Fullmer, eight years younger than Gene, retired in 1973 with a record 54-20-5 in the middleweight division, and a career that included an unsuccessful title fight in Italy and bouts with nine world champions. He immediately followed his brothers into coaching and officiating with all three men serving on the Rocky Mountain Golden Gloves board until their deaths. In fact, this spring marked the first time at least one of the brothers wasn’t in attendance at the state and regional tournaments in Utah.
Gene and Don were inducted into the Golden Gloves Hall of Fame many years ago, while Jay received notice last year that he would be inducted in this year’s national tournament in Las Vegas the week of May 10. (Jay is already a member of the Golden Gloves Officiating Hall of Fame.)
Gene Fullmer was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991, and the organization flew flags at half-staff last week to honor Fullmer.
“A tough and rugged middleweight champion, Gene Fullmer was one of the shining stars of the Golden ‘50s boxing scene,” said Hall of Fame executive director Edward Brophy in a written statement. “The Hall of Fame joins the boxing community in mourning his passing and extend our condolences to the Fullmer family.”
Gene was also a member of the Utah Sports Hall of Fame and was scheduled to be inducted into the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame in August, according to DeLaun.
All three men worked full-time jobs while training as professional boxers. Gene worked at Kennecott Copper until he quit before his second fight against Robinson because they wouldn’t give him time off to train. Years later, he learned that he was a few months shy of ensuring himself retirement benefits, to which he told his children, according to DeLaun, “If I’d known that, I’d have put the fight off three more months."
Jenson convinced Gene to take up mink farming while he was still boxing, which he did on his farm in South Jordan where he lived with his wife, Delores, whom he married in 1955. They raised four children within a stone's throw of his parents, his sister, Colleen Tyson, and his brothers.
Gene also raced quarter horses, an endeavor that accounted for most of the family’s vacations.
“We went to horse races all summer long,” said DeLaun, Gene’s oldest son. “We’d go all over Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming and Utah in a horse trailer. That was our vacations. He’d say, ‘The hotel has a swimming pool.’”
From the time his children were small, he made sure they had chores on the farm and around the house.
“I learned to work hard,” DeLaun said. “That was the one thing he really instilled in us. Nothing was given to us.”
On Jan. 2, 1983, almost to the hour when he won his world championship, Delores had a heart attack and passed away.
"He told me Jan. 2 was the best day of his life, and then the worst," DeLaun said. Gene remarried a year and a half later, and is survived by his second wife, Karen.
In the years after his retirement, Gene joined his brothers coaching at the Fullmer Brothers Gym, a labor of love that offered thousands of young people the opportunity to learn what boxing had to offer as they never charged anyone a dime for their instruction and advice.
Among those who sought instruction from the brothers was former state representative David Butterfield, R-Logan.
“I began training as an amateur boxer under the Fullmers when I was 6 years old,” Butterfield said. “My last bout came when I was 29. I almost can’t imagine being part of boxing and not having them around. Their impact on me and so many others went well beyond teaching you how to fight in the boxing ring. It was at least as much about how to be a man — somebody that took care of your responsibilities and had a little determination about life. To calculate the positive impact they have had is impossible, except to consider each kid. Each one is a living memorial to them.”
Bart Fullmer said some of his most vivid childhood memories come from how his father handled fame.
“Anywhere we went, out to eat, to a movie or to a grocery store, people constantly came up and shook his hand or wanted an autograph. I don’t think even today, you just don’t realize how popular he was, how much people admired him, looked up to him.”
He and his own son accompanied Gene on a trip to the International Boxing Hall of Fame a few years ago, and it was an eye-opening experience for both of them. “My son was 21 or 22 at the time, and he was totally amazed,” Bart said. “He thought he was just Joe Blow Grandpa. Then you see people clamoring around him, that opened my son’s eyes.”
DeLaun and Bart said while their father was strict, no-nonsense and often unsympathetic to childhood complaints, it was their mom who most often meted out punishments.
Gene was not demonstrative in his affection, choosing to show his children his love through hard work and unflagging loyalty. DeLaun said he wasn’t the “soft shoulder” that his uncles could be or that his mother was. Instead, he described his dad as “frugal, dedicated, diligent and responsible.”
“There is a mentality that you have to have as a world champion that’s just different,” DeLaun said. “It’s not a normal person’s mentality. On a personal side, we’d ask him, but he was very quiet about his accomplishments.”
From boys who sought instruction from the champ to those who just grew up in the shadow of his accomplishments, the impact of Gene Fullmer’s success is almost immeasurable.
Prominent defense attorney Ron Yengich said he first met the man referred to as “The Cyclone” or the “Mormon Mauler” when he worked as a bagger at a grocery store where the family shopped.
“He was just a regular guy and a good guy,” said Yengich, who worked with the brothers when he served on the Utah Boxing Commission. “To me, if you take all the athletes in the history of Utah, and there have been some great ones — Olympic athletes, Major League Baseball players, a lot of college athletes who went on to careers in the NBA and NFL — of all of them, our greatest sports family in Utah is the Fullmers without a doubt.”
It’s not just what they accomplished, but how they did it and how they carried themselves afterward.
“Gene was a world champion when it really meant something,” Yengich said. “And his brothers, what people forget is that Don and Jay were great fighters, too. And even more importantly, they were just good guys.”
Utah Speaker of the House and boxing aficionado Greg Hughes said the legacy of the fighting Fullmers is one of athletic excellence, but also of generosity and service. “The passing of Gene Fullmer brings the end to an era,” Hughes said. “While (the many) accolades are well-deserved, and their place in boxing history is well-established, the rest of the story is how revered these men are throughout communities in Utah where they trained and served as mentors to countless youth. They never gave up on anyone that would put in the work and do their part. The lives that they have touched and changed for good are too many to count. That is the real measure of these men. That is the Fullmer family legacy.”
DeLaun said that when his Uncle Jay passed away on April 22, he went to the care center in Taylorsville where his father had spent the past few years living with Alzheimer's disease.
"It's hard to tell what he understood sometimes," DeLaun said. "He didn't really respond or say anything when I told him. But he'd been doing really good physically before that, even Monday night. And it was like after I told him Uncle Jay was gone, he just decided, as the oldest son, his work was done."
DeLaun said his father, who'd been feeling so good he recognized him a few days earlier, closed his eyes that Saturday morning and never woke up again.
"It's like Uncle Don was up there in heaven fighting Sugar Ray by himself since (2012)," DeLaun said. "And then Uncle Jay got there and they were fighting him together, but then he said to my dad, "Gene, you better get up here and help us kick his butt.'"
And, as anyone who knew Gene Fullmer understands, he'd never pass up the opportunity for a good fight.
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