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Michael’s Tribute to Dave Sands - written on 11th August 2002, the 50th Anniversary of his death
It was in 1940 that the ”Sands’ Brothers“, 6 young aboriginal lads, emerged from the bushland of Kempsey on the north coast of NSW, to try their hand in the world of professional boxing, the toughest of all sports. They were to become known world-wide and famous as ”the Fighting Sands“ and unique in boxing history, for there had been none before and none since to match their deeds, leaving them acclaimed as arguably Australia’s greatest ever sporting family.
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The punching brothers Clem, Ritchie, George, Dave, Alfie and Russell all had the ability and courage above the ordinary, but the star and most gifted of the brothers was Dave, the fourth eldest. His boxing career commenced in Newcastle in 1941 and finished when he was killed at Dungog on 11th August 1952. The truck he was driving failed to negotiate a bend in the road and overturned, ending his life at 26 years of age.
In his 100 fight career Dave won 1 State, 3 Australian, 1 Australasian and the British Empire Middleweight Championships, rising to be ranked No. 1 in the world.
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Dave’s superiority in Australia was such that in 1946 he was acclaimed as the best boxer in the top three weight divisions, even though he was only a middleweight himself. He was not called to make a Title defence until 1952 and then brushed aside that challenge in short time.
Did he have the attributes to be the world champion? The unqualified answer to that is a definite ”yes“ but the men with the money and the manipulators of the sport in the USA determined that Dave was too good to allow such men as Jake LaMotta and Ray Robinson to mix it with the Australian. It was not fair but life seldom is.
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Dave was a fighter who possessed a rare quality in his fistic genius which put him far ahead of the common art of the professional boxer
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World renowned boxers to fall before his flashing gloves included Robert Villemain, Dick Turpin, Carl Olson and Henry Brimm, establishing his greatness overseas. Carl Olson, standing in the Madison Square Garden ring after he had won the vacant world crown in 1953 said: ” if Dave Sands was alive, this Title would be his “. But Olson was an American and he had been given his chance even though Dave had twice easily defeated him.
Dave was a fighter who possessed a rare quality in his fistic genius which put him far ahead of the common art of the professional boxer.
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I suppose it is quite possible for God to create a better sportsman and a greater Champion but so far, He hasn’t
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To have seen him in action made the fan himself a celebrity, because he was privileged to witness the greatest middleweight boxer in the world, perhaps the greatest to have ever pulled on a glove. He stood on the highest rung of the boxing ladder and there were none to dispute that right.
The man the Americans called the ”boxer with the educated left hand“ received his due when he was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1998 at a ceremony held in Los Angeles and there can be no greater tribute than that provided by a sportsman’s peers.
It is now 50 years since the passing of Dave Sands. In that time there have been some labelled as a ”second Dave Sands“ but really, there have been none since worthy of ranking with him.
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As if to confirm that sentiment, the day after Dave had lost his life, the Daily Mirror said of him:
”I suppose there never was a world-class fighter who was more modest, less affected by the glitter and glamour of it than Dave. In his whole career there was never a nasty whisper about him.
And who’ll forget the Empire, Australian and so on Champion saying after a big fight, ”well, got to be getting home“, sleeping like a baby on a bench at Central Railway Station and then climbing onto a paper train which carried him and news of another great win the draughty hundred miles back to Newcastle.
When our children are old, old people, they’ll still be talking about this gentleman of the ring.“
It seems to me, the writer of that piece was correct, for once in a lifetime to make the rest of us realise our limitations, a Dave Sands is born. I suppose it is quite possible for God to create a better sportsman and a greater Champion but so far, He hasn’t.
Dave, may you continue to rest in peace
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