Eddie Nichols
Eddie Nichols (1905-1955) was an amateur welterweight in the 1920's. He was born in San Antonio, Texas and moved to Chicago in 1923. His first boxing lesson came from the black heavyweight champion Jack Johnson, who in turn became a good fighter thanks to legendary middleweight boxer Joe Chojnski; they even trained in jail together after being arrested.
At the time, in late 19th, early 20th century many states in the United States did not allow fights between mixed races and boxing was illegal in general (part of useless Frawley Law just like Prohibition)! In Chicago, some boxing fans fondly remember him as a good trainer. He was the owner of Nichol's Gym where many famous boxers trained including Bob Satterfield, Sonny Liston when he was starting out, Bob 'Belt Em, Grinder' Baker & others. Baker was rocky marciano's final logical challenger but he avoided him; He was to fight him between January 4 & February 3 1956!Rocky could have earned golden 50-0 record if he had defeated him but it would not have been easy, at the time Baker had best record of world's heavyweights. His record was 45-5, unlike others he won 13 straight fights aka Baker's Dozen. Others who had at least 11 straight victories were Summerlin & Italian Cavichi. But they never fought Baker, BB.
Nichols died on Christmas Eve December 24 1955, in his sleep. Family had hard time accepting his death during Christmas & holidays as they had already planned special party in his honor, it had to be canceled. His funeral took place on Monday January 2 1956.
