Spike Webb

Spike Webb, born Hamilton Murrel Webb (April 12, 1889 – July 2, 1963), was an American boxer who became an Olympic boxing coach for four successful American Olympic teams from 1920 to 1932, while simultaneously serving the initial and longest term as head boxing coach for the United States Naval Academy from 1919 to 1954. During his tenure, he was considered by sports historians to be the most successful college and Olympic boxing coach of his era.

Early life Webb was born on April 2, 1889, to George W. and Mary E. Webb in the Hamden-Woodberry section of Baltimore, Maryland. He began professional boxing at 14, at his city's Eureka Athletic Club. His hometown paper, the Baltimore Sun, wrote that in one of his early fights as a scrawny featherweight he knocked out his opponent "Battling Kennedy" on March 17, 1916, only a few seconds after he had accidentally misplaced a blow and knocked out the referee. One Baltimore source wrote that before the War, he once met future World feather champion Johnny Kilbane in a close non-title match. According to one source, he boxed professionally only six years, retiring in 1910, fighting close to 115 fights and acquiring an impressive record with only a handful of losses, but few reliable records remain of his professional fights.

Coaching career He received a three-year Polytechnical education at night school, than began his coaching career as the athletic director of Baltimore's Westside Center from 1913 to 1917, where he trained thousands of young men in boxing, wrestling, football, baseball, basketball, soccer, track and field. As a player, he enjoyed football, and pitching baseball. While serving in the Army in France, he fought reigning European featherweight champion, Frenchman Charles Ledoux, in a rugged bout to a six-round draw in an exhibition in an underground canteen in Verdun, France on October 4, 1918. During the same period he had an exhibition with the future French light heavyweight champion Georges Carpentier.

Towards the end of the war, he Captained and trained the highly successful American Expeditionary Force (AEF) boxing team. On January 14, 1919, the Blue and Grey team of the Maryland National Guard 29th Division, coached by Webb, won every bout in a contest arranged for them with French fighters in Paris. In a telegram sent the following morning to the Divisional commander, Webb summed up the day, stating his team had "Nine fights, nine victories, five knockouts." When the Division left Paris, Webb was picked to stay behind and coach the American team in the Paris Inter-Allied Games Competition. Coaching the team to a win in the Inter-Allied Games finals at the Cirque-de-Paris on July 26, 1919, Outstanding members of the team included Olympian Eddie Eagan and Bob Martin. Tunney, who won the light heavyweight championship for the American AEF team, later said, "Spike Webb ranks as one of the two or three top men in boxing for all time, either professional or amateur. He is an institution. The regard in which boxing holds him is a result of his way of life. He never asked anything for himself. He was always giving to others."

US Naval Academy coach, 1919-54

Immediately after his service in WWI, he became an associate professor and boxing coach at the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, and served for 35 years until his retirement on June 30, 1954.

In the same year he began coaching the Navy team in 1919, Webb started Boxing Juniors, a boxing club for the children of officers. Ages ranged from 2 to 12, and a Juniors Championship tournament was held each of the 35 years Webb was Navy head coach. Many of these children grew up to be high ranking Admirals and captains. His work with young boxers included coaching several championship teams for the New York Golden Gloves competitions, including New York's 1940 and 1941 Inter-City competitions.

During his career with the Naval Academy, Webb also coached track for the Baltimore Cross Country team, a sport he had coached in his youth in Baltimore.

US Olympic coach, 1920-32 Members of the U.S. 1924 Olympic Boxing Team call at White House before sailing to Europe on June 14. Front row, lft. to rt.- Fidel La Barba, Jack Fields, "Spike" Webb In 1919, Webb was selected as head coach for the American Olympic boxing team from among 100 candidates. As coach, in 1920, 1924, 1928, and 1932, he led the team to 3 overall team titles, and seven individual gold medals. Finding success in his first year as Olympic Coach at the 1920 Antwerp Summer Olympics, his boxers received 4 medals, with golds won by Frankie Genaro, Samuel Mosberg, and Eddie Eagan. In the 1924 Paris Olympics, Webb said he was proud he had picked Jackie Fields over the protests of other coaches, despite his being beaten in his second Olympic trials elimination round. Proven correct in his evaluation, Fields took the gold medal in Paris, and later became World welterweight champion. Fidel LaBarba, whom Webb considered his most intelligent protege, won the other gold. His 1928 Amsterdam Olympic boxing team was the only one of the four he coached that failed to win the team medal, but won two Silvers and a Bronze.

After retiring as their boxing coach, he received a pension from the US Naval Academy, and at the bequest of the Israeli government spent six months installing boxing in their Athletic programs and schools, and training their Olympic Boxing team. After a service at the Naval Academy Chapel, he was buried in their cemetery, at its highest point atop a hill. Webb was inducted into the Maryland State Hall of Fame, an athletic honor, in 1974.