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[IMG]http://i65.***********.com/albums/h219/phesstve/HongKongInter-SchoolBoxingChampions.jpg[/IMG]
By Richard Torres
Here is a story about Bruce Lee that has never been seen in any movie or documentary. It is a true story and has all the drama of a movie.
It is 1956 and Bruce Lee is enrolled in St. Francis Xavier’s College (High School). In the school he is mentored by a teacher by the name of Brother Edward. During the years in this school, Bruce Lee continues to get in trouble getting into fights in the streets and in the school.
By 1958, at the age of seventeen, Bruce Lee is asked by Brother Edwards to join the school’s Boxing Team. Brother Edwards feels that he can channel that fighting spirit and energy of young Bruce Lee in a positive way. Every year a bout is held with twelve schools and the winning school for the last three years has been the King George V School. This school has always been the rival school with St. Francis Xavier College. Most of the attendants of the King George V School are British boys who taunt the Chinese boys in St. Francis Xavier when they pass by the school. But the Boxing Champion of all the schools, Gary Elms of the King George V School, has not been beaten by anyone and has remained the champion for the last three years.
Bruce Lee accepts Brother Edwards’ offer and joins the Boxing Team of St. Francis Xavier. To the surprise of many of the members of the Boxing Team, Bruce would do little or no training with them. He continued his Wing Chun training with Wong Shun Leung and with William Cheung in the weekends. Wing Chun had allowed Bruce to be victorious in many challenges between Gung Fu Schools and in street fights. He felt Wing Chun would also help him in this Boxing Bout.
It was March 29, 1958 and the time had arrived for the Boxing Tournament to take place. All twelve High Schools attended the match. The preliminary bouts were held first. This determined who would be eliminated and who would make it to the final matches. Bruce Lee fought three preliminary bouts with three different opponents. He was able to knock them all out in the first round. He accomplished this more from his aggressiveness and wild swinging punches, as if he were in a street fight, more than from his Wing Chun training.
By defeating his three opponents, Bruce Lee made it all the way to the final bout. He was paired against the British boy, Gary Elms, who had been the defending Boxing Champion for three straight years.
Elms’ skill level was much higher than the previous three opponents that Bruce fought. He attacked vigorously forward and pressured young Bruce Lee to the corners of the ring, causing Bruce to swing wildly as he had done on the previous bouts, but this time with no effect on his opponent.
By the second round, Bruce expected the same attacks and was able to use some of the Wing Chun blocks against Elms’ punches. This time, Bruce Lee did not run back to the corners from Elms’ attacks.
The bout continued into the third round. This time Bruce blocked and hit and parried and hit anytime Gary Elm threw punches at him. Finally, he jumped in on Elms and Straight Blasted his way through, knocking out the Champ in the Third Round.
This was quite an accomplishment for Bruce Lee. Now St. Francis Xavier College brought home the winning title against their rival school, King George V School. For the many Chinese boys attending the competition, it made them proud that a Chinese boy finally won this competition over the three-time British Champion.
When Bruce Lee finally left Hong Kong to America on April 1959, he left as the 1958 School Boxing Champion and the 1958 Crown Colony Cha Cha Champion of Hong Kong. Accomplishments that he rarely talked about in America.Comment
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Googling 'Bruce Lee boxing competition' you get some more pics
[IMG]http://i65.***********.com/albums/h219/phesstve/HongKongInter-SchoolBoxingChampi-1.jpg[/IMG]
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