Albion club holding 30th anniversary boxing card
May 12 event will feature seven local fighters
It all began in 1988, in someone’s garage on Stellarton’s Red Row.
“I was a boxing fan my whole life,” says Jim Worthen, the longtime coach of the Albion Boxing club – and now its president. “I grew up going to New Glasgow Stadium, watching the Hafeys and Sponagles fight, the Linthornes, Joe Gordon – all those guys. I had a real passion for it.”
Worthen started the club 30 years ago with Laurie MacLean and the late Wayne Scott, who donated the use of that garage as the Albion club worked through the inevitable growing pains.
To acknowledge the milestone, the Albion club is holding a 30th anniversary card on May 12 at Summer Street Industries.
Tickets are available at Big Al’s in New Glasgow, or from a boxing club member.
A motorcycle crash when Worthen was 16 derailed any hopes of boxing competitively, but when he reached his late 20s, he was approached by a couple of friends with the idea of forming a club and, eventually, into that garage they went, getting invaluable help in the early days from Lawrence and Art Hafey and Barry Sponagle, veterans of the ring wars who knew how to build a boxer from the ground up.
“They all came in and helped us, showing us how a boxing regimen is run,” Worthen said. “There’s been so many people who have come through, executives and volunteers, it’s nearly impossible to name them all. But, they’ve all contributed to it.”
After a time, the club moved on from Red Row, were based in Hillside and later at the old Diamond Street School in Trenton, before finally settling in to their current home, in the old Trenton Youth Centre building on the town’s Main Street.
Al Archibald, the club’s current head coach, said he’s been working extra hard getting his fighters prepared for the May 12 card, which will feature seven Albion club boxers.
“I want it to be a great night for Jim.”
Worthen admits that 30 years ago, when the Albion club was in its infancy, he never could have imagined that it would still be thriving, three decades on.
“I could not have pictured it,” he said. “We started with the idea of something to have fun with and it started growing by leaps and bounds. I didn’t have a crystal ball I could look into and go, ‘Yeah we’ll be around in thirty years,’ and I hope it’s going on long after I am gone.”
The club has produced 11 national champions over the years, and thousands of other kids have boxed there, some of them returning later to coach, such as current coaches Walter Linthorne and Erin (Simpson) MacGregor.
“Some of them are here a month, some of them are here for a year, and some grow up in the club and are here seven, eight or ten years,” Worthen said.
“Boxing has a tradition in Pictou County going back over a hundred years, but there’s never been a club that’s lasted this long.”
“There’s been so many people who have come through, executives and volunteers, it’s nearly impossible to name them all. But, they’ve all contributed to it.”