Long before the incorporation of the city of Las Vegas, in the early 1900s, the Biggest Little City held the distinction of the World's Fight Capital.
On July 4, 1910, Reno made headlines after hosting a historic bout called “The Fight of the Century,” between John Arthur Jack Johnson known as the “Galveston Giant” who retained his heavyweight title against James J. ‘Jim’ Jeffries “The Great White Hope.”
Years later, Reno native and Nevada boxing icon Pat Schellin takes it upon himself to keep Reno’s rich history in boxing alive, one young competitor at a time.
“I’ve had a lot of students walk through those doors. Some become champions, some don’t even end up boxing. But I make sure they always leave with an appreciation of just what this town did for the sport in its early years,” Schellin, the assistant head coach of the University of Nevada’s boxing team says.
“Reno really was the only place for a sport like boxing to blossom. At the time Vegas was just an itty-bitty town, and it was Northern Nevada that saw the first of the mega-fights that we see now [in boxing],” he explains.
Boxing coach Pat Schellin poses with Azar at the Collegiate Boxing National Tournament in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Schellin is referencing a time when Nevada was one of the few states to have lenient regulations on combat sports, and Reno was the first to begin hosting large scale fights that would generate unforeseen interest in a rough and tough sport like boxing.
Schellin is always eager to bestow boxing knowledge, but not always at the most ideal of times. Once I recall being in a heated sparring session at the gym and he abruptly had a recollection, and stopped the sparring mid-round.
“You remind me a lot of Larry Holmes, you know that?” Schellin announced. He went on to tell a very interesting story of a time when Holmes, the heavyweight champion in the late 1970s until the mid 80s, was in town and needed to use his gym.
He told of all of the quirky training methods that Holmes let him in on, and after what seemed like 20 minutes the sparring resumed. My sweat was gone, I had to get warmed up again, but I left that day with unique boxing knowledge that most others do not have.
What exactly did Holmes say? The heavyweight champion of the world told Pat about how when he was young, he would chase chickens for long stretches of time to build up agility and endurance. Another, more dangerous strategy, was that he would attach nails to the bottom of a wood plank and practice his head movement underneath. Come up too early, and you’d need stitches. Fighters really were of a different breed back then.
The collegiate boxing gym we train in on 4th street is a part of Reno’s history in pugilism.
I am honored to have been able to compete for UNR and become a part of that story. I was able to place second at the national tournament in 2023, after going undefeated in nine fights that season. I won the western regional championship, stopping every fighter I fought against. I also was privileged to go to the Arthur Mercante Invitationals at the New York Athletic Club in NYC, and beat the previous year's national champion at my weight. I am coming off of a serious hip injury, but am hoping to compete again at the regional tournament in March of 2024.
When I enter Schellin’s gym I feel as if I am walking into a museum, as the walls are covered with memorabilia from the legendary fights and fighters that have passed through. Boxing’s history becomes more illustrious the farther you go back, and to be enveloped in that history is truly an experience I will forever be grateful for.
Our Town Reno Citizen’s Forum contribution by Joseph Azar