The Washington D.C. Golden Gloves is a franchise holder of Golden Gloves of America. We serve boxers and fans in Washington DC, Maryland, Delaware & portions of Virginia and North Carolina.
Building champions in and out of the ring since 1923
Join us to help promote amateur boxing
UPCOMING EVENTS
UPCOMING EVENTS
National Championships: May 11-18, 2025
Tulsa, OK
About Us
Golden Gloves Mission
It is the mission of the Golden Gloves of America, Inc. “to provide an activity and safe environment that promotes and enhances the physical and emotional well-being and social development of young athletes; develops individual athletic skills, work ethic, discipline, sportsmanship, self-respect and pride; and provides entertainment to citizens of the community”.
Our Region
All of Washington DC, State of Maryland and all the state of Virginia, except Lea, Scott, Wise, Dickinson, Buchanan, Russell and Washington counties. Also has the state of Delaware. All territory in North Carolina East of Highway 220.
History
The Golden Gloves originated in 1923 when Arch Ward, the sports editor of a Chicago newspaper, put together an amateur boxing tournament to assist young boxers and promote amateur competition. Each weight division winner received a small golden glove as an award. More than 400 local boxers competed in that first tournament which was held in the old Chicago Stadium. The popularity of the first event was so widespread that soon newspapers around the country began sponsoring tournaments in other areas and the champions traveled to New York and Chicago for national competition.
In 1928, the second ever Golden Gloves Tournament was held under the sponsorship of the Chicago Tribune and New York Daily News. Champions from eastern seaboard cities traveled to New York while champions from other ports of the country went to Chicago to complete. Subsequently, the champions from New York and Chicago met to determine the Notional Golden Gloves Champions. In 1963, the Chicago Tribune discontinued its sponsorship of the program.
Recognizing the value of the program, the thirty-two franchises banded together and reorganized Golden Gloves into its current structure. Now only one national tournament is held each year under the sponsorship of the Golden Gloves Association of America, Inc.
WHAT IS A GOLDEN GLOVER
by Lou Winston
He may be the only child or have five sisters and/or seven brothers.
A Golden Glover may be a little fellow of 4'9" or a giant of 6'5".
He may be a tender 18 year old of 250 pounds, or a jockey-size matured young man of 26.
He may be gaunt, or lean, but is mostly muscular.
He may be a 6th grade drop-out or a student attending college.
He may be single, or a divorcee of 19, or married and a father of six.
He might not smoke or drink, because of the rigid training program required of a Golden Glover.
He may be a boy who travels more than 100 miles five nights a week, merely to train, and may refuse to run an errand of one block for his wife or mother.
He may be a boy who sacrifices pleasure for days, weeks, yes, months of strenuous training just to enter the Golden Gloves and make a good showing.
He may be a plumber or a barber, a machinist or a policeman, a laborer or a cook, a student or a school teacher, he may be unemployed.
He may be rich or of wealthy parents, or have a mediocre income, but usually has difficulty in balancing his books financially.
He may be a son of foreign born parents, but he almost without exception is a United States citizen by birth.
He may be Japanese, Mexican, English, Swedish, Norwegian, Irish, Italian, Polish or Jewish.
He may be African American or White, or an Indian, or a mixture of Chinese and American.
He may be from every state in the union, including Hawaii and Alaska.
He may possess the ambition to become a World's Champion and enter the professional field in boxing, or he may end his career in the Golden Gloves with only one fight.
He may be an ex-serviceman or one to be inducted soon after the close of a Golden Gloves Tournament.
He may be a boy taking his initial airplane flight or be quartered in a hotel for the first time.
He may be a boy separated from home only once, or he may be a restless one who wanders.
He is the type of a fellow who expends every ounce of energy in the ring for a medal or trophy, instead of fighting for cash.
He is a young man alone in the ring with his opponent, with no one to run interference for him and no one to whom to pass the ball when the going gets rough.
He is a youth searching for a rainbow - to see - to touch - to grasp - and to keep.
This - my friends - is a GOLDEN GLOVER.
Get in touch.
Washington DC Golden Gloves
Robert Magruder, Delegate
P.O. Box 2532 Waldorf, Maryland 20604
(301) 919-4809