A Pocatello man’s journey from high school athlete to heavyweight boxing gold medalist
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IDAHO FALLS – Hayes Ed Sanders was breathing heavily as he lay on his side unconscious after a blow to the head.
It was Dec. 11, 1954, and the 24-year-old Pocatello man who’d become the first Olympic African-American Heavyweight Boxing Champion two years earlier was now being carried out on a stretcher.
The Los Angeles native was very large as a kid, according to his bio on a website dedicated to him. At age 12, he looked 18 and excelled in football and track as a high school student.
While attending Compton College in 1950, the 6 foot 4 inch, 220-pound athlete discovered boxing and competed in the National Junior College Boxing Championship in Ogden, Utah. His performance caught the attention of Idaho State University boxing coach Dubby Holt and football coach Babe Caccia.
“He had a good left hand, and for the big man that he was, he was a real orthodox, skilled boxer,” Holt is reported to have said.
Sanders later attended ISU on an athletic scholarship, where he boxed and played football. He dominated in both sports.
“In his first collegiate fight, Sanders knocked out the Pacific Coast Heavyweight Champion. He also never lost a match in a dual meet,” Sanders’ bio says.
Now in his eighth fight as a professional boxer, Sanders was sparring with Willie James at the Boston Garden Arena for the New England Heavyweight Title in a 12-round fight. Despite his previous winning record, a simple punch combination from James rendered him unconscious after 10 hard-fought rounds.
It’s a bout that ended his boxing career, and ultimately, his life.
“Sanders never regained consciousness and died after a long surgery to relieve pressure on the brain. The coroner concluded that Sanders likely aggravated a previous injury,” Sanders’ bio says.
Sanders’ early life
Hayes Edward Sanders was born March 24, 1930 in Los Angeles to Hays and Eva Sanders. Ed was the second oldest of five siblings.
A brother 12 years his junior, Joseph Stanley Sanders, became a Rhodes Scholar and was a prominent attorney in Los Angeles.
Ed’s interest in athletics stems back to his childhood and an activity with his brother may have contributed to his large stature and skill as an athlete.
“Ed and his younger brother, Donald, collected coffee cans, filled them with cement and connected two of them with a steel bar to make a weight set for exercising,” an article reports.
Sanders was on the football and track teams at Jordan High School in Los Angeles. Though he was tough and “not to be messed with,” according to a historical account, he was “affable, gentlemanly and highly intelligent.”
Sanders graduated in 1948. His boxing ability eventually brought him to Pocatello. It was here where he met his wife, Mary LaRue. They had a son, Russell, who passed away in 2017 after a long battle with cancer.
Mary lives in Pocatello today and she recalled how she and Sanders first met during an interview with her son years ago.
“I was a student and was on the staff of the ISU athletic department,” said Mary. “We became friends over time and eventually became engaged. We grew on each other.”
Sanders’ early boxing career
Sanders was drafted by the U.S. Army in 1950 to fight in the Korean War. Holt convinced him to join the U.S. Navy instead.
Sanders made his mark as a member of the U.S. Navy Boxing Team, defeating the Navy’s heavyweight champion in San Diego. He also won the Los Angeles and Chicago Golden Gloves Tournament, according to an article about Sanders.
He started training for the Olympics in 1951, securing a spot in an Olympic trial bout in Nebraska.
Sanders was victorious against his first three opponents in the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. His triumph against Swedish boxer Ingemar Johannson in the finals was “unremarkable” because Johannson reportedly circled around the edges of the ring and refused to fight.
He toured across Europe after his Olympic victory and was a national hero when he returned to America.
“Sanders (became) the first African-American Olympic Heavyweight Champion and the first American to win gold in the division since 1904,” historical records say. “The combination of his tenacious fighting style, deep sense of assurance and humble demeanor attracted constant media attention.”
In 1953, Sanders fought future World Heavyweight Champion Sonny Liston in the Chicago Golden Gloves Championship.
“Sanders entered the fight with a broken thumb, which hampered what was still considered a good performance. Liston emerged victorious, though witnesses at the fight accused Liston of clutching Sanders illegally, and still others in the audience felt Sanders won the fight,” Sanders’ bio says.
Sanders’s boxing record up this point was 43 wins and four losses. With an Olympic gold medal to his name, he set his sights on fighting professionally.
A professional career takes a tragic turn
The decision to become a professional fighter was easier said than done for Sanders. The Navy apparently didn’t allow active-duty personnel to box professionally, and his Navy captain recommended against it because he didn’t have enough experience.
Sanders’ desire to fight professionally was primarily a financial decision. He had a wife and son to provide for and he could make more money as a professional athlete. He tried to get a discharge from the Navy, but was denied because his enlistment was a five year minimum commitment.
Ultimately, he did become a professional boxer in Feb. 1953. Somehow, acting as his own manager satisfied Navy requirements.
Sanders first professional fight on March 8, 1954 resulted in a first-round victory for Sanders. After several fights, Sanders confided to his Navy captain that “he lacked adequate … sparring partners” and complained about intense shoulder pain.
He had his shoulder X-rayed a few weeks before his final bout with Willie James in Boston. Historical records do not say what the results were.
On Dec. 11, he and James fought hard in what was supposed to be a 12-round bout. At one point, Sanders complained of headaches, likely due to repeated blows to the head, and appeared “uncharacteristically listless” to spectators.
“In the eleventh round, Sanders appeared ‘tired,’ in James’ estimation, and was felled by a simple punch combination. Sanders dropped to the canvas and lost consciousness immediately,” his bio says.
In interviews with local media at the time, Coach Holt said he couldn’t understand why Sanders was in the ring with James.
“It was crazy to put him in a ring for 12 rounds with a top-ranking heavyweight,” Holt said.
Sanders died from a brain hemorrhage 18 hours later, according to a news clipping. Doctors and trainers attributed his death to “a prior injury that was aggravated in the James fight.”
Holt said in a news report later that Sanders was “one of the finest athletes ever to participate at Idaho State.”
“He was one of the highest type fellows we have ever had here,” Holt said. “He was a fine athlete, a gentleman and a credit to the community. (His death) is a real tragedy. All of us in the athletic department feel very badly about it.”
Sanders is buried in the Woodlawn Hills Cemetery in Santa Monica, California.
He was posthumously inducted into ISU’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1959.
