Bruce Woodcock: The long-forgotten heavyweight boxer who was one of Yorkshire's biggest stars

Woodcock was born 105 years ago last month (January 18) but, Doncaster’s biggest sports’ star, until the rise of footballer Kevin Keegan, seems forgotten and ignored.

Yorkshire loves its sports’ heroes, past and present. However, if you searched in Doncaster for any public recognition of the boxing achievements of Bruce Woodcock, British, Empire and European heavyweight champion from 1945-1950, you’ll find almost nothing – not even in Doncaster’s excellent museum in the Danum Gallery in the city centre.

At his peak Woodcock (1920-1997) ranked in fame and publicity (newspaper coverage, cinema newsreels like Pathe and BBC radio) alongside contemporary stars like football’s Stanley Matthews and Raich Carter, cricketers Len Hutton and Denis Compton, jockey Gordon Richards and snooker’s Joe Davies.

Woodcock, growing up in Carr Hill, one of Doncaster’s poorest districts in the 1920s and 1930s, enjoyed a brilliant career as a professional between 1942 and 1950-39 fights, winning 35 (31 knockouts) and losing only four.

His fights were watched by thousands; 50,000 at White City in London to see him beat Freddie Mills in 1949, 50,000 at White City again as he took on American Lee Savold in June 1950; 30 million listened to the BBC radio commentary and 40,000 attended White Hart Lane, then the Spurs’ ground, in July 1945 as Woodcock earned his greatest triumph by beating the reigning champion Jack London in six rounds.

Aged 25, the fitter at the LNER Plant Works in Doncaster, was now one of the best and most respected boxers in the world, featuring on the front cover of Ring, the prestigious American magazine in October 1945.

Previously, the publication had ranked Woodcock the third best heavyweight in the world, and given his status, a shot at the world title, held by Joe Louis (1937-1949), still regarded as one of the very best in the history of boxing, was being lined up.

But defeat in May 1946 at Madison Square Garden in New York by Tami Mauriello (USA) ended that hope of glory. Woodcock, though, continued to enjoy more success, but eventually decided to retire after he lost his title at Earl’s Court to Jack Gardner in November 1950.

Bruce then ran a couple of pubs – one of which, The Tumbler at Edlington near Doncaster, is still going strong, and the pub where he trained in an old stable behind The Plough on High Road in Balby, to this day remembers him with a black and white picture in the bar.

Elsewhere, sadly, there’s precious little.

Now, two people are determined to revive Woodcock’s stature – his 76-year-old son, also called Bruce, a poet and retired Senior Lecturer in English at Hull University, and the Mexborough born actor and entertainer, Brian Blessed, aged 88, a boxing enthusiast whose booming voice and forest-like beard remain instantly recognisable.

“As a boy in Goldthorpe during and after the war, we embraced our heroes, boxers and footballers. We needed cheering up. My friends said Bruce was sensational and that he trained at The Plough in Doncaster. I was adventurous and cycled about 10 miles to find him. I’d be eight or nine,” says Blessed.

“I met folk on the way and told them that Woodcock was going to beat Joe Louis. I got lost, broke down in tears, but a couple who knew Bruce took me to the pub. A door opened and there was Bruce in his gym.

“He was hammering a punchbag and his manager said ‘Would you like to get into the ring?’ They put big gloves on me, Bruce came forward and I was told to hit his knees which I punched.

“Bruce fell to his knees and I then hit him on the jaw and Bruce pretended I’d knocked him out. Lifting me up by the waist, Bruce said ‘By gum lad, tha’ can’t half punch’.

“I’ve always been besotted with Bruce, there should be a statue to him, and I’ll unveil it. He needs to be appreciated for the great heavyweight he was.”

Blessed recalls how in the1960s, he once had lunch in New York with Jack Dempsey (World heavyweight champion 1919-1926) and Joe Louis was also there.

“Joe said Bruce was mismanaged and had needed better training. Joe also told me he feared for Woodcock who, incidentally, was a shy man who had a magnificent left and tremendous right hand.”

In 1971 Blessed attempted to make a film about his hero and he enlisted the help of fellow Z-Cars colleagues David Rose and Alan Plater “The BBC were going to do the film about Bruce and I would play him,” he says.

"It was all set to go, but Bruce rang me and said ‘I don’t want to go ahead. I’m going to be famous again and I don’t want that. I’ve got a happy family, playing golf and I’ll have the income tax department coming round again. They made my life hell.’

“So, I said ‘Don’t worry Bruce, we won’t do it’.” And that was the end of that.

Doncaster museum say they would like to celebrate Bruce’s life. In 2013, a biography of Woodcock by Bryan Hughes, Battling Bruce: The Story of the Fighting Career and Rise to Fame of Bruce Woodcock, was published, with the author also backing a campaign for a statue of Woodcock to be erected.

Woodcock’s son has created a website in his father’s honour. It contains an account of his childhood, successful amateur career, nationally and in Yorkshire, a list of the professional fights and photos to accompany the family pictures and cinema newsreel footage Bruce junior has at his home in Hull.

“As a person, he was the opposite of what you’d expect. He was as soft as muck and the least aggressive man you could imagine. He was full of life, but the injuries suffered to an eye in his career took their toll,” says Bruce.

“Boxing transformed my parents’ lives because they could buy a house. I don’t know what happened to his cups and trophies, and when they retired from the pub, there’d already been a big clear out.

"My mother wanted her children to grow up in a different direction, so education was the priority. I think it’s scandalous there’s nothing in Doncaster. At one time, I heard they were going to name the new airport after my dad, but nothing came of it. I’m very proud of him.

"Dad fought his way out of poverty. He was a nimble and elegant fighter, not a brawler and a world famous personality. I still come across people who hear my name and connect with it.

"The website celebrates his career and was started because nothing was being done civically or likely to be done, and attempts to interest the media to commemorate him hit brick walls.”

The final punch in Bruce’s favour is thrown by Blessed who returns to South Yorkshire twice this year, in May at The Lamproom in Barnsley and then in December at The Empress in Mexborough.

“A bronze statue is essential to Doncaster’s greatest son. We need to have a Bruce Woodcock evening at one of Doncaster’s theatres.

"You know that when Bruce came to London, crowds of thousands would be there, and film stars and royalty would attend his fights.”