David Downey

• Type: Athlete
• Sport(s): Boxing
• Year: 2018

David Joseph Downey, Middleweight professional boxer, amateur baseball

[This information is mostly extracted from The Boys of ’62 by Frank Mitchell.]        We would need something more DETAILED on his record- Summary… etc

When one talks with David Downey about the Furriers’ team of 1962, he becomes quite animated, but when talks turns to the possibility of playing one more time together as a team in the Roy Hobbs’ World Series (2008) of baseball, that spirited discussion turns to exuberance.  What happened in 1962 explains a lot about Dave Downey.

Born David Joseph Downey on February 18^th, 1942, he first played baseball on the Halifax Commons in his pre-teens, but considers the Rangers, a nearly all-black team that would be the forerunner of the 1962 Maritime Championship Vaughan Furriers (inducted as a team into the inaugural Maritime Sport Hall of Fame in 2015) , to be his first significant entry to the truly competitive level of baseball. Like many other players on the Rangers-Furriers’ teams, Dave had been disappointed at coming second several times. After losing the city title on two consecutive years in very hard fought playoff finals that went down to the wire, 1962 was an important year, and especially so since that year they dominated their opponents, winning nine and losing only one game against good teams from all three Maritime provinces en route to the title. It was a commanding win by a dominant team.

In elementary and junior high Dave was an all-round athlete. At Joseph Howe School he excelled in many sports, including softball, basketball, track and field, volleyball, swimming and, of course, baseball. He also won two Intermediate basketball championships with the Community ‘Y’ in the mid-fifties.  With speed afoot and quick hands, qualities that would serve him well in another professional sport, he patrolled left field for much of his baseball career, although like most Furriers’ players he played other positions when required. The author got to know Dave quite well as they passed one another at the end of each inning when each took up his respective defensive position in the outfield – for at least five consecutive years. When not in the outfield, he often played second base, but he even caught once when coach and brother Graham asked, albeit not without some protest. And with the tremendous depth in 1962, he, like so many other quality players on that team, also warmed the bench on occasion to give others a chance to play. During those times Dave was a big cheerleader for other team members and, at times, pinch-hit when required.

Although he would be very successful in the sport of boxing, in many ways David might have preferred to play professional baseball. He once confided in a conversation with the author that an opposing coach, Dick Burns, who really knew baseball at all levels including the pros, approached him and informed Dave that he had all the qualities to be a professional ball player – speed, a good glove and a quick bat; all he would need was the desire and the right coaching. He would play left field in 1963 with the Halifax Cardinals in the Nova Scotia Senior baseball League, but the pressure of work and his boxing career would intervene. He later played Intermediate A baseball in the late 60s, where games were arranged for the weekends.

Like many other kids from the inner city, where boxing thrived in the 50s and 60s in the City of Halifax, Dave hung around the downtown gyms not far from his home. He was born into a boxing family where brothers Billy, Bobby and Don all fought professionally at different times in their lives. Perhaps that was what he meant when interviewed for a publication about how he got into boxing? David responded: “I didn’t choose it! I guess it chose me.” He began sparring in his early teens where he was immediately noticed for his quick footwork and superior hand speed, characteristics that would carry him throughout his professional career.

While still playing minor baseball, Dave won his first officially recorded professional fight, knocking out Kenny Chinn in the second round. And while those same official records would list Dave as fighting professionally for eighteen years, old Halifax boxing fans, friends and trusted observers record his first pro fight as actually having been in 1957, followed by 20 years in the boxing game. Given the major errors and indeed, fabrication that occurred in the Ring Record Book, and only discovered years later, this author, knowing David’s integrity and honesty, would be prepared to give him the last say. And many knowledgeable Haligonians concur with the latter assessment. For sure he won 25 of his 30 officially sanctioned professional fights losing only two; the others being draws or no decision. However, he and others recount quite a few more contests won by David, both as an amateur and as a pro, especially in the early years when written records were not well kept. In any case, what is undisputed is that he won the Canadian Middleweight Boxing title against Jimmy Meilleur in 1967, and “lost” it in 1977 to Lawrence Hafey. However, there are an overwhelming number of fans and professional sportswriters who would suggest that not only he did not lose the fight to Hafey in a controversial decision, but rather it was deliberately taken away from Downey, as boxing promoters and officials simply wanted another ‘champion’ and they would have their way. The fight wasn’t even close and it was definitely in Downey’s favour. In any case, he looked for a rematch with Lawrence Hafey, but none was forthcoming, so Dave retired for good in 1977. He fought for and defended his title a total of nine times, and was the reigning Canadian middleweight champion for nine years stretching from the late sixties to the mid-to-late seventies, a tremendous achievement that would see him inducted into the Canadian Boxing Hall of Fame by 1980.

What is also true, is that despite his always gracious manner, some rather-difficult-to-understand negativity followed him throughout some portions of his professional career? While he always had a very loyal following in Halifax, a certain negative element at local contests always dogged him. In many conversations with others who were around boxing at the time, which included this author, some aspects of racism would appear to have been at play in these situations. That behaviour was shocking for David to comprehend as he had not encountered racism in other sports (one rare exception proving the rule, so to speak), nor among the people in the city where he had grown up. However, he overcame that adversity, remained positive about himself and his career, and he remained in control of his boxing career and his life as well. He was, at all times and in all instances, his own man; he was always true to himself. Dave refused to fight for a pittance; refused to be controlled by outsiders; and left the boxing game after twenty years in full control of his faculties, something few could claim in a sport that could be brutal, in and out of the ring. The role of some “insiders” in Dave’s career is, however, open to question.

He would receive many awards for his achievements over the years, including a Dave Downey Day being proclaimed by Mayor Walter Fitzgerald and the City of Halifax on November 18, 1972; he was just thirty years old at the time.  In 1982, a bust was erected at the Black Cultural Centre in Cherrybrook, Nova Scotia for the honours he brought to amateur boxing and to the black community; later the Moncton Boxing and Wrestling Commission would present him with an award for his contribution to boxing; still later, a plaque in his name would be presented annually for the most promising amateur boxer in the region. In 2006, he was inducted into the Maritime Black Sports and Hockey Hall of Fame along with Mark Smith (fastball), Willy O’Ree (hockey) and Dr. Colin Howell (as a sports historian). A major evening at the Hotel was held in 2016 to celebrate his life.

And finally, twenty-two years after his retirement from boxing, he was inducted into the Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame. That would happen in 1999, and despite many earlier disappointments, he was gracious in acceptance.  But in this author’s view, the latter is the real David Joseph Downey – a man of personal grace, kindness and respect, and someone of exceptional character – things he learned early in life through his family. One would search a long way to find a friendlier or more personable individual. Still David felt the award was less than it could have been, coming after many earlier rejections and a full decade after his induction into the Canadian Boxing Hall of Fame … after so many attempts by fans and sportsmen alike to see him admitted to that Nova Scotia special place of honourable champions.