10 Facts About Spike Webb

Spike Webb began professional boxing at 14, at his city's Eureka Athletic Club.

Spike Webb followed several of the fighters he'd been with into signing with the 29th Division of the Maryland National Guard in 1917 and continued his coaching career in WWI rising to the rank of Sergeant by 1919 coaching National Guard boxers at Camp McClellan, a large army mobilization camp outside Anniston, Alabama.

Spike Webb was known for introducing AEF team member Gene Tunney, future world heavyweight champion, to the inside right hook.

Ages ranged from 2 to 12, and a Juniors Championship tournament was held each of the 35 years Spike Webb was Navy head coach.

In 1919, Spike Webb was selected as head coach for the American Olympic boxing team from among 100 candidates.

Fidel LaBarba, whom Spike Webb considered his most intelligent protege, won the other gold.

Spike Webb trained Eddie Saunders at Annapolis, before he became the 1952 Olympic Gold medalist at Helsinki.

Spike Webb experienced advancing deafness as he aged, which he claimed was the result of both the pounding he received in the ring, and the anti-aircraft shellfire he endured fighting in Verdun, France in WWI.

Spike Webb died after a short illness, possibly a stroke, at the age of 74 at Anne Arundel General Hospital in Annapolis, Maryland, on July 2,1963.

Spike Webb was inducted into the Maryland State Hall of Fame, an athletic honor, in 1974.