3/17/2024 0 Comments Boxing ring near meboxing team’s Olympic qualifying trials at the Cow Palace in May 1960.Ĭoming off a split-decision loss in the Military Inter-Service Championship bout against then-Airman Bobby Foster, who would become light heavyweight champion of the world in 1968, Hooper entered the trials with confidence. Like any young boxer trying to represent his country on the world’s greatest stage at the time, Hooper traveled to San Francisco for the U.S. Then a wiry 20-year-old Marine with gazelle-like reflexes and a skilled, counter-offensive boxing style, Hooper had established himself as one of the top young boxing amateurs in the country with a winning record across several weight classes. “I currently serve on the National Council of Administration, and I doubt if more than a handful of councilmen know that little bit of my history.” “So many of my comrades always ask me about my boxing background, but I really never talked about my fights,” said Hooper, a former Department of Tennessee commander and Life member of VFW Post 11333 in Cordova, Tennessee. Presidents following his time in the military.With a life written in more chapters than a Leo Tolstoy novel, one of Hooper’s most cherished, yet little-revisited chapters comes from his life inside the boxing ring in the early 1960s. Hooper, who is a past National Council of Administration member and past VFW Department of Tennessee commander, served as a Secret Service agent for four U.S. Inset: Henry Hooper II presents a wreath on behalf of VFW Post 11333 in Cordova, Tenn., during a Memorial Day service on May 27, 2019, at the West Tennessee Veterans Cemetery in Memphis. Henry Hooper II, left, receives a blow from Cassius Clay during a light heavyweight boxing match in Team USA’s Olympic boxing qualifying trials in May 1960 at The Cow Palace in San Francisco. Presidents, acting member of VFW’s National Council of Administration and former VFW Department of Tennessee commander. The Memphian’s titles include Vietnam veteran, Marine and Army Green Beret, former Secret Service agent to four U.S. For Hooper, that has always been the soldier’s life.Ī man of principle and unwavering devotion to serving others, Hooper spent more than 11 years serving his country and then some. The river, like Hooper’s own life, passes through many destinations, touching many lives along the way, but ultimately running in one direction. Henry Hooper II sat at his home, nestled along a swath of colonial houses overlooking the Mississippi River on a cloudy November morning in Memphis, Tennessee.
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