Chuck Hunter inducted into Hall of Fame posthumously. Chuck Hunter was born in Cleveland in 1925, and became one of the city’s finest middleweight contender boxers.
Hunter started boxing when he was 14 in 1942 he Won the national amateur bantam weight championship. In 1943, Hunter won the National AAU champion by TKO in the 3rd round against Buddy Holderfield in the Chicago Golden Gloves Toumament of Champions. Also during the tournament, he defeated Levi Southall in the 3rd round by KO. Hunter won the championship bout by beating Max Gonzalez. All of his fights were in the lightweight divisions.
Hunter turned professional in July of 1943 with a three round knockout win over Woody Sweeney. Hunter would win three more fights and he was later matched with veteran Maxie Berger.
Two fights into 1944 and exceptional Tommy Bell. Again over matched at this point in his career, Hunter was halted in the second. For the rest of 1944 Hunter would go 9-2. He went ten rounds with Bell in a December rematch but lost a unanimous decision.
Hunter started 1945 well with two knockout victories but his success was short lived as he would lose his next three bouts to Alex Doyle, Jimmy Doyle and Bell. Then Hunter would pull a few surprises of his own upsetting California Jackie Wilson and Rueben Shank. Hunter would win his first five fights in 1945 including a kayo over the ever dangerous Artie Levine. Then disaster struck in the form of the murderous punching Bob Satterfield. Bad Bob knocked Hunter out in the tenth round. It would take 20 minutes to revive Hunter. In his next bout Hunter lost a split decision to Jimmy Edgar. Hunter would then travel to Scranton, Pennsylvania to be stopped in two rounds by Jerry Petrovich who had a 3-1 record coming in.
In 1946 Hunter would lose a close verdict to Cecil Hudson. He would rally to defeat Bobby Berger and Sam Baroudi but lose again to Hudson to close out the year. For Hunter, 1947 was a good year for him with a 5-3 record.
Despite the bad luck Hunter would tum it around again in 1948 by defeating Dave Clark, Hudson and Steve Belloise. He ended the year losing a verdict to tough Nick Barone but he would start 1949 by defeating Levine.
Hunter’s career was turning into a roller coaster now. He would lose twice to the talented Tommy Yarosz but defeat Billy Brown and Dick Wagner. In 1950 Hunter would meet Jake LaMotta at the Cleveland Arena. With a big crowd on hand the rugged LaMotta wore down Hunter and stopped him in the sixth round. From this point on Hunter would go 4-10. He dropped a decisions‘ to future world champions, Harold Johnson and Carl”Bobo’ Olson. He retired from boxing in 1953. His final record was 45-26-1. He fought four world champions as well as several solid‘ contenders.
Hunter and his wife, Emma Meadows, had two children, Renee and Ricky. On July 3, 1973, Hunter died of an apparent heart attack at Lakeside Hospital at the age of 47 years old.