Jackie Marshall, boxer and ballroom dancer; born Grangemouth July 10,
1928, died Glasgow
November 10, 2000
When the late Ewan Wellwood, for many years the boxing writer for The Herald's sister paper, the Evening Times, gave an opinion on the relative merits of a boxer it was widely respected as the judgment of a shrewd assessor of pugilistic potential.
Therefore, it is a measure of the late Glasgow-based lightweight and welterweight boxer Jackie Marshall's abilities that Ewan Wellwood begged the then 18-year-old Marshall to remain amateur for at least another
two years until 1948 after beating top-class Fifer Peter Guichan (later a legendary boxing coach with Dunfermline's Woodside Club).
Wellwood was convinced
that Marshall, then boxing for Glasgow's Grove ABC, would
be a certainty to do well in the London Olympic Games to be held in 1948.
Born in the Stirlingshire port of Grangemouth in 1928, Jackie Marshall had spells living in the Longstone district of Edinburgh before settling in his adopted Glasgow home.
Although he did not come from a boxing family, the young Marshall enrolled in 1945 in Glasgow's Grove ABC where he not only caught the attention of Ewan Wellwood but had an impressive 84-bout amateur career.
A career which encompassed beating future master boxing tactician Peter Guichan not just once but twice to take the Western District and Scottish amateur titles.
However, 20-year-old building worker Marshall chose to ignore boxing writer Ewan Welwood's plea to go for Olympic gold
and chose instead to turn professional first with Pat Collins, the Anderston-based fight manager who had guided flyweight Jackie Paterson to British, European, and world titles between 1939 and 1943, then Tommy Gilmour Sr.
It was in this period that Jackie Marshall developed his outstanding abilities as a ballroom dancer. A skill made even more astonishing after Jackie developed in middle age a condition that forced him to walk with a pronounced stoop.
Yet, as I witnessed on several occasions, once the music began the tortuous stoop vanished as though by magic and Jackie
Marshall danced with grace
and elegance.
Meanwhile, having made a successful pro ring debut at lightweight in Blackpool in December 1946, Jackie Marshall's combination of clever boxing and ringcraft, married to a destructive punch, saw him unbeaten in all but one of his first 28 bouts in the paid ranks.
Marshall was asked to be chief sparring partner to Yorkshire-based British lightweight champion Billy Thompson who was due to defend his title in May 1949 at Celtic Park against Scottish challenger Harry Hughes from Wishaw.
Like his erstwhile employer Thompson, who stopped Harry Hughes inside the distance, Jackie Marshall won on that Celtic Park bill and the world seemed to be his oyster.
This period marked the beginning of a lifelong friendship between Jackie Marshall and the legendary Peter Keenan, Scotland's only winner of two Lonsdale belts outright.
Indeed, that friendship with Keenan led to what should have been the launching pad for Marshall to hit the really big-time. Jackie boxed on the undercard at Glasgow's Firhill Stadium on May 9, 1951, when his great friend Keenan won his first Lonsdale belt by knocking out Londoner Danny O'Sullivan.
Meanwhile, Jackie Marshall outpointed Luton's Rees Moore but ironically it was to prove to be the 23-year-old Marshall's last ring bout.
With a title fight on the cards against Glaswegian Willie Whyte, Jackie was advised after a hospital investigation to give up boxing on medical grounds.
It was a blow that this born fighter took manfully, throwing his considerable energies into various business ventures such as a seafood shop, and devoting himself to his wife Cathy and his two sons Finlay and Lindsay.
However, boxing was not totally forgotten, and he became a popular boxing coach with the Strathclyde Youth Association and treasurer of the Scottish
Ex-boxers' Association.
Despite the onset of an illness which was gradually compromising his mobility, Jackie Marshall was ever-present at pro boxing shows in the 1980s where
I first met him and grew to like him immensely as I went about my duties as a professional
boxing referee.
Jackie Marshall always had a kind word and a fund of stories, especially about his youth in the Edinburgh district of Longstone, which were the perfect antidote for my pre-bout refereeing tensions.
Jackie Marshall lost only eight of 49 professional bouts and was never knocked out during his ring career. More importantly, he was ultimately a winner in the much tougher struggle to retain his humanity and dignity against the wilds of outrageous fortune. Jackie was pre-deceased by his wife, Cathy, several years ago. He is survived by his sons, Finlay and Lindsay, and their families.
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