Eva Shain – first boxing judge – 1975

EVA SHAIN wrote a letter to the  New York State Athletic Commission Chairman Edwin B. Dooley and asked to be granted permission to judge pro fights. A week later, he wrote back and said that he would give her a hearing. SHAIN entered the hearing room on Jan. 6, 1975, and found out the next day that she had an unanimous vote to be a judge.

Her first professional fight that she judged on was on the  eve of Thanksgiving in 1975. Two years later, Sept. 29, 1977, she was at ringside in Madison Square Garden judging her first World championship bout with Muhammad Ali vs. Earnie Shavers. SHAIN WAS THE FIRST FEMALE JUDGE TO WORK A WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE BOUT.

She went on to judge many professional bouts, including a world heavyweight title bout and 50 other title bouts.

It was also the first time a woman judge Worked a professional fight at New York’s Madison Square Garden. SHAIN earned a place in the Guinness Book of Sports Records and eventually became the subject of a Trivial Pursuit question.   Eva Shain lost her battle with cancer in August of 1999.

In an interview with Sports Illustrated in August of 1996,  they wrote “Nearly 30 years ago Shain accompanied her husband, Frank, then a ring announcer, to  New Jersey club fights. While Frank introduced the likes of Eddie Gregory and  Rocky Graziano, Eva was at ringside keeping score.”

One day in 1967, Johnny DeFoe, who was the head boxing coach for the  Police Athletic League, asked me, ‘Who did you give that fight to?’ ” Shain recalls. “I told him who and why, and he said, ‘How’d you like to be a judge?’ That was it. I was hooked.” [Sports Illustrated Story-August 1996]

Quote from her obitiuary:  ”It wasn’t the idea of being a trailblazer,” Mrs. Shain said of her pioneering role. ”It was something I wanted to do. It was a challenge.”