1931 report: Female Student at University of Southern California Amateur Lightweight Boxing Champion!

We have first discovered that female boxers in the amateurs came way back from 1993, when they talked about Dallas Malloy and her struggles to fight in an amateur sanctioned bout in the state of Washington, but then WBAN was able to bring back the clock to 1978 in Minnesota with documentation that indeed there was an amateur boxing tournament, via the AAU that featured female amateurs on the card—but we have actually found a story dated on December 26, 1931, that talks about Miss Billie Bachelis, 18 years old, who was earning her way through college by demonstrating boxing equipment in a Los Angeles sports store.

At the time, Backelis was a student at the University of Southern California, and in this article posted in the Huntington Daily News, dated December 26, 1931, they report that she was an amateur lightweight women’s boxing champion and “swings a mean fist” wiht a male sparring partner.

WBAN will continue to investigate this era in trying to find out how she was determined to be an amateur boxing champion.  If the public has any information, please contact us at wban100@aol.com   Photo credit:  Huntington Daily News/Pennsylvania