Interview with Promoter Bill Dickson about past boxer Caroline Svendsen from the mid 1970s

(Information provided by newspaper articles and interview with Bill Dickson.  I interviewed Dickson in October of 1999.  Sue TL Fox)

Caroline Svendsen, a 34-year old woman, who decided to become a boxer, was REPORTED to have been the first woman in the United States to receive a boxing license. WBAN has since uncovered new evidence in 2010 that in fact the first license to be given to a female boxer was in 1923!

Caroline was managed by Ted Walker, out of Carson City, Nevada, (Walker died in 1998).  Walker had originally brought up the idea to Bill Dickson [now deceased],  about having women boxers.  Dickson told me, “I have to admit, that I was not crazy about women’s boxing at the beginning.”

According to Dickson, this was the beginning of the women’s boxing in Nevada.  Svendsen received her boxing license in 1975, and proceeded to have about six fights before calling it quits.

Most of her opponents, were women who knew little about boxing which was not bad for the fact that her skills were not fine tuned.  She did pave the way for past women boxers, and it was Svendsen who got enough public exposure to get other women interested in the sport.

I can personally thank Svendsen for coming to Portland, Oregon, to be the first woman to box in Oregon in October of 1975.  She was the fighter who gave me the idea to start boxing.  Sue TL Fox

Gal KO victim subs

News article on Caroline Svendsen when she fought at the Exposition Center in Portland, Oregon, (October 23, 1975) Columbian Newspaper. Permission granted to print article. )

Lang is 5-foot-7 1/2 and weighs 134 pounds. Her opponent is 5-8 and 138 pounds. Lang looks athletic. Svendsen seems more delicately boned.   Lang said in an interview that she didn’t actively plan for a boxing career.   “I’ve had a few amateur wrestling matches. I was in the ring once before. I was challenged to a match by an Indian lady in 1973. It ended in a draw,” she said.  Several weeks ago, she said, “I got this offer to fight Caroline and I though “This is great.”

“I think women should be in boxing. I think women should do anything they think they’re capable of doing,” said Lang. “If I could have started when I was about 16 years old, I probably would have done it.”   Lang, not currently married, has a 9-year-old son: “He thinks it’s really great,” she said. “There’s not too many kids around who can say, “My mother’s a boxer.”

Lang, like Svendsen, works out every day. She jumps rope, runs, does pushups and goes a few rounds with sparring partners, who are male.

Newspaper article – Exposition Center, Portland, Oregon  February 12, 1976 (permission granted to use

newspaper article written by the editor Dave Fielder, Columbian Newspaper.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – On 2 1/2 hours’ notice. Jean Lang jumped on a plane in Phoenix and flew to Portland for a boxing match. She won’t watch comfortably from ringside, however.  Lang, 35, will be in one corner of the ring tonight for Oregon’s first professional bout between women. In the other will be Caroline Svendsen, 34, Virginia City, Nev., the first female to be licensed as a professional boxer in the United States.

Lang is substituting for Jennie Josephs of Manteca, Calif., who bowed out Wednesday night because of influenza and laryngitis.  Despite such short notice, Lang is physically ready and has been training “ever since she beat me the first time.”

Tonight’s four-round welterweight bout will be a rematch. Svendsen knocked out Lang with a left uppercut in 50 seconds of the first round during an exhibition in Nevada City, Sept. 19.  “I really expected it to last a little longer,” said Lang, 35. “I think the altitude got to me. I’m a pretty physical person. I always keep myself in good shape.”