About Us

The Scots Boxing Hall of Fame aims to acknowledge and chronicle the achievements of Scotland’s greatest boxing heroes.

The idea for a boxing Hall of Fame in Scotland came from Mr Freddie Mack, former Light Heavyweight Contender. At the time there were only two other boxing Halls of Fame in the world, one located in Canastota, New York State and the other in Las Vegas.

In more than ten years of operation these Halls of Fame only inducted two Scottish men: Benny Lynch, posthumously, in 1998 and Ken Buchanan M.B.E. in 2000. Freddie wanted to make sure that all Scots boxers were equally respected and remembered.

In June 2000 Freddie, Toby Dixon (well-known trainer and grandfather of Scott Dixon), his wife Jean and Jan McLaughlin Mack (Freddie’s wife) accompanied Ken Buchanan and his family to his induction in New York. There they researched the American concept of a Hall of Fame.

On their return Freddie with Toby and wife Jan at his side coerced a few friends into forming a Steering Committee with the task of ascertaining the feasibility of establishing and running a Scottish Boxing Hall of Fame.

They originally met at John McCluskey’s gym in Hamilton and although it was a bit cold they were gratified by and extremely thankful and grateful for the tea and sandwiches that John’s wife provided for the meetings.

Jim Hodge, a recently retired senior community education worker, came on board as Secretary and John McCluskey’s son, a prominent local businessman, agreed to be the Treasurer, Freddie was elected as the Chair and Toby as Vice Chair.

So there they were with four founder members and the basis of a committee, and during the year 2000-2001 the committee members used their own expertise and other professional advice to actively pursue a range of tasks including submitting applications for grant aid; gathering information on possible private sources of funding and or sponsorship; applying for registration as a limited company and how to gain charitable status; research on the worldwide web on other halls of fame, promotional methods, museums, oral history projects and possible venues for Induction Ceremonies.

After investigations it became apparent that if they were to be successful in obtaining grants then they would need to be located in a special initiative area so they moved to Viewpark, Focus Youth Project with the support and understanding of Focus Management Committee, and the project coordinator, George Campbell, who joined our organisation as a Director of the Company.

They have enjoyed the support of this organisation for many years and hope to do so for a very long time to come. If they haven’t said it before then let them thank you now before the World.

This is a forward looking organisation who understand and respond to all the issues surrounding children and young people today and who are not “hung up” on what is politically correct or not or “Flavour of the Month”.

They are a force to be reckoned with and they blaze the trail for good practice in this area of work across Scotland, if not Great Britain.

By the end of 2001 a few other very capable guys joined the organisation, namely Sam McArthur who left after a year due to ill health, Matt Rooney, a retired police officer who still looks after all our security needs at special events and gives of his wisdom and expertise and Mr Charlie Sexton, who (after the resignation of secretary, Jim Hodge), took on the role of Secretary and Director, with only a few months remaining until the first Induction Ceremony, and held this role until his resignation in 2004.

Our first Induction Event was held in 2002 in Summerlee Heritage Park, Coatbridge, supported by North Lanarkshire Council Museums and Heritage Section under the auspices of Carol Haddow with the exhibition produced by Prue Bucknall. Look under Inductions for more information.

Between 2002 and 2003 a few other members joined the committee, namely Phil McIntyre a prominent “out the ring” personality and Avril Thomson, a Sports Development Worker with the Council.

Thankfully they were still all in place when the Induction Event 2004 was organised.

Although grants were received from the Council and private contributions from John Lamb, Freddie Mack and Jimmy Wray M.P. it was the Heritage Lottery Award that ensured the continuation of this project for the next few years as they provided the finance for not only this website but for oral and video histories of our boxing heroes along with an exhibition that will reach all over Scotland from September 2005.