Male

(Robert James)
Middleweight, South Africa,
Born: May 20, 1932, Arlington in the Free State, South Africa
Died: August 15, 2011


SMOOK OBITUARY:

Trainer Shorty Smook passes

By Ron Jackson

Well known trainer Shorty Smook who fought as professional in the 1950′s passed away at the Germiston Hospital on Sunday after suffering a heart attack. He was 79. Shorty was born Robert James in Arlington in the Free State on May 20, 1932 but at a young age his parents moved to Germiston where he was first introduced to boxing at the East Rand Engineering Amateur Boxing Club under the guidance of Cyril Carroll. He was given the nickname “Shorty” as a youngster because of his slight stature and even though he grew to a reasonable height the name stuck throughout his life.
Shorty was an outstanding amateur and at the age of 12 was the Transvaal and South African junior welterweight champion and in 1951 as a senior he became the first champion in the newly created junior middleweight division.

After his achievements as an amateur great things were expected of him when he joined the professional ranks in 1952.

However, this was not to be as he failed to progress after winning his first few four rounders quite comfortably.

In 1953 he lost to future South African middleweight champion Jimmy Elliot in Port Elizabeth on points over ten rounds in a closely contested bout and was also beaten by two other South African middleweight champions Eddie Thomas and Henry Speedie.

After retiring from the ring Shorty became a well respected trainer and amongst others he trained South African lightweight champion Rolly Xipu and South African bantamweight champion Fransie Badenhorst.

I can still remember the night in December 1986 when well known referee Len Hunt brought Shorty over to my house in Edenvale and he could not believe his eyes when I showed him a poster advertising an amateur boxing tournament in Germiston in 1946 with his picture on together with Vic Toweel and Dawie Marais.

Outside of boxing Shorty made his living as a Tool and Die maker before he retired and the boxing fraternity will always remember him as an honest and humble man.