Frank Wakefield was born in Springfield, Massachusetts on August 15,1904. His love for boxing began at the age of ten when he tried his hand at it at the Brighton Boys Club in Springfield. He lost his desire to compete after taking a few punches to the stomach; but he always maintained his interest in the sport.

Frank received his first opportunity to write on a school newspaper when he attended Commerce High School. As he was on the high school basketball team, he was given the responsibility of reporting the basketball scores to the Springfield Daily News. It was during this time, that he met Joe Collins who was the sports editor of the newspaper. Joe took a personal interest in Frank and his writing. He would take him to fights in Hartford and Holyoke, Massachusetts and he was impressed by Frank's knowledge of the sport.

Franks first professional newspaper job was with the Springfield Daily News. Through the years he worked at a variety of other newspapers (Springfield Republican, Providence Journal, and the Providence Evening Bulletin). It was while he was at the Providence Evening Bulletin that Frank came across the advertisement for a sports reporter position at the Buffalo Evening News. He moved to Buffalo and began, what was to become, 60 years in sports writing. He wrote articles on many sports; but his specialty was boxing.

Frank wrote about countless fighters during the glorious years of Boxing (from the 1930's to the 1970's) such as Jack Dempsey, Billy Petrolle, Jimmy Goodrich, Rocky Kansas, & the Muscato brothers. His articles gave boxing a definite flare. Frank Wakefield would give you everything in detail including the preliminary bouts. One of the highlights of his career was covering the Jimmy Slattery-Lou Scozza fight.

His influence on boxing is demonstrated by the fact that it was him and Charlie Bailey who were responsible for giving "Big Boy Brackey" his nickname.

Frank's achievements never went unnoticed as he won numerous awards for his sports reporting through the years - two of which were the 1969 and 1970 Page One Awards from the Buffalo Newspaper Guild. Along with his awards, he won the love and admiration of the boxing community.

On behalf of the Buffalo fighters that Frank wrote about, the Buffalo Veteran Boxers Association,
RING # 44, would like to show its appreciation by inducting him into the Buffalo Boxing Hall of Fame.
We hope that his legacy will never be forgotten. Here's to you, Frank!