Joe Gimbrone
Light-Heavyweight

Joe Gimbrone born April 13,1913 spent his childhood in Lackawanna's "Our Lady of Victory" orphanage and came up through the ranks in the school of hard knocks, drifting back and forth across the country through the rugged years of the depression, picking up work where ever he could find it.

Gimbrone's fighting career was a fickle friend indeed through those years of uncertainty. It seemed to come and go with Joe as he moved frequently following the ever evaporating job market and the "grapes of wrath" which found him working as a construction worker in southern

California rebuilding Los Angeles and Long Beach after a vicious earthquake in the 1930's.

Returning home to Buffalo, he settled in at the world famous Singer's Gym, next to what was once the old Palace Theater of Vaudeville and Burlesque fame. At Singer's Joe trained and learned the art of sweet science and in 1935 won the AAU Adirondack Light heavyweight Golden Gloves Championship. Joe had a brief stint as a pro boxer but after four bouts figured it was better serving as sparring partner for Tony Tozzo, Lou Scozza, Billy Nichey, Roy Love, Jimmy Mandell, and Phil Muscato. After his sparring days Joe worked for promoter Johnny Sudac and rubbed shoulders with Tommy Hearns and Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini who trained in Buffalo under Sudac's watchful eye.

Today at the age of 85, Joe is still a contender. He works out every day hitting the heavybag in his basement and for the last sixty years has been an active figure in officiating local amateur boxing matches throughout WNY.