

Photo by John Kobal Foundation/Moviepix



Long before he was a drug-addled superstar with delusions of karate grandeur, long before he was a star at all, Elvis was a boxer. He was on his high school’s boxing team for about a day.

The young Elvis developed an interest in the sweet science when a friend of his showed him a few moves. The future King enjoyed what he was learning, and decided to join his school’s boxing team.

Walt Doxey, Humes High School’s boxing coach at the time, put Elvis in the ring against a student named Sambo Barrom to try him out. Sambo made quick work of the new kid’s face, particularly his nose, and the bloody beating made Elvis reconsider his commitment to the sport. After the match, he toldthe coach that he was quitting the team because he was a lover, not a fighter.

Sambo Barrom went on to became a Golden Gloves champion boxer in real life. Elvis Presley went on to become a championship boxer in a musical.

About a decade after his fated fight against Sambo, Elvis returned to the ring for Kid Galahad. Based on a 1937 drama starring Humphrey Bogart and Bettie Davis which featured more death and fewer songs, the film was about a young mechanic with a killer left hook who became a reluctant hero in the ring. Refuting Presley’s adolescent belief in a firm divide between the amorous arts and boxing, the trailer for the film billed the singer as both a lover and a fighter.



Photo by Moviepix Archives

Elvis trained