Champion University of Idaho boxer Herb Carlson dies at 100
Herb Carlson, the most accomplished collegiate boxer in the history of the University of Idaho, passed away Saturday in Nampa, Idaho, his home for 75 years. He was 100 years old.
The first Idaho student-athlete to earn the La Rowe Trophy, given to the nation’s top boxer, Carlson was the last remaining tie to the Golden Age of collegiate boxing in the Inland Empire – a time when Memorial Gym in Moscow and the Armory in Spokane would fill to overflowing for college boxing, especially so whenever the two national powers met in the ring.
Born in Wallace, Carlson took to boxing at the tender age of 6 when his father gave him boxing gloves for Christmas. With two brothers to spar with, he was already an accomplished boxer before joining the Army in 1943 and becoming a bomber pilot.
During basic training in Florida, Carlson did a little boxing on the side, winning each of his handful of bouts before the Army Air Corp put his boxing career on hold, not wanting pilots to risk boxing-related injuries. Those bouts, however, were the only fighting he saw during World War II.
After returning to his hometown in 1947, Carlson helped coach the Wallace High School boxing team, tutoring brothers Leonard and Norman Walker.
University of Idaho boxing coach Frank Young added all three to his collegiate squad. Carlson won three national championships for the Vandals, Len Walker won two and Norm was runner-up at the 1949 national tournament. All three were integral parts of Idaho’s national championship in 1950, the school’s third title.
Carlson won his first 22 consecutive bouts at Idaho and finished with a career record of 41-3-1. He won four straight individual Pacific Coast Conference titles while the Vandals won the conference team title in both 1949 and 1950. Carlson won individual national championships in 1947 (at 155 pounds), 1948 (160) and 1950 (165) and led the Vandals to the team title in 1950, which they shared, somewhat grudgingly, with rival Gonzaga.
Always an offensive-minded boxer, Carlson attacked opponents with big hooks and quick jabs, overwhelming them and making defense unnecessary.
“When you’re young, you get cocky,” he was quoted saying. “I knocked out a few guys and then, pretty soon, I was trying to knock out everybody.”
But the prospect of facing Syracuse’s undefeated Jim Rollier for the 1950 national championship at 165 pounds, Young encouraged a more cautious approach.
“That particular year (1950), my coach, Frank Young, tried to convince me I was wrong, and I was. I started trying to box, not trying to hurt anybody, just win the fight. And winning was easier then and I felt better about myself, and that’s the way I tried to fight (Rollier).”
That Idaho shared the 1950 national championship with the rival Bulldogs was always a sore point with the Vandals. Both teams scored 18 points in the national tournament to share the championship, the Vandals beat Gonzaga 5-2 and 5-3 in two face-to-face meetings that season.
The cost of fielding a top-level boxing program got to be too expensive for both schools soon after sharing the title. Gonzaga ended its program in 1952; Idaho in 1954. The NCAA ceased sanctioning the sport in 1960.
Carlson never pursued boxing professionally, but he did try out for the 1948 Olympic boxing team. After spending the summer living in Gonzaga coach Joey August’s basement along with GU heavyweight Carl Maxey, he reached the semifinals, but was slowed by a leg infection and lost on points to Washington Jones at the Boston Garden.
Carlson was inducted into the University of Idaho Athletics Hall of Fame in2007
Carlson graduated from Idaho in 1950 with a degree in business and opened a sporting goods store in Nampa, Idaho in 1950 and operated it for more than 40 years.
In place of the ring, he concentrated on his golf game, boasting a single-digit handicap.
He lived in Nampa for 75 years.