Howard Cunningham
Sport: Boxing
Year Inducted: 1974
Howard Cunningham’s biography indicates exceptional ability in many fields of athletics, he is best known for his boxing accomplishments and we welcome him into the Sports Hall of Fame in that category.
In 1939, he won the Canadian Golden Gloves Championship in Montreal in the Light-Heavyweight division.
He signed up early in WWII and in 1940 was Canadian Army Heavyweight Champ. His record as an amateur was 41 wins and only 2 losses. Boxing professionally, he won 6 matches and suffered only 2 defeats. He has the distinction very few boxers enjoy in the fact that he was never knocked out. His career as a boxer ended in 1943 as a result of a multiple fractured elbow while overseas.
In football, he played half-back for junior and senior teams and attended the Ottawa Rough Riders training camp in 1937; he was offered a playing contract, but the salary hardly matched Joe Namath’s, so he turned it down.
In track and field, while at high school, he won both junior and senior Championships; he also won 6 events for the S.D. & G. Highlanders at Barriefield Camp in 1938 and rounded out the day by competing in both boxing and wrestling matches.
Howard played both junior and senior hockey in his home town of Arnprior, senior hockey in Temiskaming and with the Cornwall Canadians.