ORANGE COUNTY SPORTS HALL OF FAME : Latka Still Answering the Bell

George Latka’s 60 years in boxing are as storied as they come.

As an amateur, he won 151 of 159 fights. As a professional, he beat four world champions and was ranked as one of the world’s top 10 lightweights from 1940 to 1942. As a referee and judge, he officiated 35 world title fights.

Latka’s accomplishments earned him four Hall of Fame inductions--in his hometown of Gary, Ind., at his alma mater, San Jose State, and with World Boxing, once as a boxer and once as a referee.

So when Latka was informed by John Hall, a publicist for the Orange County Sports Assn., that he would be inducted into the Orange County Hall of Fame, Latka naturally took it in stride, right?

Not quite.

“I started crying,” Latka said as his voice started to crack.

“Yeah, kind of like he is right now,” Latka’s wife, Trudie, said. “He gets real emotional when he starts talking about the Hall of Fame.”

Though Latka has only lived in Orange County--Huntington Beach--for the last 22 years, he is honored to be going into the Hall of Fame with such athletes as Nolan Ryan and Brian Downing.

“Jack Snow didn’t even make it,” Latka said. “For me to be mentioned with the caliber of guys that are going in . . . that’s almost impossible.”

What’s almost impossible to believe is that Latka is 80 years old--he could pass for 60--and that he had more than 200 amateur and professional fights. Many world-class boxers don’t age well, and ones who do, rarely do boxing exhibitions for their 80th birthday party.

But there was Latka in the Westminster Gym last week, training for his three-round fight last Saturday night at the Lindborg Racquet Club in Huntington Beach. Longtime friend Jackie McCoy, who saw about 10 of Latka’s pro fights some 50 years ago, couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“Obviously, he probably shouldn’t make a comeback, but he looked pretty good,” McCoy said. “He was quick and he had those good moves. He was going through this routine like it was a regular workout.”

Almost as if time has stood still the last 50 years, Latka believes he still could hold his own in the ring.

“My reflexes are still so keen,” he said. “I can still slip a punch.”

Trudie, Latka’s second wife, said, “When you’ve done something your whole life, it’s what you do. George is a boxer, so it’s natural to him to be in the ring boxing.”

But McCoy said Latka isn’t like most boxers.

“Most fighters don’t age that well,” he said. “The punches they take through the years seem to catch up with them. But you talk to George and you’d never know he was a boxer.”

Maybe that’s because Latka was a boxer. Not a brawler, a slugger, or even a puncher--a boxer.

Today’s equivalent of Latka would probably be world super middleweight champ Roy Jones or world lightweight champion Genaro Hernandez.

“He was one hell of a fighter,” McCoy said. “He was very hard to hit and when he did get hit, it didn’t seem to hurt him. If he was around today, he’d be a world champion.”

Latka, told by Trudie to stop being so modest, didn’t dispute McCoy’s statement.

“In my era, I don’t think there was a fighter superior to me defensively,” said Latka, who was never off his feet during his professional career. “My reactions were so quick. If I were around today, I’d have four or five titles. I just wish I was boxing now so I could benefit from all the money that’s out there. I’d be a millionaire.”

Instead Latka, whose nickname was “The Boxing Professor,” spent much of his five-year professional career making a comfortable living and working to get a lightweight title bout. Though four of his 49 victories came over world champions, none of the fighters were champions when Latka beat them.

Latka did fight Sammy Angott, the world lightweight champion who had just defeated featherweight champion Willie Pep, to a draw. The fight was originally supposed to be for Angott’s title, but the boxing commission didn’t approve of the bout’s promoter and it was ruled a non-title fight.

“I don’t know why he was never a world champion,” McCoy said. “I think there was even more politics then than there is now.”

And, as Latka notes, there were also fewer champions in those days.

“There were only eight champions because there were fewer weight classes and only one organization,” Latka said. “But I’m happy for these guys now. I think everybody should get the chance to become a champion.”

When Latka realized he probably would never become a champion, he retired in 1942 at the age of 28 with a record of 49-6. His manager for the last two years of his career was actor George Raft.

Latka spent the next 50-some years involved in boxing as a trainer, manager, promoter, matchmaker, referee and even as an acting referee. He has had bit parts in five movies and several television situation comedies. His biggest part came in “Raging Bull,” where he played the referee during the fight scenes.

Don Fraser, who promoted the Irvine Marriott boxing shows for 10 years, was hired by Latka the promoter for $3 a show to publicize The Times’ Golden Gloves Tournament in 1948.

“I guess I didn’t do a very good job,” Latka joked. “That was the last Times’ Golden Gloves Tournament there was.”

But Fraser and Latka stayed together to co-manage fighters and the two are still close friends. Fraser was among the crowd of about 220 who attended Latka’s 80th birthday party, hosted by Lenny Lindborg, who also managed a few boxers with Latka.

“You don’t see that kind of turnout for somebody 80 years old these days unless it’s for a funeral,” Fraser said. “But George is the kind of guy I don’t think anybody has a bad thing to say about.”

Many of Latka’s old friends and former foes showed up in a documentary of Latka’s life that was produced by Trudie’s son, Patrick Murphy. But it was Latka’s boxing exhibition against Joe Bahash, one of his former fighters, that stole the show.

“I was electrified,” said Latka, who actually turned 80 on Nov. 12. “I felt so good, I surprised myself. I could have gone another two rounds.”