Kawulia inducted into Manitoba hall of fame

Fort Frances native Pete Kawulia thought his chances of being inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame had been KO’d.
At the root of the former featherweight boxer’s cynicism was a notice he’d received three years ago stating he had missed being inducted into the hall by a few meagre votes.
Given the number of years that had passed since his retirement from professional boxing in 1959, Kawulia simply assumed his induction into Manitoba’s sports shrine wasn’t in the cards.
So when a letter arrived two months ago announcing Kawulia was to be inducted into the hall as this year’s veteran athlete at a ceremony in Winnipeg, he understandably was caught off guard.
“I just didn’t know what to say,” Kawulia recalled of the moment.
“My wife [Helen] saw me just looking at it and said, ‘What’s the matter?’ I said, ‘Here, look at it.’”
Once he had gotten over the initial shock, Kawulia quickly contacted his two grown sons to share the news.
The entire family, including a number of nieces and nephews who still live in Fort Frances, will be on hand for the induction ceremony Nov. 4 to share in the celebration.
The honour is a fitting conclusion to a truly remarkable boxing career.
Kawulia fought in 129 sanctioned bouts in both the amateur and professional ranks, compiling an outstanding record of 119 wins versus only 10 losses.
At the height of his pro career, Kawulia was ranked third in the British Empire and ninth in the world at the 127-pound featherweight division.
Few could have predicted the undeniable success Kawulia’s boxing career would become given its humble beginnings.
Upon graduating from Fort Frances High School in 1950, Kawulia moved to Winnipeg and took a job manufacturing paper.
Like most 17-year-olds of the era, he enjoyed attending teen dances in his spare time—and it was at one of these dances that Kawulia was introduced to boxing.
Arriving a few minutes early at the community centre locale of that evening’s dance, Kawulia saw a group of men training. One of the group noticed the teen watching them and beckoned him over.
“Some guy said, ‘You want to try it out,’” Kawulia recalled of his first exposure to the sport.
“I said, ‘Sure, why not?’”
The man quickly discovered Kawulia had a natural talent as a pugilist and encouraged him to seek out more qualified instructors.
“He told me after a couple of days that I should go to a place with more advanced fighters,” Kawulia said. “So that started me off.”
Kawulia trained diligently over the following months and competed in his first amateur bout in 1951. And he shone over the next three years, compiling a record of 57-3 losses while capturing three successive Manitoba provincial championships (1951-53).
The only setback he would face occurred during the Canadian Olympic trials in Vancouver.
Kawulia went up against current Canadian featherweight champion Len Walters in the tournament final, with the right to represent Canada at the 1953 Games in Helsinki, Finland hanging in the balance.
“I was winning that fight and with about 15 seconds before the end of the fight, he knocked me down on one knee,” Kawulia recalled.
“I got up before the count started but they gave him the fight.
“Those few seconds, if they hadn’t happened, I’d have been in Helsinki representing Canada at the Olympics,” he added.
“But it happened, and that’s the way it went and that’s the way it was.”
The disappointment of missing out on the Olympics would be short-lived, though, as Kawulia rebounded by defeating Fernand Paradis in a bout in Montreal to become the Canadian Amateur Featherweight Champion of Canada in May, 1953.
Having accomplished everything possible at the amateur level, Kawulia moved to Chicago and turned professional.
Fighting under the handle of “Pistol,” Kawulia continued to enjoy a great deal of success in the ring—amassing a pro record of 59-7.
Three times he fought on the undercard of a world championship fight—with Sugar Ray Robinson headlining the bill twice and Carmen Basilio once.
The highlight of Kawulia’s pro career, however, came in his first 10-round main event fight held in Ocean Park, Calif.
In addition to the excitement of headlining a professional boxing card was the fact that then heavyweight champion of the world, Rocky Marciano, officiated the bout.
Marciano raised Kawulia’s hand in victory following the fight.
Despite the fact he left Fort Frances at the tender age of 17, Kawulia never forgot his roots and often would take the time to phone in his fights results at the behest of local radio station CFOB.
Kawulia retired from boxing in 1959 and took a job with Peoples Gas in Chicago, where he worked for 30 years before retiring in 1989.
He now resides in Orland Hills, Ill.—a suburb of Chicago—with his wife.