Arnie Boehm
Inducted In
1994
The man who started the World Boxing Council Heavyweight Champion Lennox Lewis on his career as a junior boxer in Kitchener, Arnold Boehm made a notable contribution to the youth of the Region of Waterloo through his involvement as a coach with the Waterloo Regional Police Association Boxing Club. Born in Wellesley Township in 1933, one of a family of eleven, he boxed as an amateur in his youth and then worked with Hook McComb in coaching the Police Club boxers.
Boehm was a coach of the Canadian team at the World Junior Championships in the Dominican Republic in 1983 when Lewis won a World title. He helped coach the Canadian team at the Los Angeles Olympics and the North American team at the World Cup IV in Korea in 1985. He coached many more aspiring boxers in the community, including Chris Johnson, a bronze medallist at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.
In 1982 Boehm was named Boxing Ontario’s “Coach of the Year,” was inducted into the Canadian Boxing Hall of Fame in 1989 and received a Canada 125 Award in 1992. Boehm passed away on October 9, 2002.