Pete Sanstol

Name: Pete Sanstol
Alias: Baby Cyclone/Blond Tiger
Birth Name: Peter Olai Sandstol
Nationality: Norwegian
Birthplace: Moi, Norway
Hometown: Brooklyn NY/Montreal QC
Born: March 28, 1905
Died: March 13, 1982
Age at Death: 76
Stance: Orthodox
Height: 5' 3
Reach: 67 inches
Divisions: Flyweight & Bantamweight
Trainer: Jake Kravitz
Managers: Lew Burston, Raoul Godbout, George Blake
Fight Record: [http://www.boxrec.com/boxer_display.php?boxer_id=009935]

Biography

Pete Sanstol was a boxer who emerged during the “Golden Age of Bantamweight Boxing" of the 1920s, according to The Ring magazine, December 1953 issue. Born in Moi, a small village south west in Norway, Peter Olai Sandstøl learned to box in the Oslo Athletic Club. A natural-born fighter, he reportedly became the Amateur Flyweight and Bantamweight Champion of Norway and Scandinavia, before embarking on a professional career in 1926.

After winning his professional debut against the veteran Bert Gallard in Oslo, Sanstol was invited by Max Schmeling’s manager to come train in Berlin. Winning all his bouts in Germany, Sanstol moved on to Paris, where he became known as “The Little Carpentier," after Georges Carpentier. Discovered in Paris by American manager Lew Burston, Sanstol was brought to New York where he graduated from the club preliminaries to become the “most sought after bantam" in the eastern United States and Canada, per the 1931 "Everlast Boxing Record".

By late 1930 Sanstol had moved his headquarters from the Norwegian colony of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, NY, to Montreal, Quebec, where he came under the management of Raoul Godbout. The next year he won the World Bantamweight Title, as recognized by the Montreal Athletic Commission. He twice successfully defended his title before meeting Panama Al Brown for world supremacy in the 118-pound division. After narrowly losing that bout by a 15-round split-decision, Sanstol took a year off before resuming another campaign for the championship. He retired from boxing in late 1933, only to return again in 1935. He went back to fight in Berlin, where he was described by the German press as a “genius in the ring, a master of boxing." Again he became the Number One Contender, and culminated this chapter of his career by a title match with Sixto Escobar, which Sanstol lost after what was described by the Montreal press as an "epic and courageous performance." Sanstol had one more career bout--defeating Al Brown in Oslo a month after the Escobar fight--before he retired permanently. (He later had a couple of charity bouts while serving in the United States Army during World War II.)

After his boxing career ended, Sanstol worked various jobs in Norway, New York City, Chicago, Seattle, and Alaska–including restaurant owner, newspaper writer, recreation center director, hotel clerk, and translator–before settling down for good in the Long Beach/San Pedro area of California in the early 1960s. He died in 1982 in Whittier, California after a series of strokes.

In June 2005, the municipality of Lund, Moi, Norway, raised a monolith in its park to the memory of Pete Sandstøl--Norway's most-famous boxer.

Fighting Style

Sanstol was known for his aggression, energy, speed, and uncanny defense. He had amazing stamina and an incredible "chin." He was also known for his "color"--the ability to give the crowd a thrilling show. About the only attribute he lacked was the so-called "power punch," although a quarter of his 98 victories were by way of knockout. Throughout his early career, Sanstol used these skills to build an impressive record. In time his fighting style gradually evolved from that of a careless youth, to that of a wizened veteran. After his bout with Panama Al Brown, Sanstol learned to pace himself better and to use every punch sparingly, not wasting a single drop of energy. (Part of this evolution may have resulted from a chronically bad foot or ankle he first sustained during one of these title bouts; it would haunt and hobble him for the remainder of his professional career.)

Long-time "Montreal Herald" Sports Editor Elmer W. Ferguson once described Sanstol’s evolved fighting style as follows:

"Sanstol first flashed on the Montreal fistic horizon half a dozen years ago. This writer recollects him knocking out Aleck Burlie in April of 1928, over seven years ago at the Forum. In those days Sanstol was a bewildering bundle of speed and energy. His slim, tireless legs carried him around the ring at bounding, blinding speed. He threw his endless energy to the winds with complete abandon. He was a profligate spendthrift of energy and strength, of nerve force. He had all the carelessness of youth about vitality as expended in the ring. He had a seemingly endless supply. For ten or twelve rounds he could dance, bounce, leap and dash about the ring on those steel legs, and meanwhile his speeding fists could keep on throwing stinging punches at bewildering speed, punches from all angles. For not only did Sanstol bound about the ring. He ducked like lightning, weaved, bobbed, always going at top speed, a master-boxer in his own fashion, a fashion founded on speed and stamina. The fighting heart that blazes from his ice-cold eyes still sends him on. But fistic age has tempered the pace, has developed a new ring cunning, and a tendency to accomplish by polished skill what he once achieved by youthful energy that disdained to save itself, that was gladly thrown to the winds.

Sanstol doesn't bound so much as he did. He moves now in a more shuffling fashion, as did great fighters before him, and as did such peerless runners as Schrubb and Nurmi, the greatest of all conservation stylists. Today Sanstol is inclined to save his legs, to some degree, and to employ instead the ring-craft he has acquired in nearly ten years of campaigning up and down the fistic lanes of two continents. Today he is more the Dempsey in his style, less the old Sanstol. His hands still carry their speed, his arms and shoulders the energy to hurl an endless barrage of punches. But he will be found doing much more of the weaving and bending to evade blows or get himself into hitting position. He will not be leaping five or six feet when an evasive swing of a few inches will suffice. He will be doing more of the bobbing and ducking and swinging from the hips, with which he used to delight crowds and bewilder his opponents." August 7, 1935 "Montreal Daily Herald"

Career highlights

*Amateur Flyweight and Bantamweight Champion of Norway and Scandinavia
*World Bantamweight Champion (1931)
*Ranked by long-time Madison Square Garden Matchmaker Tom McArdle with legendary bantams Terry McGovern, Kid Williams, and Pete Herman (1931 "Everlast Boxing Record")
*Featured solo on the cover of the August 1931 "The Ring" magazine and in its accompanying article
*Described in the article entitled "The Golden Bantams" ("The Ring", December 1953 issue, page 13) as "one of the hottest local favorites the big town New York ever had. Pete, flashy, colorful and capable fought in the Ridgewood Grove Sporting Club in the Queens section of New York no less than 26 times in one year, packing the place every time."
*Proclaimed the Ridgewood Grove’s “Greatest Ring Attraction" by "The Ring" magazine’s Ted Carroll
*Ranked with Leo (Kid) Roy as Montreal's favorite boxer of the late 1920s/early 1930s
*Inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame (2000)

The above is from the BoxRec Boxing Wikipedia [http://www.boxrec.com/media/index.php/Boxer:Pete_Sanstol:009935 Sanstol article]