James Shuler

James Shuler (born May 29, 1959 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was a U.S. Olympic and professional boxer known as "Black Gold."

Amateur career

Shuler was the 1979 and 1980 National Golden Gloves Light Middleweight Champion. He qualified at 156 pounds and was a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic boxing team that perished in an air crash in Warsaw, Poland, on March 14, 1980 [http://www.astm.org/cgi-bin/SoftCart.exe/JOURNALS/FORENSIC/PAGES/JFS2002083_476.htm?E+mystore] . Shuler was not with the team, however, as he had stayed in America due to injury [http://www.ringsidereport.com/rsrboard/viewtopic.php?t=1778&sid=b22eb3829dfc2758cb58faead4d32fd3] . The team was en route to Warsaw, Poland for the USA vs. Poland Box-off as part of "USA vs. the World." event. Among the USA Boxing teammates who were killed in the plane crash were Lemuel Steeples from St. Louis; Calvin Anderson from Connecticut; Paul Palomino - the brother of Carlos Palomino ; George Pimentel, and Olympic Coach, Sarge Johnson. Members of the team who were also not aboard included Bobby Czyz and Alex Ramos [http://www.ikfkickboxing.com/RBF.htm] .

Shuler's hopes were dashed when President Jimmy Carter imposed an Olympic boycott that forbid the U.S. Olympians from competing in the 1980 Summer Olympics.

Professional career

Shuler began his professional boxing career as a middleweight on September 12, 1980 with a second-round knockout of Chris Rogers in Philadelphia. During his five years as a pro, he had 22-1 record with sixteen knockouts. His first loss came on March 10, 1986 to Thomas Hearns when he was knocked out in the first round.

Death

Shuler used the money he earned from the Hearns fight to buy a motorcycle. Just one week after the fight, Shuler was killed when he crashed his motorcycle in Philadelphia [http://www.phillyboxinghistory.com/boxers/boxer_shuler.htm] . His death came six years and three days after the flight that he was originally scheduled to make crashed in Poland.

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