Hugh Roddin

Hugh Joseph Roddin (March 10, 1887 – March 3, 1954) was an Olympic boxer from Scotland. He was the first Scottish boxer to win an Olympics boxing medal when he took home the bronze in 1908.

Roddin was raised in the Newbigging district of Musselburgh in East Lothian. He won a silver trophy in an open boxing championship at the Pavilion Theatre in Musselburgh in 1906 before he moved to the United States. The building that he trained and fought in is being refurbished and used as a museum of Scottish boxing, including a display of Hugh Roddin memorabilia.

Interest in boxing had died with the fall of Rome. It was revived in England in the eighteenth century, when its popularity rose under the bare-fisted championship reign of James Figg, from 1719 to 1734. In the United States, boxing was outlawed until 1896, when New York became the first state to legalize the sport.

Olympic boxing made its debut in 1904, at the Olympics in Saint Louis. Americans won every gold and silver boxing medal in 1904. This home town edge carried over to London in 1908 where fighters from Great Britain won every medal but one.

Hugh Roddin won his bronze medal at the 1908 London Olympics. He was a featherweight (57kg). They had not originally planned to include boxing in the 1908 Olympics, so it was held after all of the other events, in October. His fight was a 37 bout marathon session that started at 11:25 am and went until 10:30 pm. Because of its being held after all other summer Olympics events in 1908, 32 of the 42 entrants were from Great Britain, including all of the featherweght medalists. Of the ten overseas entrants, nine were defeated in their first bout.

Roddin had a 23 win and no defeat record, according to Brian Donald of Arran Crescent, Kirkcaldy in his research for a book on Scottish boxing history entitled "The Fight Game in Scotland". This book devotes a complete chapter to Hugh Roddin. One of the fights was held in the old Vanderbilt Athletic Club in the Ninth Ward before World War I.

He was the boxing coach at the American Legion in Rosedale, Long Island, New York and he taught his nephew Harold (Sonny) and many other boys the finer points of boxing. Sonny would go from Bayside to Rosedale many a Saturday night, go to the Legion and then home.

Hugh Roddin (Hugh's nephew) tells a story that when Hugh Roddin was in his late years he was approached in the park by a mugger to give up his wallet. Hugh reached into his coat as if to grab the wallet - and came out with a punch to knock the young man down. The young man was so stunned he got up and ran away. An old boxer never loses his punch is what Hugh had said.