Henry Milligan

Henry "Hank" Milligan (born 1958-09-16 in Camden, NJ) is a former professional boxer from the United States.

Background

Milligan was a 1981 graduate of Princeton University. He was a defensive back in football, a third basemen in baseball and a wrestler who often wrestled in the highest weight class, despite being only about 5-11, 185 (he would frequently wrestle and defeat 250-pounders, and once wrestled a 325-pounder). Milligan earned ten varsity letters, an all-time University record. He was an All American in wrestling and was Princeton's 1981 Senior Scholar-Athlete of the Year, which is the University's highest undergraduate honor.

The New York Mets offered him a minor league contract after his college graduation.

Prior to his college graduation, he never boxed competitively, nor did he even train as a boxer. He claims that the only boxing he did before graduating from college was with his brother in his parents' basement when growing up, in which they used socks to cover their hands.

He went to Alexis. I DuPont high school in Greenville, Delaware.

Amateur Highlights

After college, Milligan worked as an engineer at Delmarva Power and Light Company in Wilmington, Delaware, not far from where he grew up. At that time, he decided to try his hand at boxing.

Despite having no prior background in boxing, Milligan had an outstanding amateur career, and in 1983 he won the National AAU Heavyweight Championship. Being a white, Ivy League educated boxer attracted a lot of attention to him, and he was featured in numerous newspaper and magazine articles nationwide, including People Magazine and Sports Illustrated ("The Ivy's Irish Pug," March 19, 1984 http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1121869/1/index.htm). He also defeated Henry Tillman, the 1984 Olympic Heavyweight Gold Medalist. Then, Henry Milligan was also defeated by Henry Tillman, in the 1983 Nationals in Colorado.

He entered the 1984 U.S. Olympic trials seeded first in the 201 pound class, despite weighing only 184 pounds, but lost in the semi-finals to 17-year-old Mike Tyson on June 9, 1984. Milligan was leading on points when Tyson knocked him out in the second round.

Professional career

Milligan turned pro in 1985 and began his career with a promising string of 11 victories, but then lost a couple of bouts against limited competition, retiring in 1986. He launched two comebacks in which he fought in local bouts and retired permanently in 1998.

Outside the Ring

Milligan has appeared in ten national television commercials and a feature film with Robert De Niro and Jessica Lange, titled Night and the City (1992 film). He is the president of the Elsmere, Delaware Boxing Club, a civic member of the Mary Campbell Center for Disabled Adults and the Delaware Foundation for Retarded Children.

He is a member of MENSA, which requires that all members have IQ's that place them in the top 2% of the population (http://www.mensa.org/index0.php?page=15).

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