Above: The SPD shared “A Hidden Piece of Southborough History” (images cropped from Facebook)
Last week, the Southborough Police Dept shared a fun “Throwback Thursday” post on Facebook. It seems that 42 years ago, Southborough hosted a headline making celebrity appearance.
The SPD posted:
Did you know that one of the greatest boxers of all time quietly visited Southborough in 1984?
On Thursday, July 26, 1984, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, the reigning World Middleweight Boxing Champion, made an unannounced stop in our small town to referee a special boxing exhibition between Southborough Police Chief William “Billy” Baker and Sergeant William “Billy” Webber.
You can read the full post with more detail and photos of the clipped article below:
The cited article was published by the Evening Gazette, which was a daily afternoon paper by publishers of the Worcester Telegram, prior to the merged Telegram & Gazette.
The event was held in the old middle school gym at Woodward, before it was rebuilt as an elementary school. It looks like the clipping is missing some of the text providing context on the Southborough police chief’s involvement in boys clubs and youth boxing that summer.
It sounds like families involved in that youth program likely made up a good share of the 300 attendees.
The sgt who boxed his chief later went on to become SPD’s chief in 2004 before dying from pancreatic cancer in 2008.
