Inducted into the hall of fame - Oct 16, 03
Dr. George Maughan was inducted posthumously to the McGill Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.
He was born George Burwell Maughan on May 8, 1910 in Toronto and graduated from McGill with a medical degree in 1934 and a Master of Science in 1938.
A member of the McGill Boxing, Wrestling & Fencing club, he also competed on the football, swimming, waterpolo and track teams. Maughan was a two-time intercollegiate heavyweight boxing champion, winning the title in 1932-33 and again in 1933-34.
Maughan was 22 when he was one of seven boxers representing Canada at the 1932 L.A. Olympics. He was Canada's only heavyweight boxer and entered the competition which featured six nations.In 1932, he was became the first McGill athlete to serve as a flagbearer for Canada at the Olympics, handling the chore at the Summer Games in Los Angeles, where he finished fourth in the boxing tournament’s heavyweight division.
Maughan went on to serve in the Navy during World War II and became a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at McGill. Also chief of staff at the Royal Victoria Hospital Women's Pavillion, he was the first of three generations of McGill athletes as his son G.B. Maughan went on to play hockey and granddaughter Julia, was an All-Canadian soccer player.
He passed away on June 16, 2003 in Guadalajara, Mexico at the age of 93.
Famed Canadian journalist Lou Marsh wrote the following in the Official Report of the COC for Canada's participation at the 10th Olympiad:
The big surprise of the entire Canadian boxing string was George Maughan, the McGill heavyweight. He didn't look much when he left Canada, but he showed considerable class in the tourney. In his first bout he completely flabbergasted the Canadian contingentby not only trimming Kohlass of Germany, the European heavyweight champion, but knocking him down three times. He certainly showed unexpected punching power.
Maughan is 6-foot-3 and as fine a looking specimen of young manhood as you would want to trundle your eyeballs over -- a son of George Maughan, general passenger agent of the C.P.R. in Montreal, and a third-year student in medicine at McGill. His father used to be a C.P.R. passenger agent for Toronto and district.
When the elongated George won the Canadian boxing championship in the heavyweight division at Toronto in May, he was a joke as a boxer. He didn't have anything except a palooka to beat, and he looked almost as bad as his opponent. He didn't seem to have anything but a pair of shorts and ambition. In fact, George looked so bad that when it came to selecting the Canadian team for Los Angeles, his name was the first one lopped off the list of champions under consideration.
But George had other ideas. He wanted to represent Canada at an Olympiad, so he obtained the consent of the selection committee to go if he would pay his own way. In other words, the selection committee was not going to have the Olympic fund saddled with the expense of a lot of lumber. Maughan decided to have the satisfaction of letting some renowned champion take a whack at his chin.
He came down with the team, and nobody except Danny White, the coach of the boxing squad, gave him a tumble -- at least as prospective winner of points for Canada. No one would give him a chance. He was expected to fold up the first time he was hit.
But he didn't. Not only did he not fold up, but he won.
He gave Kohlhaas a dashed good hiding. The German was a big blonde with a ponderous punch, but every time he started to wind up, Maughan wrapped his left around his chin and clipped him under the heartwith a right-hand uppercut. He played the big German like a bass drum in the first round, and finally dropped him to his knees. He took the first round by 1,500 metres, which is the nearest thing to a mile recognized around here.
In the second round, the blond came out on the run, so Maughan welted him on the eyebrow and split it clean across. The German stared at him for a minute, and then dropped to his knees.
After he had been down for about six seconds, he got up, and the rest of the round was a pursuit race. Just as the bell rang, Maughan caught up with the breathless German and flailed him down again. Maughan's round.
In the last round, the German let go all he had. Twice he staggered the Canuck, but Maughan came right back and hit him so hard on the chin that his ears flapped, and he gave that German a real shellacking.
In his second bout, Maughn faced Lovell, the Argentine lad who swept his way to victory in the class and was accclaimed the best boxer of the entire tournament. Maughan stuck in there for two rounds with the sharp-shooting Argentine boy, but in the third round he sustained two gashed eyes and the referee stopped it to save him further punishment.
Maughan declares that the worst of the two gashes, the one which required six stitches to close, was caused by a butt from Lovell's head.
I don't think that Maughan had any chance of winning this bout with Lovell, but I do think that if his eyes had not been gashed he would of at least lasted out the route. Give Maughan credit. He certainly had plenty of courage. he wanted to go on even after the referee called a halt -- and that was no grandstand gesture!
