Love of Boxing Puts Father, Son at Ringside

CEDAR RAPIDS - For nearly 70 years, Al Meier has loved boxing, from donning gloves as a teen to being a national boxing official. He's sat ringside with some of the greats, from George Foreman and Evander Holyfield to Sugar Ray Leonard and James "Buster" Douglas (with Al, at left). But, unlike the bravado often shown by pros - he describes a young Muhammad Ali as "loud" - Al prefers to work behind the scenes.

"I've ducked publicity all my life," Al says, "and I still get more than I wanted."

He wasn't too eager to flip through scrapbooks, either, but his son, Rod, convinced him otherwise.

"I never remember dad boxing," says Rod, 62. "He started at Collins (Radio) when I was born. But he had cartons of gloves out in the garage. We'd pick them up, three kids, and box."

Al would join his older sons on occasion.

"Before you knew it," Rod laughs, "there were three kids laying on the ground."

Al laughs, too. He had fun with his sons Rod, Bob, Ron and John. But he never really worked with them to box.

"I could see how easy it would be to get in trouble if you thought you was tough," Al says. He pauses. "I always thought I could whip anyone.

Al, 82, was born in North Dakota but moved to Keswick, Iowa, as a youngster and later to Cedar Rapids. His father was a Methodist minister.

At 14 he began boxing in Golden Gloves, in the days when The Gazette was a sponsor. In AAU competition he became Iowa champion in 1946 and then turned pro for a short career - a couple of 1947 contracts show he was paid $125 to fight in El Paso, Texas.

"I could hit awful hard," he says, "I knocked out people."

A Chicago newspaper clipping tells the story of a knockout at bantam weight in Golden Gloves.

But Al retired from the ring, married his wife, Dolores, and had children. As a kid he'd worked on the railroad and drove trucks. In 1949 he began at Collins and in 1959 became business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. He later lobbied for the Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, and was Iowa's labor commissioner from 1977 until retiring in 1995.

Al continued his boxing interest as state athletics commissioner to oversee professional boxing and wrestling. In 1977, he joined other state commissioners to form the United States Boxing Association which, in 1984, became the International Boxing Federation. A former vice president, he's now on the board.

"We felt American boxers weren't getting a fair shake," Al says. "I supervise fights for the IBF now."

That means he attends rules meetings, makes sure fighters weigh in correctly, keeps the master score card for bouts and presents award belts.

Al doesn't travel as much as he used to, although he was recently in Chicago for a fight and, later this month, flies with his son to Hawaii for the national convention.

Rod, who fought with the Cedar Rapids Boxing Club in 1967-68, graduated from Kennedy High School and once owned ten carwashes. He now concentrates on the Edgewood 5 Seasons Car Wash on Edgewood Road NW near Johnson Avenue where he also owns a laundromat and other buildings he leases.

"Dad will call me up for a fight," Rod says. "I'll go sit ringside with him."

"Blood splatters on you," Al says. "You get cleaning bills. Spit, Sweat. Blood. It gets juicy up there."

But, for a father and son who love boxing, there's no better seat.