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Hockey player and boxer Fred Bassi
After BU days, alum went back to the rink -- and the ring

By Brian Fitzgerald

The boxing world is not known for its college student pugilists. After all, it doesn't take a degree to knock someone out. But there was a time when local undergraduates could lace up the gloves at the Boston Arena -- now Northeastern's Matthews Arena -- and fight their hearts out. Fred Bassi (SED'67) was one of those warriors. He was also one of the few BU students who went on to a professional boxing career.

Fred Bassi (SED'67). Photo by BU Photo Services

Bassi, a BU Athletic Hall of Fame hockey player, was known as a tough guy both in the rink and in the ring. Teammate John Harris (ENG'67) remembers Bassi as a "quiet, unassuming individual" who was benched by Coach Jack Kelley for half of his sophomore year -- his first season as a varsity player -- for not back-checking. "Fred never complained," says Harris. "He just kept showing up and trying hard. For some reason, Kelley finally put him in a game. He scored the winning goal. Then he did it again the next game, and continued scoring frequently thereafter."

In fact, Bassi is seventh on BU's all-time scoring list. However, it was a swift shot in the 1966 Beanpot championship that everyone seems to remember best -- a punch to the head of a Harvard ruffian.

"Some guy from Harvard dropped his gloves and challenged Fred," says Harris. "Fred decked him once with his gloves on, and that was the end of the fight. There was a classic picture of Fred's punch in the Boston Globe the next day."

Crimson forward Tag Denment probably didn't know that the BU center was as quick with his fists as he was with his stick, or that Bassi's hobby was bobbing, weaving, and punching on Monday amateur nights at the Boston Arena annex. BU's 9-2 victory over Harvard brought the Beanpot trophy to Commonwealth Avenue, but Bassi wasn't around for the celebration on the ice because he had been ejected from the game, despite the fact that he hadn't dropped his gloves.

"It wasn't worth it, was it?" Kelley asked him after the game.

"No, Coach, it wasn't," Bassi answered.

But when Bassi ran into Kelley a few years later, he informed his former coach that he had lied -- force-feeding humble pie to that Harvard goon was indeed an appropriate response at the time. "I didn't want to tell you back then," Bassi confessed to Kelley.

Bassi, a native of Niagara Falls, Ontario, went on to play for several minor league hockey teams, including the Syracuse Blazers of the Eastern Hockey League. He led the Blazers in scoring in the 1967-68 season, but he didn't lose his rough edge -- he racked up the most penalty minutes on the team. Despite his weight (170 pounds), his Gibraltar-like presence in front of an opponent's goal guaranteed him many rebounds, a good share of body checks, and occasional slashes. Harris dubbed him "Mr. Silent but Deadly," but Bassi admits that he became known as a "garbage collector" for being at the right place at the right time, and not easy to move. "I took my lumps in front of the goal," he says in his thick Canadian accent.

He began coaching at Niagara College in 1970, and in 30 years he guided the Knights to five Gold Medal International Collegiate Hockey League championships and one Ontario Colleges Athletic Association Silver Medal. He was voted ICHL Coach of the Year three times.

But in 1977, at age 32, he went back into the ring -- a comeback after a 10-year layoff. "I started to get heavy," he says. "I was up to 220, so I went to a boxing gym to lose weight." After an amateur record of 26-12 in the 1970s and early 1980s, he decided to go professional, despite coaching full-time. "I was training in between practices and games," he recalls. In fact, his first professional bout on March 11, 1981, was the day after his Niagara College team came to the Bay State to play Massachusetts Maritime Academy. "I was tired, but I was in fighting shape," he says.

He weighed in at 198 pounds. Hundreds of fans, including his Niagara players, chanted "Bassi! Bassi!" at Niagara Arena that night, but his opponent, Lou Alexander, was 257 pounds and four inches taller. "There was no cruiserweight in Canada then, so I boxed as a heavyweight," he says.

Nicknamed "the Italian Stallion," Bassi had Alexander on the ropes at one point, but also took a few hard shots himself. Alexander won the first round, 6-4. "He was bigger, stronger, and a better boxer," says Bassi. "If I had been 25, I would have been quicker, but I was 35." Shortly after the bell sounded for the second round, Bassi's own bell was rung. He got up, but evidently he didn't recover during the standing eight count, because another punch floored him. After a second standing eight count, he rushed "the New York Giant" Alexander, who hailed from Buffalo, and once again had him on the ropes. The crowd roared, but his opponent responded with a flurry of his own. The referee stopped the fight with 45 seconds left in the round.

Bassi's second and final professional bout was the following year in Welland, Ontario, and the 36-year-old was awarded a technical knockout over Morris Fulgham in the opening round. "That was the end of my fighting career," he says. "My only regret is that I didn't have a big crowd in Welland Arena for the fight that I won. Everyone remembers my loss, but I actually won my last fight."

Today, after retiring as coach last September, Bassi's biggest athletic challenge is golf, which he finds more difficult than boxing or hockey. After all, one can never really lose sight of a puck or a boxing opponent. "But in golf, every time I hit the ball," he says, "I have to go find it."

9 March 2001
Boston University
Office of University Relations