There were always boxing gloves in the basement, occupying a box that included any number of more conventional accouterments to childhood activity, games and stuffed toys, and there was always the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports , first on the radio and then on television.

Boxing occupied a prominent place in his boyhood.  His father acted as referee when kids from the neighborhood stopped by to put the gloves on from time to time. Every week, there were the Wednesday and Friday night fights, frequently televised or broadcast from some faraway mystical place, a mecca called Madison Square Garden.

“I remember listening to the first Floyd Patterson-Ingemar Johannson fight on the car radio with my father and being depressed for days when Patterson lost,’’ he said. “My father and I watched on television with horror when Ruby Goldstein acted too slowly and let Benny Kid Paret take a terrible beating from Emile Griffith, only to learn days later that Paret died from his injuries.’’

Boxing, for better or worse, was always part of the boyhood mix, placing heroes such as Patterson, Sugar Ray Robinson and Rocky Marciano alongside the sport’s tough guys, Rocky Graziano, Tony Zale and others in a personal sports pantheon that included Bart Starr, Johnny Unitas, Eddie Matthews and Crazy Legs Hirsch.

Why wouldn’t someone exposed to that environment, learning to revere the heroes of the Sweet Science , to love such a sport alongside a passion for writing, grow up to write about boxing, to sit at ringside and recount the action for people unable to be there themselves.

Jim Wells did that very thing, covering boxing for the St. Paul Pioneer Press/Dispatch for 35 of his 37 years with those newspapers, writing about the professionals and the amateurs, including personal interviews with some of the sport’s very best during the 1970s and 1980s: Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Larry Holmes, Jimmy Ellis, Ken Norton, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Roberto Duran and countless others, with an occasional foray into earlier decades for an interview with incomparable fighters of the past such as Willie Pep.

“I remember being introduced to Joe Frazier in his hotel room, of being instantly aware that the man in front of me had an immense wallop in his fists and had a chin that was sculpted like granite,’’ Wells recalled.  “He was a quiet, humble man, quite unlike his demeanor once he entered the ring, particularly against his nemesis – Ali.

“And Ali? What an absolute verbal delight. He threw words around with the same velocity he did punches and with the same grace and nimbleness he demonstrated on his feet.’’

Ali’s verbal dexterity was never better displayed than during a visit to the Twin Cities. “He was here to help promote the Larry Holmes-Scott LeDoux fight and put on a demonstration of magic tricks in the lobby of the hotel where he was staying,’’ Wells recalled.  “First, he got the crowd’s attention with his sleight of hand and card tricks, something he did amazingly well.  Then he began sermonizing on the ills and sins of the nation that needed correction, particularly in regard to race relations. He was an absolute master. He had the lobby crowd in rapt attention and awe.’’ Two current Minnesota Hall of Fame fighters were among the very best that Wells recalls from the numerous local fighters he covered for the Pioneer Press –

Pat O’Connor and Ralph Rodriguez.  “O’Connor was the most naturally gifted local fighter I wrote about, with lightning quick hands,speed afoot and control of the ring,’’ Wells said. “The only problem was that Pat was a nice person. He didn’t want to fight beyond the amateurs.

“Rodriguez, on the other hand, had the heart and soul of a fighter, a killer instinct. I always maintained that if you could have transplanted Ralph’s heart and desire into O’Connor’s body, you would have had a world champion, a world champion of the highest caliber.’’ There were countless others, too: Gary Holmgren, Mike Evgen, Larry LaCoursierre, Rick Folstad, Brian Brunette,Duane and Rodney Bobick, Gary Struss, George Anderson.....

Wells boxed in the Golden Gloves for four years, twice advancing to the Upper Midwest tournament after winning titles on teams from Blue Earth and later, as a freshman at the University of Minnesota, from St. Paul.

“Those were the memorable sports moments of my youth,’’ he said. “You never forget them. Unlike team sports, it’s just you and the person across the ring from you in front of what seems like the entire world. If you can muster the courage for that, to climb those steps and expose yourself to the world, your assets and flaws, you can do just about anything.’’

That’s part of the allure that boxing held for him as a writer, to sit at ringside and transpose for the next day’s readers the poetry – the grace and beauty alongside the violence and brutality – that this sport delivers in its finest moments. All of that plus the indomitable spirit of human beings to extend themselves beyond pain, to draw from a hidden reserve the ability to go on when everything around them cries quit.

“My love for boxing came from my father,’’ Wells said.  “He introduced the sport to me, encouraged my participation and backed me every step of the way.  I passed on that love to my son, Jesse, who as a youngster sat beside me at ringside for all of the Golden Gloves tournaments and who as an adult would frequently call me in the midst of a televised fight to make sure that I too was watching.

“They are both gone now,’’ Wells added, “but they are a part of every boxing match I watch to this day. I can hear their voices, their enthusiasm, their comments, during every fight I watch. I recall to this day my son’s complaints when Ali was given the decision over Jimmy Ellis. My father introduced me to this sport. My son gave me someone with whom to share it. They occupy special parts of my heart and, so, part of this special place in in the Minnesota Boxing Hall of Fame.’’