Jim Hegerle was not a man to back down from a

challenge. Those who knew him generally pick the

same adjective when attempting to size him up:

Tough.

He could dish it out and he could take it, too.

Several years after he fought Hegerle, former

middleweight champion Gene Fullmer still recalled

the fighter from St. Paul’s West Seventh Street as

a formidable opponent.

Hegerle’s toughness sometimes extended into

questionable areas, however.

His son Scott recalls the story told about his father’s

reaction one Halloween night in a West Seventh bar/

restaurant. Party-goers in costume turned out to be

wearing masks for good reason. They were intent on

robbing the place and ordered everyone to get down on the floor, so they could help themselves to the patrons’ wallets.

Hegerle kept his seat at the bar and the gunmen

approached him, demanding that he, too, get on the

floor. “You don’t know who I am, do you,’’ Hegerle t

old them. “I’ll shove those guns where the sun don’t

shine,’’ he said, in considerably different words.

Everyone survived the incident. Nonetheless, it was

one more example of Hegerle’s fearless, if sometimes questionable, attitude.

There were other stories, too, from the same West

Seventh bistro, as told to Scott by the proprietor of

the place. “There would be trouble in the bar, and my dad would throw the troublemakers out the door,’’ Scott said.

Scott’s memories of his father’s boxing days are limited.

He was young, seven or eight, when his parents

divorced and grew up primarily with his mother. Yet, he does have some recollection of accompanying his father to the gymnasium on occasion. Recollections of being at his side on some of those occasions.

As a prominent West Seventh athlete, Hegerle was

well-known in the neighborhood. He attended Monroe High School and played sports for the Green Wave, excelling on the football field.

“A lot of the stories I’ve heard about my dad came

from Nick Mancini,’’ the late well-known proprietor

of Mancini’s restaurant, Scott said.

Hegerle and Mancini were friends and, according to

various accounts, looked after one another in a variety of ways. Mancini aided Hegerle in obtaining jobs when necessary. Hegerle served as a de facto bouncer whenever he was a patron at Nick’s restaurant.

Hegerle’s boxing career took him around the world for fights against some of the best known middleweights

of the era. In July of 1958, he took a fight in West

Jordan, Utah, against a well-known opponent named

Gene Fuller, who would shortly thereafter win the world middleweight title by knocking out Carmen Basilio.

Hegerle lost the fight to Fullmer on points, but there

are those who insist to this day that the St. Paul fighter won the bout.

His handler, Hall of Fame manager Emmett Weller,

always thought that Hegerle was the victim of a

hometown decision.

“My dad gave me the tape of the fight and asked

me to watch it. He wanted to know who I thought

won,’’ said Don Weller, a former state welterweight

champion. I thought Jim won it,’’ Don said. “Imagine that, he went 10 rounds with Fullmer and almost beat him.’’

Years later as a coach, Don took an amateur boxing

team from White Bear lake to an amateur tournament

and Fullmer was present. Weller asked if he recalled his dad and the fighter who came to West Jordan to

fight him.

“Hegerle?’’ Fuller said. “He was one tough SOB.’’

Hegerle began his career with a fight at the Avalon

Arena in La Crosse, Wisconsin against another boxer

making his debut, Walter Quinn of Marshfield,

Wisconsin. Hegerle stopped Quinn in the fifth round

of their six-round fight. The date was June 8, 1954

and Hegerle was 18 years old.

He was just short of his twenty-sixth birthday when he

fought for the last time, losing by knockout in Italy to

eventual middleweight champion Nino Benvenuti.

In the span of eight years as a professional boxer,

Hegerle compiled a record of 36-18-3 with 20 knockouts, a career that included memorable series against Arizona middleweight champion Jimmy Martinez and fellow Minnesotan Joe Schmolze.

Hegerle split four fights with Schmolze, winning the

first and last by technical knockouts, losing two others by decision. He lost and then won fights against Schmolze for the Minnesota light heavyweight title.

Hegerle was clearly outpointed by Del Flanagan in a

1957 fight for the state middleweight title.

Hegerle’s fights against Martinez were decided on

points. He lost the first bout, won the second and lost the third.

Undeterred by fighting on the road, Hegerle scored

a unanimous decision over Ralph Tiger Jones in

Albuquerque, N.M. Jones, by way of comparison,

outpointed Duane Horsman, the Chatfield Chopper,

who was inducted into the hall of fame last year.

Now, one year later, it is Hegerle’s turn, as he joins the many honored inductees who preceded him into the Minnesota Boxing Hall of Fame.