As my Year 2000 membership list for the American Boxer Club arrived a short time ago, I was struck by the great increase in numbers over the last 5 years. Now about 900 strong, with 56 regional clubs, many individual members have been involved for a relatively short time in the world of Boxers—10 years or less.
Perhaps some early Club history would be of interest, and help to put some of our present day controversies in perspective as well.
The ABC held its first recorded meeting at Luchow's Restaurant in New York City on February 16, 1935, applied for AKC membership in March, and was granted club status in May of the same year. Almost immediately the membership petitioned AKC to have the Boxer removed from the
Non-Sporting Group and placed in the Working Group----granted in September and unchanged to this day.
The Club was incorporated as a non-profit organization in New York state in 1939. There were 9 Directors serving 3 year terms required, and this rule remained in effect until 1956, when the number was changed to 10, and 5 Regional directors serving 1 year terms were added.
Names on the original membership roster of 17 read like a Who's Who of Boxerdom—among them were: John and Mazie Wagner (Mazelaine), Miriam Breed (Barmere), Marcia Fennessey (Cirrol), Harold and Lillian Palmedo (Sumbula) and Max Ketzel.
On June 6, 1936, the ABC held its first national specialty in conjunction with Greenwich Kennel Club at Port Chester, NY—with an entry of 35. The BOB winner was the import Ch Corso v Uracher Wasserfall se Sumbula. What a difference the ensuing 63 years has made, with our 1999 National attracting 647 conformation boxers plus Obedience and Agility.
Confusion and controversy surrounded the official wording of the breed standard. One club faction strongly favored no white markings above the shoulders, and complicated and exacting measurements of head and body proportions. Indeed, the official USA breed standard in 1936 disapproved the white markings that were so popular in this country and common to the boxers of Germany—many of which were imported to these shores.
In 1938, after a late-night session in a hotel room in New York City, John Wagner and Herr Philipp Stockmann of the vom Dom Boxers painstakingly adapted the German Standard and worked out a revised American Standard that forbade Checks (over 1/3 white) but permitted flash. This disqualification has never been altered. Complicated measurements were largely deleted, but the proportions of the head were left in place—as they remain.
Herr Stockmann had been consulted, and his input much valued, because he was the Chief German Breed Warden at the time, and a world-renowned breeder who was present in New York in order to judge at Westminster.
The early years of the ABC saw the adoption of a proviso that the annual Specialty always be held within a 50 mile radius of New York City. This was a part of the bylaws until they were changed to permit a wider ranging National in the '80s. To accommodate those living further West, the ABC rotating Regionals were begun in 1957.
Of course, the vote to do away with the "50 mile rule" encouraged efforts on the part of an expanding membership to move the ABC away from its roots in the East,and a vote to that effect was approved in 1999. However, site problems have so far prevented the planned move, making the traditionalists happy and those in favor of the move increasingly frustrated.
Such is the face of Boxer history—much of our present heritage isthe result of the efforts of the pioneers--those who not only brought the foundation sires and others to these shores, but organized an American Boxer Club that nurtured the breed and the Standard, endured and expanded, and remains the conscience of the Boxer as we enter the
Millennium.
Stephanie Abraham
P. O. Box 346
Scotland, CT 06264
