SOUTH JORDAN, Utah (KUTV) — The fighting Fullmer brothers are legends here in the state of Utah.
Gene Fullmer’s nickname was the “Mormon Mauler,” and in 1957, he won the middleweight boxing title when he beat Sugar Ray Robinson, who many considered one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world in his era. Gene fought Sugar Ray four times, winning two fights, losing one, and one fight ended in a draw.
When the brothers retired from boxing, they opened a makeshift gym.
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Chet Fullmer, Jay Fullmer’s son, said the gym kind of started in his father’s garage.
“The kids would come over and box in the backyard,” he said. “There was no ring, and most of the gloves were hand-me-downs. They would always have kids over training.”
The Fullmers were also teaching discipline and respect.
“The rules were simple: no smoking, no drinking, and kids were taught to respect their parents and study hard in school,” Chet said.
The Fullmer brothers bounced around from building to building while trying to expand the gym to serve more young fighters. Everything the brothers did was free. No kids were turned away. Nobody paid a dime.
It was the Fullmer legacy. It was the Fullmer dream.
Fast forward to today, the Fullmer Legacy Center in South Jordan sits on a 1.5-acre lot with state-of-the-art equipment and a beautiful full-size boxing ring. There are also trainers and coaches to mentor the kids.
Ted Gurule has been the head boxing coach at the gym for 14 years.
“A lot of my time is now spent mentoring the kids. I’m more like a counselor,” Ted said. “I spend most of my time in the office talking to the kids. I now rely more on my coaching staff to take care of the training because I’m more of a counselor to the kids. Many of these kids come from broken homes and have difficulties at home. We want them to be more than great boxers. We want them to be great citizens. That was the dream of Gene, Jay, and Don. That dream is alive and well today.”
18-year-old Cruz Angel Sosa joined the club when he and his father were searching for a training gym, so Cruz could sharpen his skills as a boxer. He said the gym and the staff are special.
“It means everything to me. This gym is my second home,” Cruz said. “I use the tutoring lab upstairs to keep up with my studies and my grades. If you are not performing in the classroom, you won’t be fighting in the ring. Teddy told me grades come first, not the gym. The gym is also part community center. Kim Fullmer, Chet’s wife, runs a spinning class upstairs for Parkinson’s patients.
I asked Chet what his dad, Gene, and Jay would think about the new Fullmer Legacy Center. He said, “Well, they are all gone now, they’ve all passed, so they never got to see it, but the family always jokes that they are probably looking down and saying, ‘You guys are nuts! Look how big this thing is!'”
It was all built on a dream that started in the 1950s, thanks to hard work and dozens of amazing community donations.
“It’s all free to the kids, and nobody working here gets paid a dime,” Chet said. “We all have other jobs. The gym is all volunteer; it’s a place for families to come and maybe realize their dreams someday.”
Charlene Wells with Mountain America Credit Union was on hand to donate to the Fullmer Legacy Center.
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