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My
Grandfather Bertil Stenmark was really a character!
Father of two naturally, my dad Gillis and his older
sister May Britt. Stenmark the older was definitely a
hard man, a man’s man sort to speak, worked in the woods
for several years and there after in a factory.
He
was genuine blue collar and a convinced communist by fate
from the start. Why shouldn’t he be? He came from the
“Red” parts of Norrland (Northern Sweden), Ångermanland
(Kramfors) and was one of the guys who marched in that
infamous “Ådalen demonstration” where the military fired
arms against the participants and had the workers killed
for doing what they did.
It
left scars in my grandfather’s heart and soul that wasn’t
repairable. He would never sympathize with anyone who came
from the upper class after that.
Bertil
was also the man who started off the long boxing tradition
in my family. (My dad also boxed) He was quite awkward out
of a boxing stance, left handed and thereby, a natural
south paw.
What
I was told, and what I have read about him in the very few
press clips that we still have, was that he was a rock
hard brawler with very little or limited technique, and
not too many fancy moves!
That
era’s most significant sport’s publication “Idrottsbladet”
wrote these words about Bertil after he had won the junior
national title! “Stenmark not the most talented of the
participants in the lightweight category and more of a
natural fighter” He won that tournament a bit surprisingly
during the early thirties/the depression, and received a
flashy diploma to hang on the wall. Word from my dad is
that he many years after tried to frame it at a specialist
to preserve it, but never got it back. It was stolen!
He
then had nothing to prove he was national champ except
those press clips. Bertil won that prestigious title among
a lot of competitors at the famous “Circus” venue In
Stockholm back in 1933.
He
was strong and somewhat of a beast when it came to raw
physical strength actually! My dad once told me that
someone close to him had followed him to a weight-lifting
gym on one occasion in his youth.
In
there, the two of them had tested lifting to the limits of
their capacity, and Bertil wasn’t too far away from the
Swedish record in his weight category.
In
addition to that Junior National championship tournament
he also won the regional “Norrland” title during his
career at featherweight, and squared off with an Olympic
Silver medallist whom I never was told the name of!
Unfortunatly!
All
in all he had about 120 fights though. Give or take a few!
Hard to tell really since this was before the starting
book (record book) was introduced.
I
only had a few, too few, years to get to know my
grandfather as he died already in 1978. He was a quiet
man, never talked about boxing with me but I remember that
we talked about Cowboys and Indians when I was a little
boy! He was very kind to me!
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