Legendary boxing coach Colin Hough reflects on 77-year love for the sport

Hough spent 77 years at the heart of the Shrewsbury and Severnside Amateur Boxing Club before its eventual closure in 2022.

In 1947, Hough started life at the club under famous local boxer Pat Cowhey and boxed for them until he began his national service in Germany at the age of 18.

 Upon his return, Cowhey had passed away and Hough alongside two former club mates decided to reform the club in his memory. 

"I remember it as if it was yesterday," Hough recalls as turns back the clock. "I pushed my bike down to the shed at the back of a pub. I wouldn't call it a gym, it was just a shed with one punch bag. 

"The resources were very limited so I'd only been in there for about 20 minutes when I met Pat Cowhey, who was very well known and ran the club. 

"He boxed for Eddie Mills, who was a world champion on the Gay Meadow in 1944, I've still got the programme to this day. He had six 12-round contests in eight days after the war and I just kept going with limited resources but I knew that the brown envelope was coming through the door and off I was going to either become a soldier, sailor and airmen." 

Hough continued boxing during his three years in Germany where a multitude of nationalities would battle it out in the ring. He had an accomplished boxing career and hung up his gloves with a record of 140 wins and 17 losses from 157 contests but Hough remains as humble as ever about his achievements.

"I finished up going to Germany for three years," he continued. "When you did national service, you had to do two years but I was a bit crazy because I wanted to do three. 

"There were thousands of soldiers. Canadians and Americans so as you can imagine, they were all 18+ and the boxing in the forces was very tough. 

"I just say to people that I was rubbish. I lost 17 but in total I had 147 and scraped through 140." 

After relaunching the club, Hough continued to combat limited resources to help produce boxers across a number of generations. From a punch bag in a shed, the club helped propel the likes of Rory Doran, Neil Marston and Ian Rogers into professional boxing but the legacy lies in the lives that it changed. 

"Most of the time, our boxing ring was a piece of string with four lads holding it," Hough revealed. 

"Out of that came lads who turned professional, boxed for England, and to the best of my knowledge, we had three senior boxers all boxing at the same time: Rory Doran, Neil Marston and Ian Rogers.

"It was my choice to do it out of nothing and there were some right tearaways who shall remain nameless. Now I see lads in their 50s who've got their own house, van and businesses and when I bump into them they say, 'you kept me out of jail'.

 "I always used to say to them that there's a life after this. Basically that was the backbone of all of it." 

Hough was forced to retire due to ill health at the age of 89 in 2022 and the club unfortunately went with him. But the memories still live on in the Hough household and his work continues to be recognised as he was presented with a lifetime award from West Midlands Amateur Boxing.

"I enjoyed it all. It was hard but you either give it 100 per cent or you forget about it," Hough concludes. 

"I used to say to newcomers that you can play football or you play cricket but you don't play boxing. A lot of people come to see me and I say welcome to the junk shop. "They then say, 'no you mean welcome to the museum'."