James Shuler

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Medal record
Men's Boxing
Pan American Games
Silver	San Juan 1979	Light Middleweight

James Shuler (born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on May 29, 1959), was a U.S. Olympic and professional boxer known as "Black Gold."

Contents 1 Amateur career 2 Professional career 3 Death 4 External links

[edit] Amateur career

Parker was the 1979 and 1980 National Golden Gloves Light middleweight champion. Shuler qualified at 156 pounds and was a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic boxing team that perished in an air crash in Warsaw, Poland, on March 14, 1980 [1]. Shuler was not with the team, however, as he had stayed in America due to injury [2]. The team was en route to Warsaw, Poland for the USA vs. Poland Box-off as part of "USA vs. the World." event. Among the USA Boxing teammates who were killed in the plane crash were Lemuel Steeples from St. Louis; Calvin Anderson from Connecticut; Paul Palomino - the brother of Carlos Palomino ; George Pimentel, and Olympic Coach, Sarge Johnson. Members of the team who were also not aboard included Bobby Czyz and Alex Ramos [3].

Shuler's hopes were dashed when President Jimmy Carter imposed an Olympic boycott that forbid the U.S. Olympians from competing in the 1980 Summer Olympics.

[edit] Professional career

Shuler began his professional boxing career as a middleweight on September 12, 1980 with a second-round knockout of Chris Rogers in Philadelphia. During his five years as a pro, he had 22-1 record with sixteen knockouts. His first loss came on March 10, 1986 to Thomas Hearns when he was knocked out in the first round.

[edit] Death

Shuler used the money he earned from the fight to buy a motorcycle. Just one week after the Hearns fight, Shuler was killed when he crashed his motorcycle in Philadelphia [4]. His death came six years and three days after the flight that he was originally scheduled to make crashed in Poland.

[edit] External links

• Professional boxing record for James Shuler from Boxrec