Gonzaga Athletic Hall of Fame
“In a class by himself,” was the way his Gonzaga University coach, Joey August, described Carl Maxey as a collegiate boxer. Certainly, anyone encountering Maxey as a boxer, or in later years as a lawyer and human rights advocate, recognized him as a competitor. Maxey excelled in football, basketball and track at Gonzaga Prep. In college, his undergraduate years were interrupted by military service, but his boxing record was unbroken – 37 bouts, 32 wins – and included two Pacific Coast Intercollegiate titles. With his final win for Gonzaga, in 1950 at Penn State, Maxey earned the NCAA 175-pound championship. His individual win secured a share of the national team championship for Gonzaga and came against Michigan State’s imposing Chuck Spieser, a U.S. Olympian in 1948. Maxey was inducted into the Inland Empire Sports Hall of Fame in 1983.
