Norvel Lafayette Ray LEE

Norvel Lee first came to boxing prominence in 1948 when he lost in the finals of the Olympic trials to heavyweight Jay Lambert. Lee went to London with the Olympic team but did not compete. In the interim between Olympics he won the AAU championship in 1950 and 1951 and in the 1951 Pan American Games a bronze medal in the heavyweight class. At the 1952 Olympic trials Lee again lost in the finals of the heavyweight division, losing to Eddie Sanders. However, Lee was small for a heavyweight and the teams coaches felt he could make the light-heavyweight limit and asked him to do so. He managed to lose the weight and outshone Chuck Spieser in training, so Lee was entered in the light-heavyweight division. Not only did he win the gold medal, but Lee won the Val Barker Trophy, an award given at the Olympics to the best boxer in any division. At the 1955 Pan American Games he won again the bronze medal in the heavyweight class.

Between the two Olympics, Lee made headlines of a different sort. In late 1948, in his hometown of Covington, Kentucky, Lee became one of the first blacks to defy the law which required blacks to sit in a separate section of local buses. Lee was arrested and fined, but appealed the ruling. Though he did not win that fight, he appealed again with NAACP support and won the case in the Virginia State Supreme Court on September 7th, 1949. The years have proven him a winner – in all ways.