They're starting to revive a tradition over at the North Little Rock Boys and Girls Club, a throwback to the 1940s and big boxing names like Joe Red and Paul Holderfield and Sonny Ingram and a training program that continued well into the 1960s.

Long before basketball and football and baseball started taking over the time and attention of teenagers around town, boxing was king and North Little Rock produced its share of impressive champs.

So watching the resurgence now of a sport he loved is Sonny Ingram, now running a trophy shop on Main Street, but who once traded a few old baseball cards for a ratty pair of boxing gloves.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

"Once I got to the club, I found out that I was really just a beginner. But I wanted to learn and I was dedicated to improving myself, even though they weren't all that impressed with me," he said in an interview this week.

And it didn't take the teenager long to start making some noise around town.

Joe Red, the club's director at the time and an exceptional amateur boxer about 20 years before that, got in the ring to work with Ingram at practice one day.

"I got in there and I knocked him off of his feet," said Ingram. "He got up and couldn't believe that I was able to take him down-nobody could. I even surprised myself that time."

That day was history in the making as Ingram immediately fought himself out of viable opposition in Arkansas and went on to win the Mid-South Golden Gloves tournament in 1950, 1951 and 1952.

He then joined the Marines and became the Marine Corps World Wide champion in 1954 before coming back and winning the Mid-South Golden Gloves tournament in Memphis again in 1955.

It has been 30 years since the club gave up its boxing ring and its training program shifted to the North Heights Recreation Center and a gradual demise. But last Saturday night more than 200 kids from all over the state made their way to the Rose City Boys and Girls PAL Club to participate in the first of many "Saturday Night Bouts," a program that club director Mike Neuhofel hopes will bring the sport back to its glory days of the early to mid 1900s.

"Offering boxing gives the kids who aren't into baseball, football or basketball a chance to be successful and competitive," Neuhofel said. "Boxing is a great sport and there's a lot of tradition in this area. It's nice that we can help fill this niche."

Watching this phenomenon closely, of course, is Ingram, who still maintains that boxing is a sport that can shape a child's determination, self-esteem and will to succeed.

"Many famous and successful people that you'd never think were boxers actually were," said Ingram, who mentioned actors Jack Palance and Bob Hope as examples. "There's something about this sport that really ignites a desire to be successful. Nothing feels better than coming out of a battle a winner."

And these are exactly the qualities and lessons that Neuhofel and boxing coach Chonny Abernathy say they are trying to instill in the "25 or so" youngsters-including four girls-who show up a the club every day except Fridays to work out and want to get into the ring.

"There's no doubt that there are a lot of lessons to be learned in boxing," said Neuhofel. "First of all, they're in here doing something productive and healthy for their bodies and are not out on the street. Aside from that, I think it's a great individual sport that can be great for a kid's self-esteem and sense of accomplishment."

The inaugural installment of "Saturday Night Bouts" last weekend was under the watchful eye of boxing representatives from around the state, on hand to critique the bouts and make sure that the club was able to host safe, quality boxing.

"It went very well," said Neuhofel. "We couldn't have expected for it to go any better than it did. I do expect it to get a lot bigger and to have more of a crowd on hand, but the boxing itself was fantastic and we're very excited."

All four boxers that North Little Rock put into th erring Saturday came out with victories.

Jamal Cooper, a promising lightweight 15-year-old boxer appearing in his first bout ever was so dominating that the referee called the fight after just 19 seconds.

"Jamal is a natural," Abernathy said. "He's shown us some real potential that we'll hopefully be able to build on to make him a more complete fighter."

Walter Kendrick, also competing for the first time, easily won his bout in the 145-pound division; and Fracisco Reta won a 109 -pound bout.

Not all the boys or girls in the program got a chance to fight, however.

"There's a $30.00 fee for getting a boxer licensed," said Abernathy. "The season runs from January through December, so we're holding some back before we get them licensed for a full season."

Neuhofel said he's expecting to host five or six more exhibitions in the next year, including one more right before Christmas. But in the meantime the program will take five or six boxers to a bout in Paris, Arkansas, this coming Saturday.

And Roy Jones Jr., who currently holds every light-weight championship belt imaginable and is one of the most well-known boxers in the work, will be visiting the club on Saturday November 16.

"He was going to be in town and he was looking for a club in the area he could go to. His people in Dallas called and we were able to get it set up," Neuhofel explained. "That's a pretty incredible thing when guys like that are able to come in and be around the kids."