Jerome Edward "Hook" McComb

1917 - 1981  (64 years)

• Name	Jerome Edward "Hook" McComb
  Born	12 Apr 1917	Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [1]
  Gender	Male
  Died	12 Dec 1981	Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [1]
  Hall of Fame - Waterloo Region	2012	, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
  	A lifelong Kitchener resident he took up boxing at the age of 12 and went on to found the Waterloo Region Boxing Academy as a member of the Kitchener Police Department.
  Name	Hook McComb
  Occupation	Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
  	police officer
  Eby ID Number	Waterloo-77269
  Buried	Woodland Cem., Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [1]
  Person ID	I77269	Generations
  Last Modified	7 Nov 2024

  
  

  Father	James McComb,   b. 29 Sep 1889, Erenaugh, Co. Down, Ireland ,   d. 1962, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 72 years)
  Mother	Isabella Anastasia Crosby,   b. 1889, , County Down, Ireland ,   d. 4 Jun 1957, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 68 years)
  Married	1 Feb 1909	Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
  Family ID	F55090	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Constance Jean LeBlanc,   b. 2 Dec 1919,   d. 2000, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 80 years)
  Married	1 Jun 1939  [1]
  Children	1. Jerome Edward McComb,   b. 22 Dec 1944,   d. 21 Apr 2014  (Age 69 years)
  Last Modified	12 Nov 2024
  Family ID	F35879	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Photos

  Jerome "Hook" McComb

  
  

• Notes

  'Hook' left his mark on local boxing KITCHENER In the hours after the Kitchener-Waterloo Flying Dutchmen won the Allan Cup, the celebrations flooded downtown. That's when the trouble began. Jerome "Hook" McComb and his partner Ormond Boan, both Kitchener Police Force constables, were trying to keep order as the partying went late into the night in 1955. In the entranceway of a closed ladies' wear store, a group of six or seven young men were getting rowdy. The officers tried to clear them out. "I was downtown getting harassed by a bunch of young punks," is how Boan described it, more than 60 years later. "That's when Hook came along and told the guys to quiet down. One guy mouthed him. One shot to the stomach, and the guy went down like a sack of potatoes …. Hook said, 'Now who is next?' Who is next?'" No one stepped forward. What the gang likely didn't know is McComb, big and broad with a wide, easy smile, was the city's top boxing coach. When he wasn't in police uniform, he was teaching generations of Kitchener's best fighters how to win in the ring. In his own day, McComb was a heck of a boxer, too. In the Great Depression, he used to box for money in travelling carnivals that passed through the region. Men would pay $1 to see if they could knock him down. Fighting under a false name, he rarely lost. "I'd make a few hundred dollars a week at those carnivals, while most people didn't know where their next meal was coming from," he told the Record's Kevin Nagel, in 1978. Few have left a bigger impact on Kitchener's boxing history than McComb. He almost single-handedly turned the city into a hotbed for amateur boxing. As a coach, his protégés included Heinz Limpert, the Canadian heavyweight champ; Ray Doiron, the New York Golden Gloves Champion; British Empire Games' light-heavyweight champion Bill Misselbrook; Felix Vanderpool; Ontario junior flyweight champ Brian Fitzgerald; Olympian John Kalbhenn; national light-welterweight champion Bobby Proulx, who fought Sugar Ray Leonard; and many more...... Mercer, G. (2017). 'Hook' left his mark on local boxing. TheRecord.com. Retrieved 19 February 2018, from https://www.therecord.com/news-story/7158457--hook-left-his-mark-on-local-boxing/#.WLMUXsy4Nlg.facebook

  
  

• Sources

  [S87] Cemetery - ON, Waterloo, Kitchener - Woodland CC#4510 Internet Link . McComb/ Jerome E./ 1917-1981/ Constance J./ 1919-2000/ Married June 1, 1939- / Until We Meet Again

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 12 Apr 1917 - Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Died - 12 Dec 1981 - Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Hall of Fame - Waterloo Region - 2012 - , Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Occupation - police officer - - Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Buried - - Woodland Cem., Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  = Link to Google Earth