Frankie Lucas, a Vincentian by birth and the first Commonwealth boxing gold medalist, died on Saturday, April 8. Born August 15, 1953) the former boxer was best known for winning the gold medal in the middleweight category for St. Vincent and the Grenadines at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Lucas relocated from Saint Vincent to Croydon, Greater London, when he was nine years old.
Insiders say Frankie Lucas was a really skilled boxer—a tough middleweight from Croydon, South London—but the people who managed the sport in England thought he had an attitude issue, and they made him pay for it.
Lucas was a member of the Sir Philip Game Club, which was created by the same-named Metropolitan Police Commissioner and has always had close ties to the police. That link aided Lucas’s popular triumph in unique circumstances at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, New Zealand.
The selectors replaced Lucas on England’s team with Carl Speare, a popular Liverpudlian who had lost to Lucas in the 1973 national ABA final.
Lucas had also won in 1972, following the victories of two other famous British boxers: Alan Minter in 1971 and John Conteh in 1970. Lucas, like the rest of the team, couldn’t believe he’d been neglected.
Ken Rimington, a police officer at the Sir Philip Game Club, devised another means to assist Lucas in his quest for gold. Rimington, who was born in St. Vincent, was successful in establishing a Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Boxing Association, and Lucas would travel to Christchurch under their banner.
An offer from Frank Hendry, a prominent official in Scottish amateur boxing, was the next huge bonus. He recognized Lucas from previous international competitions and proposed a contract in which he would travel to New Zealand at Scotland’s expense in exchange for sparring with their boxers.
“He was more or less part of our team out there,” Hendry said of Lucas.
“Every round, our boys cheered him on,” he added. “He was a real character.”
He was also a fierce combatant. The Saint Vincent and the Grenadines one-man team carried the flag at the Opening Ceremony, then advanced to the semi-finals, where he defeated Speare, exactly as he had done in the National Championship final.
Lucas flew back to Saint Vincent, where he “kicked back a bit and had some herbal treatment,” according to veteran boxing broadcaster Steve Bunce.
When he returned to Britain, he turned professional, had a famous title fight against Tony Sibson at the Royal Albert Hall, and then vanished.
Lucas had not been heard from in more than 20 years. Many others in his circle, including Rimington and Minter, as well as his own sister, assumed he was dead.
Conteh, on the other hand, had spotted someone who resembled Frankie Lucas running in a park in North London. He informed Bunce, who discovered Lucas alive and well and living in the area in 2002.
Lucas is the only Saint Vincent athlete to have stood on the Commonwealth Games podium in any sport.
Natasha Mayers was a 100-meter gold medalist in Delhi in 2010, although she did not compete that day.
She was moved to first place from third after the two racers who finished ahead of her were disqualified, one for a false start and the other for drug violations.
