The story behind the story of the boxing matches at Division Avenue High School

John Kinstrey pleads not guilty to skimming funds

By John Kinstrey
Class of 1961

These posts to your blog have continued to open up my, and I’m sure many others, “remember when” files, and I have enjoyed every word of them. However, having said that, I now can plead “not guilty” to skimming the funds from the Cassidy/Kohler fight-of-the-century (see November 16 and 17 blog posts).

When I first read Jon Buller’s recollection of said event, I honestly could not recall anything of the who, what, when, how or why regarding the money. That is until I read Jack Jacobsen’s total recall of it and the synapses began to fire again. So here’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it:

In the fall of 1959, a bunch of us juniors and seniors (Albaum twins, Caldarero, Bernhardt, Bonacci, Burner, Tanner, Zaretsky, Kinstrey, Gurr, Rutner, Stanley, Cassidy, Bruce (Billy type) and some others who need to ”fess up”, decided we wanted to be Explorers – BSA type Explorers – and go camping in a foot of snow in upstate New York at the Onteora Boy Scout Reservation for Operation Igloo. In order to do that we needed a charter, sponsors, and adult supervision before we could become a validated Explorer Post – which was nothing more than a “cover” for a bunch of testosterone laden, “I-dare-you”,… “hey-guys-watch-this“ adolescents.

Well, thanks to two “teachers-with-good-intentions”, Messrs. Vinny Nava and Earl Langdon we were saved. Unfortunately, the Boy Scouts of America weren’t so lucky.
Anyway, in order to fund this operation we were expected to get involved in community projects: rake leaves, sell candy bars, cut grass, etc., basically come up with the bucks ourselves. Surely, these people were kidding. Nope. Bucks, lots of bucks. What were we to do? Real work was not an option.

That’s about the time the girl, whose affection was sought by both Bobby Cassidy and Tommy Koehler, shows up and… Bingo! We had a plan. We had a meeting in accordance with Bob Bonacci’s Rules of Order. Voted on recommendations and agreed on a fundraiser… ok a boxing match. And we didn’t even have to break a sweat. Thanks to our adult leadership, they got DAHS to let us use a classroom every Wednesday night; the wrestling room was just a hallway or two away.

So, if it will help to allay any consternation on the part of former classmates, the money was used to offset the cost to each of us (as well as some parents, I’m sure) and was given to BSA to pay for operations and salaries of some of the paid personnel at the Onteora Scout Reservation.

And, by the way, Jack Jacobsen, whose sister Judy was one of the most beautiful girls on the planet to my 14 year old eyes, was one of the three guys who, in the summer of 1957, formed the singing group, The Three J’s. We never wrote a song, sang a song, and weren’t even sure we could harmonize, but we were gonna be great. We started with matching white bucks. But suddenly, Johnny Robinson, who’s dad was a professor at NYU, moved away, I discovered girls and Jack, well,… his feet went from size 9 to 11 before Labor Day, the bucks were history and the Weekly Top 40 was out of reach.

Defense Rests!

Love ya’ll. It’s the way we talk down here in North Carolina.

More about Levittown's Irish Bobby Cassidy and two fights at Division Avenue High School; lights out for the gym teacher

By Jack Jacobsen
Class of 1962

The best Bobby Cassidy fight was in gym class, his first TKO. The loser was the gym teacher, Howie Pivnik, but it cost Bobby Cassidy his education.

It was 50 or so years ago, but as I recall we were in gym class and Bobby was not dressed (no shorts, sneakers, etc) and Mr. Pivnik reprimanded him and wanted him to do some push ups. Cassidy refused, didn't want to get his clothes dirty. Words started, Pivnik asking him to leave and started to march him to the office. I think there was a shove or two, both faced each other and with a quick left Howie (as we called Mr. Pivnik) was quickly taking the count. I don't recall how it all ended, but it was the talk of the day and Cassidy was a hero. Bobby left school shortly thereafter and as many of us know was successful in the ring.

Bobby Henn and I went to a few of Bobby's fights at Madison Square Garden. The last time I saw him, Cassidy lost to Pete Toro.

Concerning yesterday's blog post about Cassidy, the janitor was Alan Goldstein's father (Alan was class of '62, and had a brother nicknamed "Bunny."). In the fight with Tommy Koehler it helped that Bobby was a southpaw, which confused Tommy at times. To this day I do not know who made out with the financial gain, but my guess is that John Kinstrey and Bob Bonacci padded their wallets.

Irish Bobby Cassidy became a top contender, but few saw a boxing match he had in his high school's wrestling room

Click on photo to enlarge

By Jon Buller
Class of 1961

You probably do not know about boxing matches that took place one evening in late 1960 or early 1961 at Division Avenue High School. The main event of the evening was a two-round bout between Bobby Cassidy and Tommy Koehler held in the downstairs physical education room where the boys would have wrestling during gym classes.

I don’t know who handled the business end of the fight, but someone had worked something out with the night janitors, and they collected $2 from each of the students as they entered the gym at 8 p. m. on a weeknight. I don’t know if the fighters actually shared in the purse, or if the janitors kept it all as payment for the risk they were taking. Bob Bonacci remembers that "Access was gained by use of the custodian's key." There was a payoff, possibly to a man whose son was a Division Avenue student.

The preliminary match that night was between my 1961 classmates Bonacci and John Kinstrey. They were much bigger fellows, football players, but I got the feeling that this was not a serious match. There were two rounds in this fight, and each of the pugilists had a round in which he seemed to dominate, but the performance was accompanied by much smirking on the part of the fighters. I got the impression that it was more of a performance than an actual contest. Bonacci recently recalled that "Kinstrey and I were acting, somewhat akin to TV wrestling."

And then came the main event. As soon as they started throwing punches, it became apparent that the Cassidy-Koehler main event bout was for real. Koehler was very impressively muscled for a high school kid, a couple of years behind his opponent in school. Cassidy, on the other hand, was still just a scrawny kid. Just by looking at them, you would have bet on the other kid, but Bobby had been taking the bus to Hempstead on weekends, where he had been studying boxing, and the results showed in the ring. I say “ring” but actually there were no ropes or anything, just a rectangle of wrestling mats. The spectators sat on the floor around the fighting area.

While his opponent was much stronger, Bobby was able to avoid almost all of his punches, while most of Cassidy’s punches were landing. None of them had knockout potential, but Koehler’s face was quite red by the end of the match. Recently it was learned that Cassidy's friend Doug Duffy was the timekeeper and when he saw that Bobby was doing well, he let the round go longer. Cassidy won the fight, but I have no idea how long it lasted.

Duffy went on to a successful boxing career, but did not reach the heights of his fellow Division Avenue student. Although he had fights around the globe, Cassidy was in the ring at the legendary fight venue Sunnyside Garden in Queens an incredible 25 times. There he had a lot of encouraging, if not rowdy, support from his proud Levittown fans.

I had no idea at the time of his Division Avenue fight that Bobby was Irish. He had been known as Bobby Bernardi. But Bernardi was the name of his adoptive father and he later went back to the name of his birth father. From that humble beginning in the high school wrestling room, Irish Bobby Cassidy went on to a distinguished pro career and is fondly remembered by fight fans. He became the No. 1 light heavyweight contender and was a cast member of Rocky 1 and 2.