A Fistful of Legends
Based on a true story of the Fighting Toweel Brothers
A global, inspirational father’s story of ‘Faith and Fight’ which helped his sons overcome many obstacles and write history, earning them a place in the Hall of Fame and transforming the history of a nation.
At long last a book has been published on the life of the fighting Toweel’s from Benoni.
Alida Toweel the wife of the late Willie Toweel and his daughter Samantha has delved into many files and newspapers to put together a fine book relating to the trials and tribulations of the Toweel family.
In 1910, at age five, Mike Toweel, made his way to South Africa on a boat from Lebanon, with his widowed mother. Near blindness, caused by measles as well as their immense poverty, kept him out of the classroom. As an illiterate child he worked on the streets, selling bootlaces and faced many street fights triggered by xenophobia. This led him, as a teen, to find only one place to call home – the boxing ring.
Determined to obtain world class status he worked towards winning a gold medal at the 1924 Olympics. All seemed on track when he won the Transvaal Olympic trials and was awarded a gold medal by the Prince of Wales for his achievement. But his mother, desperate to raise upstanding, reputable children, who would be accepted as a credit to the country, barred his path and shattered his dream.
Devastated, Mike became a money-fighter. He married Dinah and the financial strain of seven children, one seriously disabled, eventually forced Mike away from the ring. But his most devastating blow came when Dinah died, after birthing their eighth child. Social services closed in to take his unruly, grieving children away from him. But, Mike would not let this happen as long as he had breath in his body. He built a simple structure in the backyard of their Benoni home from corrugated iron. In this Tin Shanty Gym, as it became known, he achieved the seemingly impossible.
He cultivated a passion for boxing in his six sons. His eldest, Jimmy took the professional ranks by storm seizing national titles and being head hunted as the country’s best international prospect. Each son, Viccie, Alan, Willie and Frazer, in hot pursuit, began to make headlines. Mike was recognized as a noteworthy trainer when half of the fighters who represented South Africa in the 1948, London Olympic Games did so under his coaching. One was his own son, Victor. Another, George Hunter, who took the gold medal and won the prestigious Val Barker Trophy. In 1952, his other son, Willie, made history as the second Olympian from the same family, and won a bronze.
Victor, the 5’2” ‘Benoni Bomber’, walked out from his Tin Shanty Gym, into the ring with his gloves resting on Papa Mike’s shoulders and faced his 14th professional fight, a world title, set up by the one and only boxing body in the world. He was only 22 yet entered the ring with two national titles under his belt and a Commonwealth Title to boot. That night, 31st May 1950, he wrote history, as he won the first world title South Africa ever held and turned the sporting eyes of the world onto South Africa and the British Empire. This ignited hope and passion for the sport, which flowed into neighboring countries and across the British Empire. As world champion he gave the Lebanese acceptance as South Africans. They were no longer referred to as ‘Dirty Syrians’ and ‘Donderse Uitlanders’.
As obstacles mounted before him, Victor remained determined to help grow the nation. He made immense sacrifices and endured inhumane struggles. After years of overcoming, he could no more.
When Willie saw his brother fall, he jumped into the ring and challenged the world champion, to fight him, so he could reclaim the title for his family and the nation.
Willie, who was known for being a man of his word, took 20 impressive victories, most within the distance. These included 4 prestigious South African titles as well as the British Empire title. He was given a shocking decision of a draw when he fought for the world title. Three fights later tragedy struck. He knocked out an opponent who died 52 hours later. According to his opponent’s trainer, who spoke at the inquest, the fighter had had a history of health problems and was experiencing blackouts in training. Willie’s ‘knock-out punch’ had simply grazed his cheekbone. Nevertheless, the country turned their backs on the 21 year old, whom they victimized as a killer.
Mike, seeing this, teamed up three of his sons and sent them to Britain to escape this nightmare and find their way to bring South Africa a second world title. Willie as the fighter, Alan as the trainer and wheelchair bound Maurice as his manager.
Willie was lauded for his classic boxing approach and became widely acclaimed in Britain as well as America. His fights were used as teaching material across schools in Britain. Never before had they witnessed such a clean fighter who had mastered all aspects of the ring.
Willie’s exceptional career progressed but it was evident that he was haunted by the death as he held back his knockout punch. Neither hypnosis, nor counsel of psychologists or psychiatrists, could stem his fear of seeing another boxer die.
Willie would not give up his chance to give a voice to the voiceless. So, he wrestled his terror every time he entered the ring, keeping his eyes on the greater purpose. He drew on his faith to find peace, and rose against all odds to help the youth to learn, that greatness and leading change doesn’t require perfection, it requires courage to fight on.

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