Six esteemed members of Ring 8, the New York City branch of the Veteran Boxers Association, will appear on the Joey Reynolds radio show on Tuesday evening/Wednesday morning, February 27-28. The Reynolds show broadcasts weeknights from 12 midnight to 5 AM on WOR 710 AM in New York. The show’s web site is: www.WOR710.com

Henry Wallitsch, Tony Napoli, Tommy Gallagher, Johnny Breitenbruck, Joe Miceli and Lenny Mangiapane will discuss the organization, which has been helping active and retired fighters in need since 1954. Ring 8 meets monthly at the Waterfront Crab House in Queens. The special guest at the February meeting was former welterweight contender Gaspar Ortega, who compiled a 131-39-6 (69 KOS) record during a career that spanned from 1953-65. Among the organization’s many altruistic endeavors over the years was raising the funds for a headstone for former welterweight champion Kid Gavilan.

The members appearing on Reynolds’ show have quite a fistic legacy:

o Wallitsch, the president of Ring 8, is a former professional heavyweight who fought, among others, Ernie Terrell, Bobby Halpern and James J. Beattie.
o The colorful Napoli, who is organization’s chairman of public relations, barnstormed the country fighting as Tony Reo in the fifties.
o Gallagher, a 1959 New York City Golden Gloves champion, is currently the trainer on “The Contender” reality television series.
o Breitenbruck, a former professional middleweight in the forties and fifties, once saved a drowning girl from a near frozen pond just hours before he laced them up in a professional fight.
o Miceli, a longtime middleweight contender, faced Ike Williams, Joey Giardello, Kid Gavilan and scores of other championship caliber fighters and contenders during a career that included more than 100 professional fights.
o Mangiapane was a popular New York welterweight in the 1960s