Unsung Hero Alec Mullen
For those of you who have never heard the name Alec Mullen, he is one of the most successful boxers ever to come out of Ayrshire.
Alec Mullen was born on the 8th of February 1966, for any true Scotsman it's not a year we care to remember with fondness because it was greatly overshadowed by the most significant thing to happen on British soil, our neighbours - the auld enemy - England, won the World Cup. However, Alec was born 8 weeks premature and caught pneumonia when he was 3 months old, the doctors never gave him a chance and all his family had to be called upon. Alec defied the odds of survival and this was just the first battle he went on to win.
Alec’s great-grandfather hailed from a large Mullen family of 14 from Limavaddy, Londonderry, Northern Ireland in the early 1900’s, when the family grew up they descended to all over Ayrshire and parts of Glasgow. He was a hard working, teetotal, non smoking, ladies man who fathered children all over Ayrshire including 9 children to his dad’s mother.
Like so many of his generation, Alec Mullen’s childhood hero was the man considered to be the greatest of all time, Muhammad Ali.
Alec was raised in a run-down area called Springside, Irvine, in Ayrshire, Bonnie Scotland. His dad took him along to a boxing club called Witchknowe that was situated between Irvine and Kilmarnock at the tender age of 7 years old. Alec said “My dad was never a boxer but he went along to train at the club in his mid 20’s, he also took my brother’s Johnny who was 8 years old, Boyd 6 and my youngest brother Joe who was only 4”. The man who trained the club was Tam Brown who incidentally was the Scottish National Coach at the time, “That’s how it all started for me in 1973”.
In 1975, Alec’s dad went on to start his own local club in the village of Springside, the facility they used was the local community centre, Alec told me, “We got a room to use 3 times a week in which we had to put the ring and bags up every night, then take them back down again, every night”. In 1979, the local council gave Alec’s dad the old school that had been lying derelict for years to use as a boxing club.
I asked Alec what age he was when he had his first fight and without flinching he retorted, “I was 10 years old, you had to be 11 years old to fight so they had to lie and say I was 11. Back then there were no medical cards; I turned up on the night at the Palace of Parks, in Bellahouston, filled in a wee form with my age and experience, I won my 1st, lost my 2nd and 4th , then I never lost a fight till I was 15”.
No different from any other kid at the time Alec liked a wee kick about with a football; he was in his school B team, never the A. It was boxing that Alec excelled in. As a junior he would get up at 5.30am to go for a jog as far as 3.5 miles and do stomach exercises before going to school, his mother would have his tea ready for him when he got home from school so he could be at the boxing club for ten past five every night. Over the years Alec’s training regime never changed much.
In 1981, at the age of 15 years old Alec became the British National Schoolboy Champion, Alec told me, “There was not a lot of Scots boys involved back then, it was 2 years later that the Scottish ABA embraced this competition. I entered it by way of the North West Counties as there were less rules and regulations back then. It was a great feeling; you had to win 6 fights to win it and the rounds of the competition were staged every fortnight, from the first round till the final. I fought my way through from Blackburn, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Newport and the final was in the Assembly Rooms in Derby”. This was some achievement and a true reflection of a boy who strived to achieve success in boxing by going beyond the beyond.
Alec’s first memory in life was going down the pit road to collect coal; this was to become a way of life for Alec.
Money was tight and jobs were hard to come by so anything you could bring to the table was a godsend. Alec, his brothers and his cousin Harry whom he looks upon more of a brother were continually on the lookout for coal and even more to be honest. Alec said “We stayed in a village surrounded by miles of countryside; there were 5 farms within a mile radius so you can imagine feeding ourselves wasn’t hard. There was tattie’s and turnips off the fields, rabbits, hares and ducks courtesy of oor Joe and his ferrets and off course our pet dog Trooper, who was a Rhodesian Ridgeback breed of dog whose origins come from South Africa where they were used to fend off lions. While its master made the kill, Joe would sometimes get a rabbit caught in one of his traps; he would skin it there and then and feed it to the dog”. Alec went on to say, “In the winter of 1985 the police searched our house after a tip off, they turned beds upside doon the lot, believe it or not they were looking for coal that we were stealing from the opencast mine in Kilmarnock. One of the policemen took me outside to the garage round the back and said “Open the door of the garage son”, so he could have a look inside, there was about 6 ton of coal in there so I was starting to get a wee bit worried, the police officer popped his head in and turned to me and said “You will not go cold this winter son”, he went into the house and shouted to the other 3 police officers, “Right boys, come on, there’s no coal here”, and off they went, what a relief that was”. The garage was later used as a boxing club.
Alec turned senior at the age of 17 and won the Scottish Light-middleweight Title 3 years on the bounce, 1984, 85, 86, they were all televised live on the BBC. He also picked up a gold medal in the inaugural Gaelic Games in Wales that included all countries who were Gaelic spoken, including Canada. Alec represented his country 18 times, winning 15 of them. One of Alec’s most memorable victories came at the Caird Hall in Dundee against Rod Douglas, who previously beat him in the final stages of the British ABA’s that took the eventual winner, Douglas, to the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, 1984. Alec got his revenge not long after Douglas returned from Los Angeles and it was also broadcast live on the BBC. In 1985, Alec’s cousin Harry won the senior Scottish Welterweight Title in the bout preceding his second consecutive Scottish Title. Alec fought 3 Olympian’s as an amateur triumphing over 2 of them.
When Alec was 18 years old there was mass unemployment and a guy offered him a cassette player for £40 but Alec did not have the money, his father lent young Alec the money to purchase the cassette player on the condition he paid the money back. Alec was offered a job as a door man (bouncer) at a pub in nearby Dreghorn, he now had the means to repay his father’s loan and he continued to be a bouncer all over Ayrshire till he was 34.
After Alec won his 3rd Scottish Title in a row the 20 year old man from Ayrshire cemented his place in the Scotland squad who represented their country at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland, he said, “It was a big buzz that year because it was in Edinburgh, the training was hard, we were based in Rosyth Naval Base every week for 2 months”. Alec went on to win a Bronze medal in the capital and was more than delighted with his achievement.
After a long illustrious career as an amateur Alec decided to turn professional with Scottish boxing manager Alex Morrison, he told me, “I’d been boxing that long I just wanted to earn a wee bit of money, I thought I could have been at least British Champion. In the mid 80’s not many people had bought their own house so I thought if I could make enough to buy my own house, I’d be happy”.
Alec made his professional debut at the St Andrews sporting Club at the Albany Hotel in Glasgow, he was now fighting as a middleweight and at 6’ 2” he was growing faster than B&Q, he stopped his opponent Gary Pemberton by way of a technical knockout in the fourth round, the fight had been scheduled to go 6 rounds. Alec immediately stepped up to fighting 8 rounder’s and after an unblemished 6 wins with no losses things were starting to look up for the big man from Ayrshire.
However, big Alec, who’s father had trained him all his career from amateurs to professional were attending a boxing show in Solihull, England, and his dad says to Alec “Look at the build on that guy”, Alec could not really see the definition on the boxers body. This led to a medical by the British Boxing Board of Control, they asked Alec if he wore glasses, which he did, he could not read the writing on the board in front of him without his glasses so the BBBoC took Alec’s boxing licence off him only a year into his professional career, he said, “I was only 21 years old and my career was finished, I didn’t know anything else but boxing. I remember going into the careers office after leaving school and they asked me what I was going to do, I said professional boxer, I didn’t want to be anything else, I wanted to be the Champion of the World”.
Alec went straight into training boys at his dads club in Springside from 1987 – 1999, it was in the year 1999 that his wee brother Joe died, as an amateur Joe had won Scottish Titles, British Titles and 2 Gaelic Games Gold Medals, he had 12 fights as a professional and 10 years after his boxing career had ended Joe passed away with a brain haemorrhage and it was Alec who found his brother lying on the couch dead. This had a traumatic affect on big Alec’s life he said, “I was disillusioned with boxing”, and this lead him to turn his back on boxing. He threw everything out his house that reminded him of boxing, including all his International vests and his Commonwealth Games team suit that he proudly kept in his wardrobe. He would have binned the trophies he won but he had given them all to his mother.
From 1999, Alec worked on the railway travelling all over Britain but after the local police put out an appeal looking for someone to run a boxing club in the area in 2006, he spoke to his wife Sandra who encouraged Alec to go back to the sport he loved and do what he does best.
The neglected scheme Alec lives in is called Vineburgh, so he decided to call the boxing club, Irvine Vineburgh, because he wanted people to know they were from Irvine. The building he was given was an old scout hut that had been lying derelict for 30 years, he got a lot of help from the community association and by working on building sites he got a lot of help from the site manager giving him building materials.
The Irvine Vinburgh Boxing Club since 2006 has produced 14 Scottish Champion’s, 3 British Champions and a European Junior Bronze and they have brought through a boxer who was Scottish and British Champion at amateur level, who is now 4 fights unbeaten as a professional, Ryan Collins. Alec says, “Ryan made his pro debut last year as a super-featherweight, I wish all the boys had the commitment and dedication he has, he’s a full time pro and goes to college to study sport and nutrition”, Alec has been with Ryan every step of the way and holds a professional coach and seconds licence. Alec spends 5 nights a week at the club also Saturdays and Sundays when there is championships coming up. I asked him what a typical night at the club would involve, he said “Skipping, bags, bag work with pad work, shadow boxing and we always finish with a circuit”.
I asked Alec what advice he would give to any aspiring young boxer, he told me, “Its a short career, you have to maximise it and dedicate yourself, the years flee in, so good living and hard training are the key to success”.
Alec’s mother has been a vital key to his success, she worked around him making sure everything he needed from meals to the clothes on his back were ready and laid out exactly at the correct time so her son could maximise his time in the gym. She not only brought up her own 7 children but most of his cousins as well, as his dads other brothers marriages ended she looked after everyone who needed a place to stay without a fuss. Alec told me he stayed in a 4 bedroom house but one was used as weights room with a weights bench and dumbbells to name but a few of the training equipment his father used. In the 1970’s there was up to 14 people staying in the house at the one time.
On a lighter note, Alec’s all-time favourite boxer is Tommy ‘The Hitman’ Hearns, his favourite boxing film is the Raging Bull, a film that is based on the true story of legendary boxer Jake LaMotta, he can be excused for saying his favourite Rocky film is Rocky II, because he has only watched the first 3, he is only one film away from the epiphany of relishing Rocky’s finest ever movie, Rocky IV.
I asked Alec what his thoughts were on Scottish boxing and he replied “One day I would like to see more funding and support for Scottish boxing clubs from our own Scottish government, the Irish ABA have a strong financial backing from their government and look at the results they are getting on the big stage. A smaller country than ours like Panama whose President passed a motion to make boxing Panamas number 1 sport and they reaped the benefits for years producing class fighters including none other than Roberto Duran”.
Alec likes to think he is a better coach than he was a boxer and who could possibly argue that against his current record as head coach of Irvine Vineburgh but unbeaten as a professional and as an amateur he fought in over 120 contests, winning 105.
As it’s supposedly politically incorrect to use the other term, Alec calls a shovel a shovel, he’s a genuinely honest and extremely modest man, and he truly is a Scottish Boxing Unsung Hero.
By Raymond Fraser Buchanan,
Irvine Vineburgh opening times vary from Mon to Fri 5pm upwards depending on age and experience but if you would like to contact Alec for more information you can contact him on his mobile 07774 172373.
Additionally if there is anyone wishing to provide sponsorship for Irvine Vineburgh, contact Alec on the above number.
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