Since 1958, multiple Gold Gloves boxing champion and longtime local and former Olympics coach Gary E. Toney has taken on all challengers.
But this year, COVID-19 has taken an implacable toll on Toney personally, as well as professionally, forcing him to close his Hometown Heroes Boxing and Fitness Gym for good.
Toney made the announcement on Facebook on Nov. 18, stating that COVID-19's impact had become insurmountable to continue operations. The boxing facility, which opened at 1714 Seventh Ave. on Charleston's West Side in 2013, had faced financial strain prior to the pandemic's arrival, he noted.
COVID-19 health and safety restrictions had also curtailed the decidedly non-social distancing elements of boxing practice and matches, leaving the gym virtually vacant, its roped rings empty and the punching bags and weights immobile and silent.
The "end of an era" for his business, as Toney described it, was a colossal blow, but a lesser one to a more brutal punch he continues to endure: COVID-19. He was diagnosed with coronavirus in early September. While he was declared COVID-19 negative about three weeks later, recovery has been arduous and painful.
A national and Olympic force
As well as being the founder and president of Hometown Heroes, Toney served as the national president of USA Boxing from 1996 to 2000. He was a team leader for the 2000 United States Olympic Boxing Team in Sydney, Australia; the Americans won two silver and two bronze medals. He is also a former board member of the U.S. Olympic Committee, one of many administrative titles he has held throughout his career.
In the 1980s, Toney became involved in what he called "boxing politics," working to amend and codify state and national amateur boxing rules for West Virginia competitors' benefit through USA Boxing and the state Athletic Commission.
He was also instrumental in introducing female boxing into the amateur ranks. "The courts had previously ruled that we had to add female boxing into amateur boxing," Toney said in a 2014 Charleston Gazette article. "So, in 1997, I told our organization that it was time to start the tournaments. We had our first national championship in 1997 and our first international event in 1998."
In June 2016, Hometown Heroes opened its facilities to the Rock Steady Boxing group for those with Parkinson's disease to engage in supervised, non-contact boxing. The Rock Steady regimen was designed to help those with Parkinson's improve their physical health, agility, daily functioning and quality of life.
Stepping into the ring -- and a career
A native of Bloomingrose in Boone County, Toney graduated from Sherman High School and studied accounting and economics at Morris Harvey College in Charleston. He worked as an accounting supervisor for Columbia Gas Transmission.
"I got started in boxing, really, at the age of 8," Toney said. "My mother got me a pair of boxing gloves for Christmas. She was a big boxing fan; one of her brothers had boxed back in the '30s.
"Back then, you had to be 16 years old before you could box in West Virginia; they didn't have a Junior Olympics program," he said. "I'd get together with some other kids in the neighborhood, and we'd kind of beat up each other. We had to make up our own rules and everything. That got me interested."
When Toney was 14, Sherman High teacher Lloyd Banks mentored him in the ring. "Most guys were 14 when they started boxing back then," said Toney, "but most of them would fib about their age."
Toney's first bout took place in 1958 at the still-uncompleted Charleston Civic Center. "A local promoter got permission to have a local Golden Gloves tournament in the building. I won my first bout by a knockout." (He had to forfeit a follow-up bout the next day due to a heavy snowfall in the area.)
"I won five Golden Glove championships -- twice in Charleston, twice in Beckley and a tri-state championship. I had success as a boxer. I wasn't great -- I never advanced to a national tournament. You had only one shot at a national tournament each year then."
In 1967, having hung up his competitive gloves, Toney returned the boxing ring as a coach. "I had a small team in Chesapeake. We trained in the old wooden firehouse. We made the best of what we had. We had success and we won some championships. Maybe three years later, I started a team in South Charleston. I've coached at different places. We've always had some very successful boxers."
When he decided to launch another gym earlier this decade, Toney discovered operational costs had become formidable. "Up until then, everybody seemed able to find a place to train boxers -- a school gym, community center, fire department, whatever -- at no cost," he said. "When I decided to start a team again, I realized I couldn't find that kind of place to train. For the first time, I had to charge the kids a monthly fee. ... The big drawback was we came up short each month, and I had to dig into my own pocket to pay my bills. It really got expensive, but we continued."
As his health faltered (he has had Type 1 diabetes for 56 years), Toney turned the day-to-day operations over to Tony Dunlap, who had operated a St. Albans gym.
"I drew back from coaching and just ran the gym. Tony got involved and became the head coach. He helped us get nonprofit status, and we formed two organizations: Hometown Heroes Boxing and Fitness and Hometown Heroes events.
"Tony developed some fantastic boxers. He fell in love with the sport like I had and was willing to use his own money to take boxers to national tournaments."
And then 2020 released a flurry of devastating blows and setbacks. A multi-state tournament Hometown Heroes had arranged to host in February was shut down by USA Boxing officials the day before it was to start, due to COVID-19 concerns. "I had to make a zillion phone calls to keep people from coming in," Toney recounted.
His chronic health problems were also exacerbated by coronavirus and other conditions.
"In the past 15 months, I've been in the hospital eight times. I went through a series of problems they really couldn't identify last year. They called in a rheumatologist who found a blood pressure medicine I was taking had caused me to develop drug-induced lupus. All kinds of crazy things were happening to my body. They took me off of that drug, but it'll be a year or more before that really reverses itself."
In September, he found himself in a hospital emergency room, ultimately to be diagnosed with COVID-19. "I had been so careful. I wore the mask everywhere I went. At 76, I had diabetes, high blood pressure -- all the reasons people don't survive.
"I got through that, and a couple of weeks later, I was negative again. I no longer had it, but I developed pneumonia," Toney said.
"I go to a host of doctors. I'm very fatigued, and I have brain fog; the doctors tell me that's more than likely related to the virus. Some people get over the virus fast; others don't. I'm going to be one of those who needs months to get over it."
A continuing legacy
"I've known Gary for a little over 10 years," said Rob Fletcher, coach and owner of the Elk River Boxing Club in Elkview. "It's expensive in the boxing world. You try to help these kids you know don't have a lot of money and you let them train for free because you want to help people, but, at the end of the day, you still have bills to pay. I know with his mounting bills and failing health, it's been rough on Gary. But he's tough."
"With the virus, Gary's been through it, physically," Hometown Heroes partner Dunlap said. "For me, he's always been super helpful and very, very knowledgeable. I didn't have a big boxing background when I joined him. He let me ask a lot of questions and show me the administrative side of boxing. Him being the Olympics coach, that was a big deal. He's been a knowledge base for a lot of people; for anybody who's dealt with amateur boxing in West Virginia -- and beyond that -- for the past 20 or 25 years, he's a big name."
Toney lives in South Charleston with his wife, Connie; they will mark their 50th wedding anniversary in February.
While the boxing and fitness gym is now shuttered, he looks forward to Hometown Heroes Events hosting a national boxing tournament when "normal" activities resume. "The Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau wants to help us hold it at the Coliseum and Convention Center. That's in the future."
Toney said he feels genuine heartache from having to close the Charleston training facility. "I'll be 77 years old on Dec. 30. Since 1958, boxing, that's been my entire life, really. I've loved every bit of it," he said.
"My heart was with the coaching. I had to get into politics on the local level to accomplish what I thought West Virginia should be to get in line with the programs on the national level. I loved it all.
"Normally, I brag on my boxers, not on myself. I hope that I've been able to touch some people's lives and I hope our coaches have done the same thing," Toney said.
"I've always said if a kid is in a gym for one night, that keeps him off the streets for one night."
But this year, COVID-19 has taken an implacable toll on Toney personally, as well as professionally, forcing him to close his Hometown Heroes Boxing and Fitness Gym for good.
Toney made the announcement on Facebook on Nov. 18, stating that COVID-19's impact had become insurmountable to continue operations. The boxing facility, which opened at 1714 Seventh Ave. on Charleston's West Side in 2013, had faced financial strain prior to the pandemic's arrival, he noted.
COVID-19 health and safety restrictions had also curtailed the decidedly non-social distancing elements of boxing practice and matches, leaving the gym virtually vacant, its roped rings empty and the punching bags and weights immobile and silent.
The "end of an era" for his business, as Toney described it, was a colossal blow, but a lesser one to a more brutal punch he continues to endure: COVID-19. He was diagnosed with coronavirus in early September. While he was declared COVID-19 negative about three weeks later, recovery has been arduous and painful.
A national and Olympic force
As well as being the founder and president of Hometown Heroes, Toney served as the national president of USA Boxing from 1996 to 2000. He was a team leader for the 2000 United States Olympic Boxing Team in Sydney, Australia; the Americans won two silver and two bronze medals. He is also a former board member of the U.S. Olympic Committee, one of many administrative titles he has held throughout his career.
In the 1980s, Toney became involved in what he called "boxing politics," working to amend and codify state and national amateur boxing rules for West Virginia competitors' benefit through USA Boxing and the state Athletic Commission.
He was also instrumental in introducing female boxing into the amateur ranks. "The courts had previously ruled that we had to add female boxing into amateur boxing," Toney said in a 2014 Charleston Gazette article. "So, in 1997, I told our organization that it was time to start the tournaments. We had our first national championship in 1997 and our first international event in 1998."
In June 2016, Hometown Heroes opened its facilities to the Rock Steady Boxing group for those with Parkinson's disease to engage in supervised, non-contact boxing. The Rock Steady regimen was designed to help those with Parkinson's improve their physical health, agility, daily functioning and quality of life.
Stepping into the ring -- and a career
A native of Bloomingrose in Boone County, Toney graduated from Sherman High School and studied accounting and economics at Morris Harvey College in Charleston. He worked as an accounting supervisor for Columbia Gas Transmission.
"I got started in boxing, really, at the age of 8," Toney said. "My mother got me a pair of boxing gloves for Christmas. She was a big boxing fan; one of her brothers had boxed back in the '30s.
"Back then, you had to be 16 years old before you could box in West Virginia; they didn't have a Junior Olympics program," he said. "I'd get together with some other kids in the neighborhood, and we'd kind of beat up each other. We had to make up our own rules and everything. That got me interested."
When Toney was 14, Sherman High teacher Lloyd Banks mentored him in the ring. "Most guys were 14 when they started boxing back then," said Toney, "but most of them would fib about their age."
Toney's first bout took place in 1958 at the still-uncompleted Charleston Civic Center. "A local promoter got permission to have a local Golden Gloves tournament in the building. I won my first bout by a knockout." (He had to forfeit a follow-up bout the next day due to a heavy snowfall in the area.)
"I won five Golden Glove championships -- twice in Charleston, twice in Beckley and a tri-state championship. I had success as a boxer. I wasn't great -- I never advanced to a national tournament. You had only one shot at a national tournament each year then."
In 1967, having hung up his competitive gloves, Toney returned the boxing ring as a coach. "I had a small team in Chesapeake. We trained in the old wooden firehouse. We made the best of what we had. We had success and we won some championships. Maybe three years later, I started a team in South Charleston. I've coached at different places. We've always had some very successful boxers."
When he decided to launch another gym earlier this decade, Toney discovered operational costs had become formidable. "Up until then, everybody seemed able to find a place to train boxers -- a school gym, community center, fire department, whatever -- at no cost," he said. "When I decided to start a team again, I realized I couldn't find that kind of place to train. For the first time, I had to charge the kids a monthly fee. ... The big drawback was we came up short each month, and I had to dig into my own pocket to pay my bills. It really got expensive, but we continued."
As his health faltered (he has had Type 1 diabetes for 56 years), Toney turned the day-to-day operations over to Tony Dunlap, who had operated a St. Albans gym.
"I drew back from coaching and just ran the gym. Tony got involved and became the head coach. He helped us get nonprofit status, and we formed two organizations: Hometown Heroes Boxing and Fitness and Hometown Heroes events.
"Tony developed some fantastic boxers. He fell in love with the sport like I had and was willing to use his own money to take boxers to national tournaments."
And then 2020 released a flurry of devastating blows and setbacks. A multi-state tournament Hometown Heroes had arranged to host in February was shut down by USA Boxing officials the day before it was to start, due to COVID-19 concerns. "I had to make a zillion phone calls to keep people from coming in," Toney recounted.
His chronic health problems were also exacerbated by coronavirus and other conditions.
"In the past 15 months, I've been in the hospital eight times. I went through a series of problems they really couldn't identify last year. They called in a rheumatologist who found a blood pressure medicine I was taking had caused me to develop drug-induced lupus. All kinds of crazy things were happening to my body. They took me off of that drug, but it'll be a year or more before that really reverses itself."
In September, he found himself in a hospital emergency room, ultimately to be diagnosed with COVID-19. "I had been so careful. I wore the mask everywhere I went. At 76, I had diabetes, high blood pressure -- all the reasons people don't survive.
"I got through that, and a couple of weeks later, I was negative again. I no longer had it, but I developed pneumonia," Toney said.
"I go to a host of doctors. I'm very fatigued, and I have brain fog; the doctors tell me that's more than likely related to the virus. Some people get over the virus fast; others don't. I'm going to be one of those who needs months to get over it."
A continuing legacy
"I've known Gary for a little over 10 years," said Rob Fletcher, coach and owner of the Elk River Boxing Club in Elkview. "It's expensive in the boxing world. You try to help these kids you know don't have a lot of money and you let them train for free because you want to help people, but, at the end of the day, you still have bills to pay. I know with his mounting bills and failing health, it's been rough on Gary. But he's tough."
"With the virus, Gary's been through it, physically," Hometown Heroes partner Dunlap said. "For me, he's always been super helpful and very, very knowledgeable. I didn't have a big boxing background when I joined him. He let me ask a lot of questions and show me the administrative side of boxing. Him being the Olympics coach, that was a big deal. He's been a knowledge base for a lot of people; for anybody who's dealt with amateur boxing in West Virginia -- and beyond that -- for the past 20 or 25 years, he's a big name."
Toney lives in South Charleston with his wife, Connie; they will mark their 50th wedding anniversary in February.
While the boxing and fitness gym is now shuttered, he looks forward to Hometown Heroes Events hosting a national boxing tournament when "normal" activities resume. "The Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau wants to help us hold it at the Coliseum and Convention Center. That's in the future."
Toney said he feels genuine heartache from having to close the Charleston training facility. "I'll be 77 years old on Dec. 30. Since 1958, boxing, that's been my entire life, really. I've loved every bit of it," he said.
"My heart was with the coaching. I had to get into politics on the local level to accomplish what I thought West Virginia should be to get in line with the programs on the national level. I loved it all.
"Normally, I brag on my boxers, not on myself. I hope that I've been able to touch some people's lives and I hope our coaches have done the same thing," Toney said.
"I've always said if a kid is in a gym for one night, that keeps him off the streets for one night."
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