Johnny Jarrett

Last updated

Johnny Jarrett
Born
John Trevor Patten

(1936-06-13)13 June 1936
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
DiedApril 15, 2020(2020-04-15) (aged 83)
NationalityAustralian
Statistics
Weight(s) Bantamweight
Stance Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights46
Wins29
Wins by KO24
Losses15
Draws2

John Trevor Patten (13 June 1936-15 April 2020), [1] [2] known professionally as Johnny Jarrett, is an Australian Aboriginal elder and community leader, former professional rugby league footballer and professional boxer.

Contents

Biography

John Patten was born in 1936 to John Thomas Patten and Selina Patten, née Avery at Sydney in New South Wales and is a descendant of the Yorta Yorta and Bundjalung peoples.

A member of the Stolen Generations, as an infant Patten was taken from his parents at Grafton in northern New South Wales and placed at Bomaderry Aboriginal Children's Home in the south of the state. Following this removal Patten was located by his father and the pair fled from New South Wales, to the safety of Barmah in Victoria, near his father's family at Cummeragunja. Thereafter Patten was educated in Sydney at George Street Primary School and Gardener's Road High School, prior to being enrolled at the newly established Boys' Town (Engadine).

At Boystown, John was educated by Fr Thomas Dunlea and gained expert tuition in boxing from George Simpson and Arthur Daly, and rugby league football by Australian former test player Paddy Maher.

A promising rugby league player in country New South Wales, Patten once scored 100 points in half a season as a halfback and played representative football in 1956 against the touring Maori team from New Zealand. In 1957 Patten was offered a contract by the South Sydney Rabbitohs after having captained South Sydney Presidents Cup team on a tour of country New South Wales. Patten however was already under contract as a professional boxer, and his management team at Sydney Stadium forced Patten to retire from playing football.

Patten boxed professionally under the Jarrett surname as a means of thanking his stepfather Joby Jarrett for his support. As Johnny Jarrett, Patten fought for and obtained the Australian Bantamweight title in December, 1958, defeating Dick White by knockout at Sydney Stadium. [3]

Over the course of his career Patten suffered from a lack of opposition in his own weight division, with a majority of his opponents having come from the higher featherweight division. Financial incentives used to garner interest from rivals in the bantamweight division were unsuccessful. Patten's strong record against featherweights soon also ensured that opportunities among the featherweight division's talent pool would be so costly that Patten would be forced to waive his own share of the profits in order to secure each ensuing bout. This would in time also lead Patten to spend a year in the Philippines in search of opposition and fairer purses.

A lack of action on the domestic scene by way of a title defense saw Patten stripped of the Australian bantamweight title in September 1962. [4]

In the early 1980s Patten was instrumental in the redevelopment of the Pippi Beach Aboriginal community at Yamba in northern New South Wales, ensuring the community had new homes built and access to council amenities they were previously denied.

In 1994 at the age of 58, Patten received qualifications in Small Business Management from Southern Cross University. [5]

Later in life Patten resided in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales with his wife Margaret, whom he married in 1979. There he was an active community member for 20 years prior to the death of his wife, Margaret in 2018, followed by his relocation to an aged care facility in Shepparton.

Patten died from complications arising from dementia on 15 June 2020. He is survived by two sons, five grandsons and a granddaughter.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Fenech</span> Australian boxer

Jeff Fenech is an Australian former professional boxer who competed between 1984 and 2008. He won world titles in three weight divisions, having held the IBF bantamweight title from 1985 to 1987, the WBC super-bantamweight title from 1987 to 1988, the WBC featherweight title from 1988 to 1990. He retroactively won a fourth weight division title, the WBC super-featherweight title in 1991, after the WBC recounted his first bout against Azumah Nelson which had been a controversial decision draw. Fenech was trained by renowned Sydney-based trainer Johnny Lewis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shepparton</span> City in Victoria, Australia

Shepparton is a city located on the floodplain of the Goulburn River in northern Victoria, Australia, approximately 181 kilometres (112 mi) north-northeast of Melbourne. As of the 2021 census, the estimated population of Shepparton, including the adjacent town of Mooroopna, was 53,841.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lionel Rose</span> Australian boxer (1948–2011)

Lionel Edmund Rose MBE was an Australian professional boxer who competed from 1964 to 1976. He held the undisputed WBA, WBC, and The Ring bantamweight titles from 1968 to 1969, becoming the first Indigenous Australian to win a world title. He later became the first Indigenous Australian to be named Australian of the Year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Mundine (boxer)</span> Australian boxer

Anthony William Mundine OAM is an Australian former boxer, and one of the country's most accomplished Indigenous fighters. The only Australian boxer to compete professionally in four weight divisions, he held the Australian middleweight, light heavyweight, cruiserweight and heavyweight titles, as well as the Commonwealth middleweight and light heavyweight titles. He also challenged once for the WBA world middleweight title in 1974. He is the father of former world champion boxer Anthony Mundine, and cousin of Warren Mundine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jimmy Sharman</span> Australian boxer

James Sharman was an Australian boxing troupe and entertainment impresario. His son also worked with him and took over for his father in 1955 after playing as a professional rugby league footballer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yorta Yorta</span> Aboriginal Australian people of north-eastern Victoria and southern New South Wales

The Yorta Yorta, also known as Jotijota, are an Aboriginal Australian people who have traditionally inhabited the area surrounding the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers in present-day north-eastern Victoria and southern New South Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cummeragunja Reserve</span> Former Australian Aboriginal reserve in New South Wales, Australia

Cummeragunja Reserve or Cummeragunja Station, alternatively spelt Coomeroogunja, Coomeragunja, Cumeroogunga and Cummerguja, was a settlement on the New South Wales side of the Murray River, on the Victorian border near Barmah. It was also referred to as Cumeroogunga Mission, although it was not run by missionaries. The people were mostly Yorta Yorta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bundjalung people</span> Aboriginal Australian people of New South

The Bundjalung people, also spelled Bunjalung, Badjalang and Bandjalang, are Aboriginal Australians who are the original custodians of a region from around Grafton in northern coastal New South Wales to Beaudesert in south-east Queensland. The region is located approximately 550 kilometres (340 mi) northeast of Sydney and 100 kilometres (62 mi) south of Brisbane that now includes the Bundjalung National Park.

The Cummeragunja walk-off in 1939 was a protest by Aboriginal Australians at the Cummeragunja Station, an Aboriginal reserve in southern New South Wales.

Luke Boyd is an Indigenous Australian professional boxer who competes as a featherweight. As an amateur, Boyd represented Australia at the 2008 Olympics, reaching the round of 32 of the bantamweight bracket.

Boxing is a popular sport in Wales, and since the early 20th century Wales has produced a notable number of professional boxers including several World Champions. The most notable boxers include Wales' first World Champion Percy Jones; Jimmy Wilde, who is seen as pound-for-pound one of the World's finest boxers and Joe Calzaghe, who ended his career an undefeated World Champion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johnny Lewis (boxing trainer)</span> Australian boxing trainer

John Alfred “Johnny” Lewis OAM is an Australian boxing trainer and the head coach of six world champions, most notably Jeff Fenech, Jeff Harding, Gairy St. Clair and Kostya Tszyu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phineas John</span> Wales boxer

Phineas Gladney John (1910–1985) was a Welsh professional boxer who fought from 1927 and 1940. John ended his career as a featherweight, but in his early professional bouts, he fought as a flyweight before increasing to bantamweight. Soon after he turned professional John competed for area titles, taking the Welsh flyweight belt in 1928 and then the Welsh bantamweight in 1929. After 1929 John failed to pursue any further titles, but continued fighting across the United Kingdom, ending his career with at least 242 professional fights.

Johnny King was an English professional boxer who competed from 1926 to 1947. Predominantly a bantamweight, he was a two-time British bantamweight champion and a one-time British Empire (Commonwealth) bantamweight champion. His professional fighting weight varied from 84 lb, flyweight, to 130 lb, featherweight.

"Big" Jim West was an Australian professional fly/super fly/bantam/super bantam/feather/super feather/light/light welter/welterweight boxer of the 1970s and '80s who won the Australian flyweight title, New South Wales (Australia) State bantamweight title, Australian super featherweight title, and Commonwealth flyweight title, and was a challenger for the Australian bantamweight title against Brian Roberts, Australian lightweight title against Matt Ropis, Australian super featherweight title against Paul Ferreri, New South Wales (Australia) State lightweight title against Willie Tarika, and New South Wales (Australia) State light welterweight title against Gary Rosen, his professional fighting weight varied from 110 lb, i.e. flyweight to 143+1⁄4 lb, i.e. welterweight, he died in Sydney.

Margaret Wirrpanda was a campaigner for Australian Aboriginal rights.

Davey Browne Jr was an Australian professional boxer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maloga Mission</span>

Maloga Aboriginal Mission Station also known as Maloga Mission or Mologa Mission was established about 15 miles (24 km) from the township of Moama, on the banks of the Murray River in New South Wales, Australia. It was on the edge of an extensive forest reserve. Maloga Mission was a private venture established by Daniel Matthews, a Christian missionary and school teacher, and his brother William. The mission station operated intermittently in 1874, becoming permanent in 1876. The Mission closed in 1888, after dissatisfied residents moved about 5 miles (8 km) upriver to Cummeragunja Reserve, with all of the buildings being re-built there.

The Yugambeh–Bandjalangic peoples' are an Aboriginal Australian ethnolinguistic group identified by their use of one of more of the Yugambeh–Bundjalung languages and shared cultural practices and histories. There are roughly 15 individual groups, who together form a wider cultural bloc or polity often described as Bundjalung or "Three Brothers Mob".

References

  1. ↑ "Boxing champion John Patten farewelled". Shepparton News. 13 May 2020. Retrieved 8 February 2024.
  2. ↑ "Bundjalung and Yorta Yorta elder is laid to rest in a traditional burial". ABC News. 4 May 2020. Retrieved 8 February 2024.
  3. ↑ "Jarrett New Bantamweight Champion". Canberra Times. 16 December 1958. Retrieved 8 February 2024.
  4. ↑ "The Sydney Morning Herald - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved 8 February 2024.
  5. ↑ The Koori Mail, (30 November 1994) Yes!:http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/koorimail/issues/pdf/090.pdf
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.