STRATEGY BOXING REPORT

STRATEGY BOXING ALL TIME TOP TWENTY COMPILED BY SITE STAFF WRITER P. PUCKRAM

As surprising as this may be to the many millions of you out there who think that Challenge Series STRATEGY BOXING has always existed as the professionally designed and packaged product you have come to know, it wasn't. Back in it's infancy, the game consisted of neatly lettered index cards and a stenographers tablet whose pages served as scoresheets. But how those days are looked back upon so fondly! Every second or third saturday night, no matter what time of year, anywhere from 30 to 75 of us would convene at various locations to toss cards, swap lies and drink beer. And each "venue" that we gathered at had it's own name. "The Union Avenue Arena" (my place), "The Merryfield Pavillion" (Chick and Annette's house), "Marshall Coliseum" (Tommy Marshall's attic/gameroom) and "The Danvers Armory" (Rick Smith's abode). This went on for years, and it never ceased to be fun. Happily, though many of the names and places have changed, the fun continues to this day.

1. SCOTT "THE SAVAGE SWEDE" OLANDER 2. CHRIS "THE BODY SNATCHER" SWISHER 3. ANNETTE "THE GIRL WONDER" HARTUNG 4. BRUCE "SLEDGEHAMMER" KUTTLER 5. ANDY "THE GRINNING YOUTH" KEEN 6. DON "LA MACHINE" MORGAN 7. "SUGAR ROY" CLOVER 8. SUZY "NIGHT TRAIN" CUPP 9. SCOTT "THE ROCK" NOCK 10. GEORGE "THE EXPERIENCE" WAGNER

As an avid boxing fan, one of the things that I look forward to is the monthly "Pound For Pound" lists that appear on various boxing sites and in magazines. These lists are based on the premise that if you could somehow make all the boxers from the heaviest to the lightest divisions the same size, who would be the best, pound for pound. Then there are "All Time" lists, consisting of fighters from every era, with the ranking premise being the same. So it hit me one day: why not do the same with the game? Not so much a "pound for pound" as a "card for card" type of thing. I would go back from day one till now, and come up with a list of all the people who have ever played who I feel were the best over the long haul.

11. DENNY "THE MANSTER" GRIMM 12. JOE "SILKY" SIMONETTE 13. TOMMY "TOMMY GUNNE" MARSHALL 14. "SUDDEN" SAM KINZEY 15. DON "THE BULL" WAXTER 16. CINDY "CYCLONE" BRADLEY 17. JAMES "FLASH" FLOOD 18. GARY "THE MOTOWN MAULER" HERMAN 19. CHICK "ROADRUNNER" HARTUNG 20. DANNA "TOY KANNON" KUTTLER

Why me? Hey, who better? Having an extremely close relationship with the inventor, designer and developer of the game, I go all the way back to day one, from the initial "sparring" session with the first official set of (index) game cards to the tabletop extravaganza's that we continue to have to this day. Thus, having seen them all, what follows is my All Time "Card For Card" Top Twenty list. The only criteria I had was that I either had to have played these people at one time or another, or watched and/or scored a good number of their bouts. Thus, as impressive as Durban, South Africa's "Bad Boy" Gregg MacDonald or Britisher "Insane" Wayne Rodriquez careers have been, reports of their fistic exploits are, unfortunately, received second hand by me. And while both may be deserving of a spot somewhere on this list, I regretfully have had to exclude them at this time. So too with newcomers DJ "Mad Max" McKellar, Ron "The Italian Assassin" Russitano, Gina "Bambina" Todd and "Fierce" Rick Pierce. While showing great promise, they simply haven't competed long enough.