On July 30, 1972, a poignantly worded 'Straight from the shoulder' column in Deccan Herald, penned by Leslie F Wilson, highlighted the contributions of boxing coach A Anthony — whose pupil M Venu won the Arjuna award that year — and underlined the need to recognise his priceless efforts.

Thiry-five years after that, the hands of former National and MEG coach still remain empty, though his trainees have won National and international laurels and were rightly rewarded. Ironically, Venu won the prestigious Dronacharya award even as his mentor is left in the lurch.

Anthony has trained 46 champion boxers. Despite his stupendous achievements one wonders why the legitimate case of the trainer was mothballed time and again.

In the high noon of his coaching career, Anthony has produced 39 National champions and six Arjuna awardees in various weight categories and coached national teams for several international tournaments including the Asian Boxing Championship and the Commonwealth Championship. Moreover, Olympians Venu, C Narayanan, Methab Singh, S K Roy and C Machaiah were exclusively trained by Anthony.

Starting in the late '60s and emerging prominent in the '70s, Captain Anthony established himself as a champion coach. Heavyweight boxers Hawa Singh and Methab Singh, lightweight boxers Venu and M More and flyweight Narayanan clinched international medals under his guidance.

In 1974, Anthony accompanied the Indian team as coach and manager to New Zealand for the Commonwealth Championship where Narayanan became the first-ever Indian pugilist to reach the finals of the Championship.
Despite his achievements, Anthony's recommendation through the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation for the Dronacharya award was ignored thrice since 2000.

The 76-year-old is not dejected by the constant neglect and ignominy as he firmly believes that awards should come on their own and not by demand.

"But, everyone who knows me and my contributions will agree that I deserve recognition. I have toiled hard to promote the sport in the country and shaped many novices," said Anthony.

Nevertheless, he holds no grudge against anybody for the neglect. "Anyway, I feel that there was no godfather for me to push my case in the upper circles, unlike many others. And, now the sport is more maligned with a lot of politics involved in it," stated Anthony, who quit coaching in 1989 after being fed up with the "polluted system".
In fact, Anthony was often cornered outside the ring, as a coach, on many occasions and he remembers the elbowing during the 1972 Olympics as most painful. Though his trainees Venu, Narayanan and Methab Singh, who were in fine form, were medal hopefuls, Anthony was overlooked as coach then. Anthony reckons that if he was there with them, India could have returned with at least a medal and underscores the importance of 'man in the corner'.

"A coach should know the strengths and weaknesses of his boxer and should study the opponent as well. Those inputs given between each round are critical. I firmly believe that the coach with maximum number of trainees to his name in the contingent should accompany the team rather than selecting a coach who knows nothing about the pugilists."

He added that this was not the case most of the time when most boxers were from Southern Command while the coach hailed from north India.

Anthony proved his coaching expertise even at his prime as a boxer. He started his boxing career at MEG in 1946. He was the inter-services champion in featherweight from 1949-52 and in lightweight class for four years from 1953. He became lightweight National champion in 1956. His prowess, however, was not confined to the ring as he created a new 1500M meet record in the All-India Prasanna Kumar Memorial athletic meet.

MEG was a force to reckon with in boxing under him during his coaching stint there from 1953-74. Anthony later trained the Karnataka boxers for seven years since 1982. He also served as honorary secretary of the Karnataka Amateur Boxing Association and overlooked the conduct of the National Boxing Championship in Bangalore in 1988 during his tenure.

Even after keeping away from the official boxing ambit for almost 18 years, Anthony opined that nowadays coaches focus too much on attack and do not make use of effective defence techniques. This acumen was often neglected, though he continues to receive tall assurances that remain on paper till date.