Major metropolitan newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune and the New York Daily News began sponsoring the Golden Glove amateur boxing tournaments in the mid-1920s to provide a wholesome outlet for young working-class males. The matches were seen as a way to release aggression that might otherwise lead the young men to succumb to the lure of the streets. The moral undertone of the sports campaign should not surprise. America generally, particularly urban American, was in the middle of a prohibition-based crime wave that grew progressively more violent and more lucrative as the economy headed toward its implosion in 1929. Organized crime needed expendable, reckless young men and sports journalists such as Paul Gallico of the Daily News saw the punching bag, correctly as it happened, as a less dangerous alternative path to masculine self-esteem. His publisher, Capt. Joseph Medill Patterson agreed because it would help sell papers while giving sports writers a wealth of material for articles describing the playoff matches and relating stories about the contenders. Newspapers across the country followed suit. Our gold-plated, Art Deco 1947 Times-Legion slide belt buckle was awarded by the Indianapolis Times to participants in their regionally sponsored competition. As Eddie Ashe, the Indie Times sports editor wrote in the January 18, paper, “The 1947 edition of The Times-Legion Golden Gloves tournament got off to an auspicious start at the Armory last night before more than 800 howling ringsiders and bleacherites, the amateur beak busters were just that. They usually aimed for the beak, and hit or miss, there was enough stirring fistic strife under the lights to satisfy the sports goers who like to see the young tossers strut their fistic prowess in the give-and-take carnival of flying fists.” Condition: Minimal surface loss. Comes with a new costume made leather belt fitting up to 44" waist. Size: Buckle measures 2" x 1.5".