Boxing - 1994

Boxing promoter Aileen Eaton was known as boxing's “Lady in Red.” In 1967, Sports Illustrated called her: “the most powerful boxing promoter in the world today”. Aileen began her career in 1942, and promoted fights at Los Angeles' Olympic Auditorium untll 1980.

Fighters she promoted include: Heavyweight champions Floyd Patterson and Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali), Light-Heavyweight champion Archie Moore, and #1 Heavyweight contender Jerry Quarry. In 1982, Eaton promoted an unprecedented three title bouts on the same card.

Eaton was a member of the California State Athletic Commission 1982-1985. When she was appointed by Governor Edmund G. Brown (even though she had not applied), L.A. Herald Examiner columnist Allan Malamud wrote: “California gets a winner in its corner. Until yesterday, there never had been a fight person on the State Athletic Commission in its 58 years in existance.”

In 1985, Aileen was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame. She died in 1987, at the age of 78.