Hugh Joseph Roddin (March 10, 1887 – March 3, 1954) was an Olympic boxer from Scotland. He was the first Scottish boxer to win an Olympic boxing medal when he took home the bronze in 1908.
Biography
Roddin, universally known as 'Hughie', was raised in the Newbigging district of Musselburgh in East Lothian. Hughie first came into contact with boxing through legendary Charles 'Charlie' Cotter. Cotter worked as a timekeeper, physical trainer and boxing coach and a dominant figure in Scottish boxing. Hughie rapidly won two Scottish Eastern District Featherweight Titles under Cotter's guidance. Even better was to follow in the years 1907-08, when he went on to win the Scottish Amateur Featherweight Title. on Scottish boxing history entitled The Fight Game in Scotland. This book devotes a complete chapter to Hugh Roddin. One of the fights was held in the old Vanderbilt Athletic Club in the Ninth Ward before World War I. In an extract that appeared in 1954 in the now-defunct Brooklyn News, Hughie Roddin, the great featherweight, was a real star. During a contest in Brooklyn's Vanderbilt Club, he knocked out his opponent with a crushing blow in the first round. The club owners asked Roddin if he would go in with the same opponent after a 10-minute interval; Roddin agreed and knocked the same guy out again! Roddin's career in the ring ended during World War One when he served in the U.S. Army's 35th Division.
On returning, he ran several youth soccer teams in Brooklyn and athletics teams based at a gym he owned there.
The boxing gloves Roddin used to win his Olympic medal now belong to author Brian Donald's grandson Ruaridh. They were given to Brian Donald as a show of appreciation by Roddin's family in the US for his work on the fighter in The Fight Game in Scotland, a history of Scottish boxing. They were on display in the National Museum of Scotland until its refurbishment in 2015 and are now being stored in a Scottish university's archive.