Born George Edward Kimball III in Grass Valley, CA on December 20, 1943. The son of an Army colonel, he attended high schools in Europe and Texas and colleges in Massachusetts, Kansas and Iowa before settling in Boston in 1970 to pursue a career as a freelance writer.
In 1972, he became sports editor at the Boston Phoenix. He departed The Phoenix in 1979 and after freelancing several pieces, was added to the staff of the Boston Herald as a sport columnist and remained there for 25 years. His start at The Herald coincided with the rise of Marvelous Marvin Hagler’s middleweight title reign and Kimball wrote a weekly boxing column. Kimball would go on to cover nearly 400 world title bouts before leaving The Herald in 2005 but continued to cover the sport for The Irish Times, The Sweet Science and ESPN. He authored eight books, including Four Kings: Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, Duran and the Last Great Era of Boxing, which chronicles the fights between Hagler, Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran and Thomas Hearns. He also edited anthologies At The Fights: American Writers on Boxing and The Fighter Remains: A Celebration of Boxing in Poetry and Song.
In 1980 he won the BWAA Nat Fleischer Award for Excellence In Boxing Journalism. Kimball died at age 67 on July 6, 2011 following a lengthy battle with esophageal cancer.
Born: Dec. 20, 1943
Died: July 6, 2011
Induction: 2021
George Kimball
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