MENTOR to several generations of York boxers, Jack Raine, has died. He was aged 82.

Raine, who started in the fight game as a ten-year-old, was a successful amateur in the 1930s when York carved out a niche as one of the sport’s top strongholds.

A clever boxer, Raine was billed as “The Boy with the Boxing Brain”. He turned professional in the 1950s as a lightweight and went on to box in countless bouts, sometimes boxing several times in the one night.

No one seems to know how many fights he had, but his late wife Inga used to say the total was in the hundreds, said Lewis Gell, who runs the Off The Hook charity in Layerthorpe, where York Boxing Club is now based.

Raine was the head coach at YBC for more than ten years, coaching too at St Patrick’s ABC in Leeds, as well as York’s now defunct Olympia BC and All Saints BC.

A natural sportsman, who was a keen rugby player, Raine worked at Rowntrees and at Castle Howard school.

Said Gell: “Jack was one of the last boxers from the great boxing eras of the 1930, ’40s and ’50s. Without his support boxing in York may not have flourished as it had.

“Jack was well respected and will be sadly missed. He was an inspiration to many and we all owe him so much.”

The funeral is tomorrow at York Crematorium at 11.40am.

The family have also requested to meet at the Marcia pub in Bishopthorpe afterwards.