When he was just 18-years-old, the youngster from West Ham secured the most unlikely of victories at the Melbourne 1956 Olympic Games when he made it to the final in the flyweight division before defeating Mircea Dobrescu of Romania on points to claim victory.

His achievement was particularly surprising given that he was omitted from the original boxing team that travelled to Australia because he was considered too young and too inexperienced to compete in an Olympics so far away from home despite his obvious talent.

But a media campaign, spearheaded by writer and commentator Reg Gutteridge, eventually saw Spinks (pictured above and below) taken to the Games as a late replacement.

He was working as a dustman when the call came to join the Olympic team and only had a week to prepare before leaving for Australia but he still managed to win all five of his bouts to take home the gold medal.

Following the Olympic victory, he turned professional and claimed the British featherweight crown in 1960 with a stoppage of Bobby Neill.


He retired from professional boxing at the relatively tender age of 24 due to continuing problems in making the weight following a career that saw him win 41 of his 49 professional fights.

It was shortly after that Spinks became a trainer, coaching the South Korean team at the 1972 Olympics in Munich.

It was actually Spinks who raised the alert when he witnessed the infamous Black September terrorists approaching the Israeli quarters in the tragic incident that saw 11 Israeli athletes murdered.

In 2002, Spinks was belatedly made an MBE following a tireless campaign led by his cousin Rosemary Ellmore.

It came after fellow Melbourne 1956 Olympic gold medallist Dick McTaggart, who claimed victory alongside Spinks boxing in the lightweight division, had been made an MBE 17 years earlier.

But following a lengthy battle with alcoholism that came after two failed marriages, Spinks fell ill in later years, where was looked after by Ellmore and her husband Terry.

However, despite his health problems, Spinks remained a fixture at meetings of the London ex-Boxers' Association until shortly before his death.


British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) general secretary Robert Smith has led the tribute for Spinks.

"We are very sad Terry has passed away," he said.

"He was a great boxer and a very nice guy.

"He was an Olympic gold medallist at 18, which is very young, certainly when he was fighting boxers from Russia and the Eastern bloc, men who were 25 or 26.

"He was also a very good professional boxer, but most importantly he was a nice person."

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