GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Work is underway to renovate a 112-year-old monument to a local boxing legend.
A construction crew worked Tuesday at Holy Cross Cemetery on Grand Rapids’ West Side to pour a new concrete base for the graveside memorial for Stanley Ketchel .
The Polish Heritage Society of Grand Rapids has been working behind the scenes to raise the money and organize the construction that needs to be done to restore the memorial.
‘In Stanley’s Corner:’ Local group working to restore graveside monument of GR boxing legend
Matthew Gryczan, who serves on the PHS Board of Directors, told News 8 that the organization first noticed the memorial’s condition when it was restoring another monument at the cemetery in 2023.
“We noted how it had really fallen into disrepair,” Gryczan said. “(It’s a) matter of time before … the monument may suffer some irreplaceable damage.”
While he may not be a popular name nowadays, Ketchel is considered an all-time great and one of boxing’s forefathers. The Grand Rapids native — known as “The Michigan Assassin” — won the world middleweight title and went undefeated through 39 fights between 1904 and 1908…