Hall of Fame
Idaho’s 1940 boxing team entered the season with high hopes. After finishing second in the NCAA in 1938 and returning 1939 national champion Ted Kara, the Vandals aimed high and didn’t miss. Kara repeated in 1940 for his second of three career NCAA titles, Laune Erickson won a title at 165 lbs. and John Webster took home the 175-lb. crown to help Idaho beat out Wisconsin 17-12 and claim its first NCAA Boxing title. Frank and Ted Kara and Erickson also won Pacific Coast Conference titles to lead the Vandals to a PCC team title earlier that season.
In 1941, the Idaho boxing squad did something that no team had done before them. The Vandals repeated as NCAA boxing champions. In a tight tournament race, Idaho edged Louisiana-Lafayette for the team title by a score of 15-13. This time around, Idaho had three national title winners yet again, as Ted Kara earned his third straight, becoming the first collegian to do so, Frank Kara won his first, making the Kara brothers the first brother tandem in NCAA history to both win championships in the same tournament, and Laune Erickson won his second straight NCAA title. In 1941, the boxing team decided to skip the Pacific Coast Championships and instead fought a dual meet with Wisconsin to prepare for the NCAA Championship Tournament. It worked.
