APTOS >> It is not uncommon for military service members to get involved in the sporting world, especially boxing. Since ancient times, boxing has been seen as a way for service members to build up strength and fitness in preparation for combat, and many had prolific careers in boxing, including Lew Jenkins, Lou Ambers and Jack Dempsey, the former heavyweight champion who trained other service members when serving in the Coast Guard during World War II.

One boxer who served was Henry Pylkowski, a Navy sailor who held the title of world middleweight champion from the New York State Athletic Commission and National Boxing Association from 1935 to 1936 under his professional name Babe Risko. His story has been shared by his descendants, including great-nephew Billy Prusinowski, an Aptos resident and local teacher who worked with his father, Bill, to tell Risko’s story in the 2022 book “The Babe Risko Story.”

Prusinowski is a language arts and social studies teacher at Cesar Chavez Middle School in Watsonville who also, in the spirit of his great-uncle, teaches kickboxing at UC Santa Cruz and in other venues. Much like Risko, he also grew up in Syracuse, New York, a 30-minute drive from the International Boxing Hall of Fame, and his family often told his story.

“It was a family oral tradition for a long time,” he said. “My dad began to write a book about it, and he dug up all this stuff and was like, ‘Hey our uncle is super famous but not too well-known’ because, around that time, the boxing association was completely run by the mob. And my uncle’s career ended up being trashed at the end because of all these fights that were rigged, so somebody who was a champion but ended up having a sudden terrible bout with losses didn’t go down as much in history.”

The elder Prusinowski sought to correct this by writing a book to catalog Risko’s career, with Billy helping with the research. Prusinowski never got to know his great-uncle personally, as he died long before he was born, so he has always found Risko’s story fascinating.

“There were a lot of boxers that did do fighting in the service, but it was cool to see a championship with his name on it from the U.S. Navy and a national professional non-Army civilian,” he said.

Risko was born in 1911 in Syracuse to parents who had emigrated from Poland and Lithuania, and joined the Navy when he was 16. There, he was undefeated and earned the nickname Sailor Pulaski, as his fellow sailors couldn’t pronounce Pylkowski, eventually parlaying boxing into a professional career as Eddie Risko and then Babe Risko.

Risko had many impressive stats in his decade-long career, including 103 professional fights and 65 wins, 18 of which were by knockout. He won the middleweight title against Teddy Yarosz in Pittsburgh in 1935 and held onto it for 10 months until losing it to Freddie Steele during a match in Seattle in 1936. An attempt to regain the title against Steele at Madison Square Garden a year later was unsuccessful. From that point on, Risko had only one win and two draws until his final fight at Memorial Auditorium in Sacramento in 1939.

Prusinowski said a lot of these losses were a result of the corrupt nature of boxing at the time, including a lot of mafia control.

“Five families in New York City had the entire boxing association rigged,” he said. “There was everything from refs being paid off to people who didn’t adhere being killed. It was a straight up mob business.”

During his research, Prusinowski came across a photo on a Hungarian website of his great-uncle along with a group of mobsters.

“It was so weird to see,” he said.

Prusinowski and his father also worked on a book about Risko’s brother Vince Pelkowski, appropriately titled “Brother Vince,” which was published earlier this year. Vince was a major part of Risko’s career.

“He started out helping his brother with the whole boxing thing,” he said. “He got pushed out by the manager, the Genovese crime family of New York. Gabe Genovese said ‘Hey, Vince, you’re no longer your brother’s manager! I’m his manager, now get the hell out of here!’”

Vince moved to Canton, Ohio, and founded Vince Risko Enterprises where he worked with boxing stars like Joe Louis and World Wide Wrestling Federation founder Vince McMahon Sr. Most notably, he worked with the legendary DJ Alan Freed to promote eventual rock stars like Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran and Jerry Lee Lewis.

“Vince got all these posters for Alan Freed,” said Prusinowski. “Vince Risko or Vince Pelkowski is on all of these things, so his (forte) was boxing and rock and roll and wrestling promotion, and he’s probably more well-known than Babe Risko, at least around Ohio where he did all these show promotions.”

Babe Risko died in 1957 at the age of 45. In light of Veterans Day, Prusinowski felt it was important to share his great-uncle’s story.

“People do love veterans and what they did in the war,” he said. “Around Veterans Day, I think it’s a cool time to know people’s stories. Movies nowadays explain time periods just by looking through the eyes of one guy. … That’s kind of the like the way ‘The Babe Risko Story’ was written too. You can think about a time period, you can think about — in this case — what it’s like for some guys leaving the Navy and their decision to become a boxer. You can do anything post-service, civilian life. I just think this is an extraordinary one: You end up becoming a boxing champion after serving your country.”

“The Babe Risko Story” and “Brother Vince” are both available at OutskirtsPress.com, as well as Amazon and BarnesAndNoble.com.