Angie Simons was a founding member of the original incarnation of the Liberal Girls International SportClub - otherwise known as LGIS (Old) - a female boxing and wrestling organisation founded in Munich, Germany in 1976. It promoted a ground-breaking vision - that girls who were enthusiastic about female combat, and who wanted to fight semi-professionally in public settings, could do so topless in properly arranged events and tournaments.
The company was formed in 1976 by Fred Strothmann and Erich Klinger together with Angie who was the nominated club captain and one of the core membership of ten or so who were regular performers throughout the lifetime of the club. The initial group of fighters began several months of wrestling and boxing training in 1976, and on January 31st 1977 eight active members of the group entered the ring in the centre of the "Donauhalle" of Ingolstadt (about 60km north of Munich) in front of 700 spectators to take part in the inaugural event which launched the organisation. The main group divided into two groups of four, each of which staged a mini-tournament - wrestling and boxing. Angie won the boxing competition while Heidi Ranke, later to become a fearsome boxer, won the wrestling.
Lgis Boxing Angie 18
"Even many years later I take big pride in being the very first woman in the world who put on a serious topless boxing-fight in a public ring. I still remember the fantastic applause and I never shall forget for the rest of my life the great admiration from thousands of cheering men watching me fighting, close at the ringside, especially when I was facing my arch-rival Heidi Ranke. We met 5 times - always under the condition that the winner gets the entire purse - so we agreed that there should be a clear decision (KO. or retirement). I shall never forget the thrilling atmosphere in the crowded halls when I entered the ring as well after the fight - a lot of fans "rushed" at me, offering gifts, flowers or sweets no matter if I had won or lost. And one more thing I kept in my mind; it really did me extremely good to get so much sympathy when I sometimes was on the receiving end, suffering a beating or probably a bloody knock-out - my "boxing-years" truly made me the self-confident woman I am now!"
Throughout the duration of the clubs existence Angie is reckoned to have boxed in around twenty-five contests with a high ratio of wins. However she suffered punishing defeats in her final two fights - in London she was given a bloody mouth and then knocked out by Karin Heck while in the 1979 Munich event she suffered a relentless beating by Tina Chiari who rained punches on her and scored a KO win. This together with the failing health of Fred Strothmann signalled the end of the LGIS organisation and Angie retired from boxing at this point, taking up a sports journalist job.
The original incarnation of the Liberal Girls International SportClub - otherwise known as LGIS (Old) - was a female boxing and wrestling organisation founded in Munich, Germany in 1976. It promoted a ground-breaking vision - that girls who were enthusiastic about female combat, and who wanted to fight semi-professionally in public settings, could do so topless in properly arranged events and tournaments. The bouts were filmed and subsequently made available for sale to augment the revenue generated by the spectators at these events, but at least to begin with the videos were of less importance than the paying audience. LGIS proved to be the forerunner for a number of European companies and groups who built on their original idea.
The company was formed in 1976 by Fred Strothmann and Erich Klinger together with Angie Simons who was the nominated club captain. Around thirty girls fought at various times in their events (see list below), but there was a core membership of ten or so who were regular performers throughout the lifetime of the club. The initial group of fighters began several months of wrestling and boxing training in 1976, and on January 31st 1977 eight active members of the group entered the ring in the centre of the "Donauhalle" of Ingolstadt (about 60km north of Munich) in front of 700 spectators to take part in the inaugural event which launched the organisation. The main group divided into two groups of four, each of which staged a mini-tournament - wrestling and boxing. Angie Simons won the boxing competition while Heidi Ranke, later to become a fearsome boxer, won the wrestling. From that point onwards, over the rest of the 70's, there was a succession of similar events in various German cities and towns, as well as in London and Cham, Switzerland - all subsequent events were boxing only, reflecting the spectators' preference.
The promotion of such events was not without its problems however as LGIS faced opposition from some local authorities, who claimed the events were lewd or improper, as well as from women's lib. campaigners who asserted that the girls were being sexually exploited. Speaking on behalf of the participants, Angie insisted that neither of these were true, and that while the girls conceded that boxing topless would increase attendances, they were happy to do so in the knowledge that their pay would increase proportionately. She pointed out that all concerned enjoyed boxing for its own sake and were proud to consider themselves serious athletes, but for her and most of the others it was also a useful extra wage - Angie was at that time a student and badly needed additional income herself.
Because the recording of the fights was a secondary concern as mentioned previously, the video quality of many of the recordings is fairly poor due to the dated equipment in use at that time and the low level of lighting. However, that said, the commitment and determination of the boxers is very clear to see, and the sheer excitement of LGIS boxing has rarely been bettered by any other producer. 2ff7e9595c
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