He had a talent of training dogs and was proud of achieving the rare feat of training a mixed-breed dog to lead his dog sled. The dog, named Spook, became his pet.
After marrying Dorothy Gill of Chicago, he returned to his college studies and earned a teaching degree from Butler University in Indianapolis, Ind. He accepted an offer from the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to teach in Alaska.
After a brief interruption of his boxing career during WWII, he won 29 of his 33 matches, with one of those wins including a featured match in the 1950 All Star Boxing Show at the Milwaukee Arena headlined by Rocky Graziano.
Trained under the famous boxing champion Johnny Coulon at his gym on the South Side of Chicago.